690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



over the sides of the trough all around its 

 whole length. Not only this, but the V-shap- 

 ed trough of boards that carries water from 

 the spring to the trough seems insufficient to 

 take care of all this wealth of cold spring 

 water ; and it pours over the sides of this 

 trough almost its whole length. This water 

 all comes from one spring. Mr. E. Black told 

 us there had been talk of carrying the water 

 in pipes to Traverse City. 



A little way north of this schoolhouse, 

 where the superintendent of the Sunday-school 

 lives, we saw irrigating-pipes all through his 

 garden, just as if he had water under pressure. 

 I wondered why his place was thus equipped 

 when his home was on a level plain, compar- 

 atively, with nothing that would indicate a 

 spring or city water-works in sight. We 

 were out so early the family had not finished 

 breakfast ; but he smilingly marched us into 

 the pantry, right close to the kitchen stove, 

 and there a stream of water was pouring forth 

 under pressure from a pipe that I should call 

 1 ^ or 1>^ inch. It was from an artesian well, 

 and he said he put the pipe down only 28 feet. 

 When I suggested that it might not hold out 

 if left running with such volume, he said the 

 stream had been going just like that for nine 

 years. 



Well, our good friend W. F. Silsby, one of 

 our subscribers in Traverse City, has just pur- 

 chased 20 acres of land in that neighborhood, 

 for less than $20 00 per acre. Shall I tell you 

 why he bought it ? There is more alf ike clo- 

 ver grown in that vicinity than for many 

 miles around ; and he is establishing an out- 

 apiary on his newly acquired land. 



I had a curiosity to see the speckled trout in 

 the cold spring brooks in that region, and so 

 our good friend got some hooks and lines, 

 and we went over into a field a little beyond 

 the house, where we found a babbling brook 

 hurrying and scurrying through the clover- 

 field, and in a little time we had caught sev- 

 eral of the speckled beauties. I expressed 

 surprise that fish of that size should be found 

 in so small a rivulet ; but I was told that little 

 runs like that, of cold spring water, were just 

 the place for them. On our way back a man 

 was cutting alsike and timothy for hay ; and 

 he said he was having a great deal of trouble 

 because there was such a growth of alsike in 

 with the timothy. It was so heavy he feared 

 he could never cut it at all. 



The last of my texts refers to green pas- 

 tures and still waters. A part of my July 

 work was to make some June grass grow 

 around our rude summer cottage. Perhaps 

 many of our readers know as well as I how to 

 make a nice lawn. If so, they all know that 

 it requires a great deal of hard work. Not- 

 withstanding, I have decided again and again 

 it is worth while. Many of our cities are now 

 spending large sums of money in making 

 parks and boulevards ; and often the first 

 thing they do is to set a lot of men at work 

 smoothing off the rough inequalities of na- 

 ture, fining up the ground, and then grading 

 and leveling it preparatory to making lawns. 

 We did the same thing at our ranch. We dug 

 the ground over thoroughly, then raked out 



the roots and stones, raking it over again and 

 again, filling in here and cutting down there. 

 Of course, we can not always have a lawn ex- 

 actly level; but to be handsome it needs to be 

 smooth. There must be no ups nor downs, 

 nor inequalities. How wonderfully it rests 

 the eye, and rests the person, to get just a 

 glimpse of a beautiful lawn in front of or ad- 

 joining a home ! In the outskirts of Traverse 

 City there are some of the finest lawns I ever 

 saw in the world. Mr. Hilbert said his im- 

 pression was they were made of June grass 

 and nothing else. After our lawn was finally 

 graded and raked to my satisfaction, I gave 

 Mr. Burdo some lawn grass and white clover 

 to seed it down with. He said it wanted to be 

 raked in just before a good heavy rain. While 

 I was up in the Soo, as you may remember, a 

 good rain came, and the seed is all in ; so I 

 suppose on my next trip, or, if you choose, 

 our next trip, Mrs. Root and I will have the 

 pleasure of seeing at least a little green grass 

 around the door among the trees and garden 

 stuff. By the way, you can not have a real 

 nice flower-garden without having at least 

 some green grass for a background ; and to 

 have this lawn nice, especially during real 

 warm weather, without rain, like the past sea- 

 son, for instance, you need water for irriga- 

 tion. A running spring, a hydraulic ram, or 

 a windmill, will, any one of them, furnish 

 abundant water to water the lawn. Of course, 

 you want a reservoir, and one of the revolv- 

 ing sprinklers we see so often in front of the 

 cottages in the suburbs of nearly all of our 

 cities, large or small. 



Since dictating the above I find that T. B. 

 Terry, in the Practical Farmer ; W. I. Cham- 

 berlain, in the Ohio Farmer, and Judge Big- 

 gie, in the Philadelphia Farm Journal, have 

 been writing about what to do in warm weath- 

 er — what to eat, what to drink, how to keep 

 cool, and how to keep well. It was an agree- 

 able surprise to me to find that this Home Pa- 

 per is so much in line with what some of our 

 great rural teachers have been talking about. 



CONVENTION NOTICE. 



All arrangements for the next convention of the 

 National Bee-keepers' Association have been com- 

 pleted so far as possible, and the convention will be 

 held in the audience room of the Buffalo Society of 

 Natural Sciences, Sept. 10th, 11th. and 12th; com- 

 mencing on the evening of the 10th. The place of 

 meeting is in the Buffalo Library building, corner of 

 Washington and Clinton Streets, near the business 

 center of the city. The president of the Natural Sci- 

 ences Society, Mr. Smith, has also kindly offered our 

 Association the use of their library and other com- 

 mittee rooms during the time of our convention, and 

 to do all in the power of the society to help make our 

 meeting a success. 



Railroad rates will vary in the different passenger 

 association territory, from one cent per mile each 

 way to one and one-third fare for the round trip. 

 Each person can readily learn the rate on inquiry at 

 his railroad station. 



The Buffalo bee-keepers will try to provide enter- 

 tainment at reasonable rates for all attending the 

 convention, who will notify Mr. Sydney S. Sleeper, 

 of Holland, N. Y., by Sept. 2d, of their wish for en- 

 tertainment. 



In a letter just received from Mr. Sleeper he says, 

 " We want all to come who can, for we wish to make 

 the Buffalo meeting the most pleasant and instructive 

 one that was erer held in America. We will have the 



