1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



641 



■' I doirt like too imu'li shad*'." said Mr. I). "" 1 

 have noticed that tliosc colonics uiidci- those 

 very lieavy shade-trees do not l)re<'d up as early, 

 or do as well as those less shaded. There ai'e 

 two trees" (pointing to two very densely foli- 

 aged ai)ple-trees) " that I shall have to cnt out." 



About thus time Mrs. Doolittle desired him to 

 get some vegetables from the garden. In the 

 meantime I got off upon liigii gi'ound and took 

 views of the apiary, house, and general prem- 

 ises. The bee-cave had "caved "in recently, 

 on account of the moisture from the bees rot- 

 ting the boards. To prevent any reoccurrence 

 of such a thing. Mr. D. proposes to use flagging 

 for roof-boards, and then cover with dirt as be- 

 foi-e. 



At dinner we had one of those unconvention- 

 al bee-talks, in company with another bee- 

 kee])er whose name I do not now recall, but 

 who happened to be visiting Mr. I), at the same 

 time: and even after dinner there were so many 

 things to talk about that it was hard to break 

 away. 



ox THE WHEEL A<JAIN. 



I oiled my bicycle, fastened the camera un- 

 der the seat, and was soon on my way spinning 

 past the shores of another beautiful lake, Otis- 

 co by name. This lake, like Skaneateles, is 

 only a short distance from Mr. Doolittle's home. 

 After leaving the lake I wended luy way to 

 Marcellus. the home of a once jHominent bee- 

 keeper. I continued on my journey, passing 

 teams, until I found myself back in Syracuse. 

 I made the distance in about 3 hours. I re- 

 mained in the city over night. Next morning I 

 was in doubt as to whether I should take the 

 train or the wheel. ]My next run was to be a 

 long one. and I had thought of taking the cars 

 to save time. As I paid my bill at the hotel the 

 clerk told me that 



A STltlKE 



on the New York Central R. R. had been inau- 

 giu'ated during the night, and that it was doubt- 

 ful whether any trains would run during the 

 •day. As far as / was concerned. I did not care 

 much. As the depot was near at hand I went 

 over to satisfy my curiosity. Yes. the trains 

 were stopped, and the agents would sell no 

 tickets to would-be passengers. The strikers 

 were scattered here and there. A company of 

 militia were stationed at the depot. One pas- 

 senger was cursing and swearing. He had got 

 to make an appointment, and his anger knew 

 no bounds. 



" I wish I were fixed as you are," addressing 

 me as he saw the bicycle. 



I did not stop to swear and curse with him on 

 the event.'but started across the track, and. ap- 

 proaching one whom I took to be a striker, 

 said : 



" Are you going to pull out to-day?" 



"Guess not, sir." 



"Well," sajd I. "f/iw train of mine hasn't 

 .struck yet, and I think I'll pull out;" and with 

 this I started toward Starkville. thanking good 

 fortune that "strikes" don't stop all the wheels 

 -of progress, for my wheel at that very moment 

 was spiiuiing along at a rapid rate. I contin- 

 ued until I had g(me about 30 miles. 1 went a 

 little out of my way on account of imperfect di- 

 rections as to the r(jad. It being Saturday, and 

 as I could not reach Starkville, the home of 

 Mr. Elwood, without riding on Sunday. I con- 

 cluded to ride to the next station on the Cen- 

 tral R. R., if I could get aboard of the cars. I 

 found that there was a cIkiucc of getting on a 

 train, and fortunately was ablci to get to Fort 

 Plain toward evening. Starkville, I was told, 

 was about 9 miles from Fort Plain. As I saw 

 lh<^ hills, some of them fully a thousand feet 

 high, my heart sank witliin me. 



" It Is late," I said to myself, " and to go over 



an unknown and lonely road among those fear- 

 ful hills is not inviting." 



I buckled up my courage and started; and, to 

 my surprise, in about an hour's time I was be- 

 fore the door of Mr. Elwood. the man who man- 

 ages successfully over 1300 colonies. The hills 

 were not as bad as they looked, and the road 

 \\as not as lonely as it seemed. 



AT I». H. EI.WOOD'S. 



I met with a hearty welcome from our big 

 bee-keeper — large in several senses of the word. 

 It was a little embarrassing on my part to come 

 upon a family I had never seen, "just at supper 

 time. Saturday night; but when I went to the 

 hotel at Starkville I was informed that Mr. El- 

 wood had left word that I should come straight 

 to his home, early or late; and accordingly I turn- 

 ed the wheel about, and was soon shooting down 

 (or, rather, up) the road leading to theElwoods. 

 Their home is situated at the base of a range of 

 hills (I wanted to call them mountains) of any- 

 where from .5(K) to 1000 feet above the valleys. 

 To an Ohio boy this was all new. and I feasted 

 my eyes on the scenery to my heart's content. 



The next day was Sunday. I threw off my 

 bicycle suit, and put on ordinary civilian's 

 clothing. As my luggage on the wheel had to 

 be compressed intt) a tight bundle, my clothing, 

 I fancy, looked as if it had been through a— 

 well, a crimping-machine or something of that 

 sort. I was glad to go to church with th(> fam- 

 ily; and it didn't matter at all, even if their de- 

 nomination was different from mine. We all 

 love the Lord, and we differ only in unimpor- 

 tant details as to beliefs. I enjoyed the ser- 

 vices, and enjoyed, als((. being in a (iod-fearing 

 family foi- the Sabbath. 



The scenery about Starkville, to an Ohio boy, 

 is grand. While the country Is not really 

 mountainous it is very hilly. From many of 

 the higher summits the whole Mohawk Valley 

 spreads out befoi-e you. and off in the distance 

 the dim outline of the Green Mountains can be 

 seen. 



Mr. Elwood kindly oflfered to take me around 

 the country: and accordingly, the following 

 Monday mt)rning. one of the bee-wagons was 

 hitched up. and we took a ride through the 

 surrounding county, to take in some of the 

 sights, and of course, in the course of the day, 

 visit bee-yards. After driving to the top of one 

 of those high hills and taking a general siu-vey 

 of the Mohawk Valley and adjacent country 

 (a maguilicent view, by the way), we visited a 

 beautiful glen where there were some very cu- 

 rious rock formations — caves, waterfalls, and 

 r\uniing springs. My Kodak was in readiness, 

 and I took a number of shots (i. e., views). 

 Vegetable mattei' that remains for a few years 

 in the water of this glen petrifies. Among the 

 specimens we selected were almost perfect pet- 

 rified beach leavcis, fragments of moss, etc. It 

 was here first that I noticed what .seemed to be 

 true of all this section of country: namely, that 

 the basswoods seemed togiow much more thrifti- 

 ly than in Ohio. The leaves were enormously 

 large. One we nu'asured was 14 inches long, 

 nor did this seem to be exceptional. At Mr. 

 Doolittle's I noticed that the basswoods were of 

 larger and better growth than with us. while on 

 the sidehills of Starkville they were even more 

 so. We. started on our jcturney again, and \\ ere 

 discussing as to whether the large-leafed l)ass- 

 woods w(!re any better for honey than thesnuill- 

 er-leafed trees, when we drove up to the apiary 

 of J. R. Tuniclilf. of Vanhornsville. Mr. T. 

 owns some 400 coh)nies in three or four out- 

 vards. He fornu'rly used the ordinary hanging 

 frame; used it faithfully for 50 years. Finally, 

 in 1878, he adopted the chjsed-end frame, which 

 lie is still using. This frame, instead of sUiiul- 



