October, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



625 



cicnt ])o\ver to run almost any kind of rai'iii 

 niacliinery. Some place where 1 visited 

 they told me they had toward a lumdred 

 head of cattle and horses on the one farm. 

 It may have been the Seiler farm or it may 

 have been some other. J tliink there are 

 about a hundred pigs, bis? and little, on that 

 same farm; and the electric current did al- 

 most everything where power could be 

 needed in caring "for this big stock fai'm. 



By the way, I was surprised to find that 

 on the Seiler farm the sun did not set until 

 !):15. In fact, friend Seiler says they can 

 work by daylight, during the long days, 

 clear up to 10 o'clock. And, again, about 

 5 o'clock in the morning it was light enough 

 to go about. Of course, you will remember 

 what has been said about " daylight sav- 

 ing." If you want more daylight than we 

 get down here, just move up to North 

 Dakota and you can have 17 hours with 

 light enough to work, and only 7 hours of 

 ilarkness. By the way, it was a common 

 thing to see harvesting machines working 

 out in the fields between 8 and 9 o'clock. 

 T rather suspect that some of the good peo- 

 jile up there, sometimes at least, woi'k 

 moT-e than ten hours a day. 



My next visit was at the home of our 

 good friend T. A. Williams, Cleveland, N. 

 D. You will find his letter in that same 

 December issue for 1917. You will note 

 there that he has a farm of 2,200 acres. He 

 has been running an electric windmill 

 longer, perhaps, than any other farmer in 

 that vicinit3^ I was greatly interested in 

 seeing the wonderful things mentioned in 

 that letter above. But there were some oth- 

 er things that interested me as well. First, 

 there were six boys in the family — great, 

 l)ig, stalwart men; and they took such good, 

 care of that 2,200-aere farm that the father 

 could run around the country w^ith his u])- 

 to-date automobile with such fellows as A. 

 1. Root. One of the boys is in the navy; 

 Ijut he was at home when I was there, on 

 liis furlough. 



By the way, lest you imagine that the 

 farmers do not have any bad luck up in the 

 Dakotas, I will mention that, notwithstand- 

 ing they had had ])lenty of rain for the 

 crops in and about Wyndmere, yet around 

 Cleveland, 60 or 70 miles further west, they 

 had had a severe drouth; and the drouth 

 was finally broken, just befoi-e I got there, 

 by a hailstorm 15 or 20 miles wide and 

 40 or .50 miles long, more severe tlian any 

 previous one on record. Friend Williams' 

 crops on his whole 2,200 acres were pound- 

 ed down until the grain or heads of grain 

 were cut off so that a great part of his 

 crops, he thought, would not pay for har- 

 vesting. The wheat straw was standing 



up, but, strangely enough, the hailstorm 

 had cut most of the heads off, and there 

 they were down on the ground. Some of 

 the fields that were not hurt so badly were 

 harvested with what I think they call a 

 "header." It cut off the heads — at least 

 what heads were renuiining after the hail- 

 storm. There were other jilaces where the 

 damage was so great that there was noth- 

 ing to do but to plow it u]> for another 

 ci'op ; and I was greatly delighted to see 

 those six boys manage the great tractor 

 that pulled ten plows. It was run by 

 means of a kerosene engine, and it was 

 my privilege to stand on the machine while 

 it went around the half-mile strip, turning 

 ten furrows at once. 



I have many times felt sad to think that 

 the old good-sized families were getting to 

 be out of fashion; and I was wondering 

 if the w\ar would not in some way help us 

 to get back to the Puritanical style. I was 

 the middle one in a family of seven, and 

 we have five of our own. I have many 

 times wondered what would have happened 

 if Ave had had only one or two children or 

 none at all. Well, it was positively a de- 

 light to me to look at and become acquaint- 

 ed with the six great, strapping boys or 

 men ; and I hope no one will object if I will 

 say it w^as also a great privilege and a de- 

 light to talk with the one grown-up sister 

 of the six boys. And it was also a delight 

 to get acquainted with Mrs. Williams, and 

 look over their beautiful home. I think it 

 has been recently built and installed. With 

 the advantage of electricity they have all 

 modern appliances and improvements, 

 some of them more up to date than you will 

 find in the best city homes. The storage 

 battery is in the basement, where they have 

 an up-to-date furnace to keep every bit of 

 that beautiful country home comfortable 

 and happy, even during zero weather. 



I forgot to mention that there was one 

 plant on that big farm that was not much 

 hurt by the hailstonn. That was his 30 

 acres of sweet clover. Of course it was 

 pounded down into the ground; but it was 

 already putting out new shoots when I was 

 there, and promising to make the field in 

 just a few days as green as ever. Friend 

 Wilhams tell' us in his letter somethinsr 

 about his beekeeping. He has not verv 

 many bees as yet. In fact, he was so great- 

 ly iri need of niore that he sent the monev 

 to somebody for ten colonies of bees to be 

 sliipped in : but the beekeeper, after keep- 

 ing friend Williams' money until the sea- 

 son was o\ei-. sent it back, saying he had 

 been unable to fill the order. 



Well, when we sat down to dinner friend 

 Williams exhibited a Langstroth frame 



