1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



655 



has all it can do, and sometimes more than it 

 can do, to let them through withwut expensive 

 delays. These canals are cut in the solid 

 rock, right beside the celebrated Soo Rapids. 

 This rapids is in the Saint Mary's River, that 

 permits the waters of Lake Superior to pass 

 down to Lake Huron. The rapids is, I should 

 say, a river half a mile wide and perhaps a 

 mile long where it splashes and foams over 

 the rocks. The fall is about 20 feet. Each 

 side of this mile in length, not only the walls 

 of the canal but the pavement over the pon- 

 derous machinery are solid hewn stone, the pe- 

 culiar white building stone I have mentioned, 

 that looks so much like marble. The build- 

 ings containing the machinery for operating 

 the locks are little houses made entirely of 

 glass and stone. The power to move the pon- 

 derous gates all comes from water-motors 

 driven by the enormous water power of the 

 Soo canal. Just back of the city a new canal 

 is being constructed 200 feet wide at the bot- 

 tom, and 30 feet deep. This canal is sawed 

 out of solid stone. The walls are cut down 

 by appropriate machinery as true as the walls 

 of a building. Railroad tracks run along the 

 bottom, and cars carry out the broken rock. 

 The work has been in progress for two years 

 and a half, and it is estimated it will take two 

 years more. This canal is to furnish water 

 power, and the power-house is now partly 

 finished, almost a quarter of a mile long, and 

 is said to be the longest single building in the 

 world. An electric-power plant is to be in- 

 stalled that will rival the great electric plant 

 at Niagara Falls. 



When I expressed surprise that there was 

 enough shipping to keep two great canals con- 

 stantly busy, one of the ofl&cers informed me 

 that the old canal, built many years ago, was 

 soon to be enlarged, because the capacity of 

 the two was not sufiiciently great for com- 

 merce.* The material on which all daily pa- 

 pers are printed — yes, the very paper on 

 which you read these words — probably comes 

 from the Canadian forests through that great 

 Soo canal. The officer mentioned told me 

 the traffic in paper pulp was getting to be so 

 great that a project was on foot to bring the 

 pulp from Canada to the United States 

 through an immense viaduct, something like 

 the great tunnels that bring water for our 

 large cities. This pulp was to be pumped 

 through to paper-mills run by the great pow- 

 er-plant I have mentioned, and they expected 

 to furnish paper enough, not only for all the 

 newspapers, but for all the books to be made 

 in the United States. When I asked how long 

 the Canadian forests would hold out, my in- 

 formant said that there were miles and miles 

 of the spruce timber, and that there was raw 

 material enough in Canada to supply the 

 United States for at least a hundred years. 



At the close of my visit to the great North- 

 west, I wish to mention once more my in- 



* Besides the two great canals with their ponderous 

 locks, on the American side, I must not fail to men- 

 tion that there is also a similar canal on the Canadian 

 side; and these three together are not able to pass 

 the great boats so as to prevent navigation at times 

 from being blocked, and suffer delays that are enor- 

 mously expensive. 



debtedness to the officers and employees of 

 the Pere Marquette Railroad. I suppose most 

 of the friends know already that I am always 

 making blunders, in traveling. I have fits of 

 doing things absent-mindedly. On one occa- 

 sion a baggage-master gave me a check for 

 my bicycle. I suppose I must have taken it 

 and put it in my pocket ; but I was so sure 

 I didft't, I looked another baggage-master 

 squarely in the face and declared I never re- 

 ceived any sort of check. They thought it 

 very strange, and gave me another. After- 

 ward, in another fit of absent-mindedness, I 

 put both checks in my overcoat pocket, and 

 when I wanted the wheel (at the Traverse 

 City station) my overcoat was out at my 

 ranch in the woods, ten miles away. I ex- 

 plained matters, and got my wheel without a 

 check at all. Now, these Pere Marquette peo- 

 ple all seem to be good-natured. I think 

 they must take it for granted that, in carrying 

 people off on an excursion, they must put up 

 with a good deal, so the excursionists can 

 have a good time and want to come again. 



Just one thing more: During this hot dusty 

 period I have always found plenty of clean 

 water in even the common railway coaches ; 

 and not only that, two great big roller towels 

 to every coach, that were certainly nice and 

 clean every morning when they started out. 



In the next issue I will tell you something 

 about strawberries, peaches, and potatoes in 

 the Traverse region — especially about ripe 

 strawberries for the markets of Chicago after 

 the middle of July. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



■WHAT CAN WE SOW OR PLANT ON VACATED GROUND 

 DURING AUGUST? 



Well, August is the great month for turnips. The 

 Purple top White Globe seems to be the special favor- 

 ite. A good many sow the seed the last of July ; but 

 if grown during hot weather they are apt to be too 

 strong for table use. If you want real nice turnips 

 for the table, sow them several times during August — 

 yes, even up into September. They will not be real 

 nice until they are out in a frost or two ; and those 

 sown so late that thev do not get very large are best 

 for table use. The White Egg is a good deal like the 

 White Globe, but a good many think them more ten- 

 der and sweet. 



Of late there has been considerable said in the ag- 

 ricultural papers about sowing turnips on spare 

 ground, to plow under as a fertilizer. Now, turnips 

 are not worth as much as clover, by any means ; but 

 they are better than nothing at all, and for this pur- 

 pose the long White Cowhorn is recommended Its 

 roots go aw.Ty down and bring up fertility that the 

 round turnips growing on top of the ground will 

 probably miss. They will also stand a drouth better 

 when they once get started. 



We can furnish seed of the turnips mentioned above, 

 at 5 cts. an ounce; 1 lb., 30; 5 lbs., SI. 25. If wanted by 

 mail, add 9 cts. per lb. for postage and packing. 



DWARF ESSEX RAPE. 



This is something after the turnip family, or per- 

 haps, rather, the cabbage family. It will stand more 

 frost than either cabbage or turnip It can be put in 

 among corn at the last cultivating. I have seen it 

 sown in this way so as to stand 3 feet high after the 

 corn was cut and out of the way. It may be sown at 

 any time from May to August. In my trip through 

 Michigan I saw field after field of it, some of them 

 ten acres or more in extent, and sheep and lambs 

 were feeding off the crop during the last of July. 

 Where the drouth was very severe this plant seemed 

 to stand up bright and green. 



Prices: 1 lb., postpaid, 20 cts.; 50 lbs., bv freight or 

 express, 7 cts.; 100 lbs., 86.00. 



