1896 



GL.EANIAGS IN BEE (JULTUUE. 



145 



'THE WISCONSIN STATE BEE -KEEP- 

 ERS' ASSOCIATION. 



TWO DAYS WITH THE WISCONSIN BEE-KEEPERS, 

 HORTICULTURISTS, ETC. 



It was a little refreshing, as we came 

 into the city of Madison by moonlight, to 

 see the beautiful lake that borders the city 

 pretty well sprinkled with what I at first 

 took to be sail-boats. Somebody, however, 

 very soon corrected me by telling me that 

 they were ice b^ats. Now, when I under- 

 take to describe ice-boats perhaps I shall 

 "•put my foot in it " something as I did 

 when I attempted to tell you about the tur- 

 key buzzards of the South. The ice-boats 

 skimmed over the frozen waters of the lake 

 a good deal as you see forest-leaves chase 

 over a frozen pond when driven by the wind. 

 The boat has sails like any boat. It has 

 two^xed runners, besides a third one which 

 is not fixed, but which can be turned by the 

 rudder. By turning this rudder and shifting 

 the sails, they run back and forth, and all 

 over the lake. They not only run against the 

 wind (which problem, I presume, is not a 

 very strange one to most of our readers); 

 but with good smooth ice these ice-boats 

 run even faster than the wind blows. Of 

 •course, in running right square ahead of the 

 wind, the boat can not go quite as fast as 

 the wind goes, on account of friction ; but 

 in running at an angle, the boat may, like 

 the sails of a windmill, glide along a good 

 deal faster than the velocity of the wind. 

 The next day I was greatly pleased to see 

 the lake dotted with schoolchildren. Some 

 were skating, and some were running a sort 

 of velocipede made to run on ice. But 

 those that interested me most made ice-boats 

 of tlicmselies. They held in their hands 

 what seemed to be a very large kite. The 

 lower part of the kite, where the tail is 

 usually attached, rested on the ice, while 

 the body of the kite was held by the skater. 

 Well, by sliifting this kite, or sail, the skat- 

 er could glide with incredible spe.d, exactly 

 as the ice boat does. Unless he was ^xoeri- 

 enced, however, he was very likely u 

 ••glide" and "spin" on his back, and a 

 good many of them seemed to be doing this. 

 I suppose this only added to the fun. Per- 

 haps these arrangements are in use else- 

 where ; but I confess that the idea of skat- 

 ing with a sail in your hands, so as to make 

 the wind the propelling power, was a novel- 

 ty to me. Perhaps some of the juveniles 

 will " catch on " and put it in practice, pro- 

 viding we have ice enough before spring 

 comes. 



The bee-keepers' meeting was held during 

 the convention week of the State Agricul- 

 tural Society. Now, I do not know how 

 customary it is for other States to hold joint 

 conventions for a whole week at the capital of 

 the State ; but to me it was a most wonder- 

 ful thing, and likewise a grand thins. Your 

 humble servant had the i)leasure of talking, 

 not only with the noted bee - men of the 

 :State, but also with the horticulturists, 

 fruit-growers, cattle-men, and with the 

 crreat minds and experts in every depart- 

 ment of rural industry. After our bee- 

 keepers' session was adjourned, somebody 



spoke of going over to the assembly-room, 

 where addresses were being delivered on 

 dairying. Now, I do not know much about 

 cows, nor about the dairy business either; 

 but 1 had quite a curiosity to be present at 

 the dairymen's meeting. I wanted to look 

 into the faces of the cattle-men, and I was 

 curious to see whether they managed their 

 conventions any thing in the same line we 

 do ours. Several of the speakers reminded 

 me a good deal of the talks that Terry has 

 given us on horses and cattle. Prof. Henry, 

 of the Experiment Station, stirred me 

 mightily by an account of the investigations 

 they were making in order to determine 

 whether farmers were groping in the dark 

 (as many bee-men have been doing, and are 

 yet), or whether they were doing their level 

 best with mind and muscle to make their 

 occupation profitable. When the governor 

 of the State however (Gov. Hoard), gave 

 us a little talk, not only on keeping cows 

 but on general farming,! felt glad that God 

 had seen fit to give me a place to work in 

 even one department of agricultural indus- 

 try. It was afterward my privilege to have 

 quite a little chat with Gov. Hoard and a 

 good many other progressive thinkers and 

 workers of the State. Now, even if I should 

 not get much about bees in this issue, I 

 want to give you a little sketch from the 

 talk given us by Gov. Hoard. He said a 

 good many of the dairymen had been work- 

 ing in the dark. They kept thirty or forty 

 cows, fed them intelligently, and made per- 

 haps a very good use of the products of these 

 cattle. Bit he told us that it was not until 

 quite recently that they had been enabled to 

 keep accurate records of the money value of 

 the product from each cow. If the cows are 

 fed about the same, it probably costs about 

 as much to keep one cow as another. He 

 had a lot of figures put on cloth, so it could 

 be unrolled and held up before the audience. 

 The cow at the top of the list produced 

 $86.00 and some odd cents, in one year. The 

 next one was perhaps between .^40.00 and 

 $50.00, and so on down to $25.00, $10 00, 

 $5.00, and finally nothing at all ; and that 

 chart acLiially showed that eleven cows in the 

 flock gave minus figures— thsit is, their whole 

 product did not pay for the feed they ate, to 

 say nothing of the time of caring for them. 

 They were simply a bill of expense, and the 

 dairyman would have been richer had he 

 made somebody a present of the whole elev- 

 en at the commencement of the season. 

 The only trouble is to find out which cows 

 pay and which don't. Now, the farmer who 

 had this drove of cattle, without being told 

 of this, would very likely have kept not only 

 the same fiock year after year, but would 

 have gone right on doing business in that 

 way. Perhaps bee-men do not do as badly 

 as this ; but in bees as well as other farming 

 operations, time and money are wasted in 

 just that way because we do not know what 

 we are doing. AVry likely many farmers of 

 the old-fogy style would say, " Well, sup- 

 pose it is so ; we cant help it, and there is 

 no other way." My friends, we can help it, 

 and there is a way. VVe can not all set a 

 chemist at work; but the bright wide- 

 awake man who has a lead-pencil in his 



