236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



Lafcadio Hearn's splendid "Two Years in the 

 French West Indies," I have been anxious to 

 visit Martinique, and now ray wish was to be 

 gratified. Before us lay the high peaks of the 

 land of Josephine, the Creole Empress who 

 held in herself the destinies of Napoleon and 

 of France. Fort de France we could see in 

 the distance, with the everlasung three mast- 

 ed American schooner anchored in the offing 

 to indicate the nearness of a more progressive 

 civilization than that of France. I fancied I 

 could see Trios Islets, the birthplace and child- 

 hood home of Josephine. Looking at the 

 high peaks of Martinique, and musing in- 

 wardly on the somber aspect of the Morne 

 Peelee, I thought, " What a land for romance, 

 especially in the days when old Spain, France, 

 and Britain fought desperate sea-fights for the 

 possession of the new world ! " Near by. Ad- 

 miral Rodney smashed the whole French fleet 

 which had eluded him to assist Washington at 

 Yorktown. Quite near we could see, from the 

 deck of the Solent, Diamond Rock, famous 

 in story as His Majesty's ship Diamond. It 

 was taken by the British fleet, and guns and 

 sailors placed on it, conducted as a man-o'- 

 war, and uniformly annoyed the French. 

 Nowadays when the British fleet sail by. Dia- 

 mond Rock is saluted with all the elaborate- 

 ness of naval etiquette. 



As our stay was to be short, I made haste to 

 get on terra jirtna, and marched up and down 

 the streets of St. Pierre. The shops and stores 

 are good, and many of the houses are hand- 

 some and spacious, and thoroughly French. 

 None of the storekeepers could speak Eng- 

 lish, and, try as I could, I could not purchase 

 a single picture of the place. Even Joseph- 

 ine's statue seems to be unphotographed. 

 I called on a photographer, but he had none 

 but portraits of uninteresting people. He was 

 a dentist and clock-fixer as well as photog- 

 rapher. The stores are excellent, however, 

 and well stocked with the latest French con- 

 ceptions. The streets are beautifully paved, 

 and streams of water run down them all, to 

 carry off effluvia. The streets are lighted by 

 electricity ; and a comical street-car, carrying 

 eight persons drawn by a branded mule, 

 solemnly does the duty of a trolly car. I vis- 

 ited the cathedral, and saw the ebony wor- 

 shipers at their deyotions — poor black women 

 probably trying to console themselves for the 

 loss of a dear child, though they had to work 

 hard to find it bread. I came away faying to 

 myself, "It's all French." Then our good 

 ship Solent, with 50 English tourists, headed 

 straight for Dominica, the Switzerland of the 

 West Indies, only three hours distant. Ere 

 long we could see its dim outline, and then 

 nearer, till we could see the giant peaks, the 

 tops hidden by the clouds. Columbus, who 

 discovered Dominica, in trying to describe to 

 Queen Isabella the configuration of the land, 

 took a piece of paper, and, crumpling it in 

 his hand, laid it on the table as an illustration 

 of Dominica's outline, and this well conveys 

 the idea of serrated peaks and jagged crests ; 

 but it by no means conveys to the mind anv 

 idea of the somber grandeur of this tropical 

 paradise. 



Soon we reached Roseau, the chief town of 

 the island ; but before reaching it I noted, by 

 the spy-glass, that the flags on shore were ail 

 at half-mast ; and on conveying this news to 

 my fellow-passengers all said, "The Queen is 

 dead," and a damper was put on the spirits of 

 all on board. Getting nearer we could hear 

 the church-bells tolling, which caused a fur- 

 ther depression. 



I was soon ashore, safely ensconced at Mrs. 

 Ogilvey's hotel, whence I purposed to explore 

 and define the possibilities and capabilities of 

 Dominica as a bee country. But I will defer 

 my account to the next issue. 



i!#^si^tI)0Qin^ 



TOO MUCH POLLEN. 



A knock at the door. Mrs. D. requests that 

 I open it, as she is very busy with her hands 

 in the dough, kneading what is to be the bread 

 for dinner. So I go and open the door. There 

 I find a man who says he has come across 

 Skaneateles Lake on the ice to see me. I in- 

 vite hini in, and he says his name is Wilbur. 



" But were you not afraid to cross the ice? 

 Dp you not know that the ice is always treach- 

 erous on that lake ? and that there is scarcely 

 a year, when it freezes over, but one or more 

 are drowned from venturing on it?" are the 

 first questions I ask. 



" I was not aware that the ice on Skaneate- 

 les Lake was any more treacherous than on 

 any other lake. What makes it so ? " 



" Skaneateles Lake is made up largely from 

 springs which come up under the surface of 

 the water ; and as these springs throw up 

 warmer water than that in the lake proper 

 will average, ice does not form so thick over 

 these springs, and is constantly getting thin- 

 ner, as soon as our zero weather has passed 

 by ; and, not knowing where these springs 

 are, the traveler walks on these thin places, 

 only to drop in when least expected ; and, ui:- 

 less help comes to the rescue soon, or the trav- 

 eler has a long pole in his hand so it will catch 

 on the unbroken ice, drowning is the result " 



"Thank you for the information. I will 

 take a pole with me when I go back, as it is 

 thawing quite rapidly. But I came over to 

 see you regarding some combs which have 

 too much pollen in them, according to my 

 way of thinking. Is there any way of remov- 

 ing pollen from combs ? " 



" In some localities bees store so much pol- 

 len in their combs that it seems to some that 

 it would be better to have it removed. But I 

 hardly think there is any locality where too 

 much pollen is really stored." 



"Could not a machine be invented for its 

 removal ? " 



" Possibly. I was once at a bee convention 

 where a man offered as high as $25 for a ma- 

 chine to remove pollen from the combs, but I 

 never knew of such machine being invented." 



