722 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



NOTtS or TRAVLL 



I BY A. I. ROOT. 



FLORIDA TRAVELS, CONTINUED. 



On page 608, July 1, I spoke of visiting Mr. 

 R. M. McColley, at Sorrento ; but I omitted 

 then to mention that I found there a success- 

 ful house-apiary. This house-apiary is not 

 made tight, as we make them here in the 

 North, so as to exclude frost and cold. The 

 upright boards are far enough apart so the 

 bees can get through the cracks. We might 

 call it a sort of corncrib house-apiary, inas- 

 much as it has openings all around, somewhat 

 like a corncrib, but, of course, not with so 

 many or so large openings. Well, this house- 

 apiary is all right. The bees can be handled 

 just as well as outdoors ; in fact, Mr. McCol- 

 ley thinks he prefers handling them in the 

 house. Quite a few who have house-apiaries 

 say the bees sting worse in a house than around 

 a hive located outdoors. Mr. M. thinks it is 

 the other way. I suggested that, as the hives 

 did not receive the benefit of the direct rays 

 of the sun on cool mornings, the bees would 

 not start out as early as the bees outside ; but 

 after watching carefully during a cool morn- 

 ing when it was almost frosty, I was obliged 

 to admit that the bees began flying, and bring- 

 ing in pollen, first from the hives in the house- 

 apiary. I suppose this whole thing will be a 

 matter of tasie. Some who get acquainted 

 with the house-apiary will like it ; but as a 

 rule most bee-keepers seem to prefer the hives 

 located outdoors. In tropical climates, as in 

 Florida and Cuba, for instance, no doubt some 

 kind of shade, either of trees or movable 

 boards, is quite an advantage. 



Mr. McColley is quite deif, and one must 

 raise his voice pretty well to talk with him ; 

 but aside from this he is a most interesting 

 talker, and has a great fund of useful infor- 

 mation to impart to his visitors. Like others 

 who are afflicted in like manner, he has spent 

 quite a little money in remedies for deafness. 

 Not long ago he answered an advertisement 

 for artificial ear-drums. He told the proprie- 

 tors that he had deposited $10 with his post- 

 master. If the ear-drums gave him any relief 

 whatever the postmaster was to forward the 

 $10; otherwise the drums would be returned. 

 Of course, they would not "trade" on such 

 terms ; but they made such emphatic promises 

 of sending the money right back if the appa- 

 ratus did not do all they claimed, he finally 

 sent the $10. The ear-drums gave him no 

 help whatever ; but the Wilson people had 

 some very good excuse for not returning the 

 money. A lady who is afflicted in a like man- 

 ner, near him, was anxious to try them, but 

 her experience was just the same. 



One day while friend McColley was going 

 along the street he saw a swarm of bees hang- 

 ing on a limb in a neighbor's dooryard. This 

 neighbor also was deaf, and he had faith in 

 the much advertised ear-drum. Friend M. 

 laughingly told him he would give him $10 



for the swarm on the limb, and " take his 

 chances," provided the owner of the bees 

 would take the $10 in ear-drums and take his 

 chances. They made the swap, and my host 

 showed me his "$10 swarm of bees." But 

 the man who got the ear-drums, like the rest, 

 could perceive no benefit from their use. 



I can not remember exactly just now wheth- 

 er I have ever told our readers that I too have 

 had a like experience. After having the grip 

 one winter I found I could not hear as well as 

 usual. I tried a pair of $10 artificial ear- 

 drums. They were not only no help what- 

 ever, but my opinion is, it required several 

 months for me to get fully recovered from the 

 damage they did these delicate organs. I fol- 

 lowed the directions very carefully, and suc- 

 ceeded in getting the things in my ears accord- 

 ing to directions. From a careful examina- 

 tion of the way in which the things were made, 

 my impression is that 10 cents in place of $10 

 would be a pretty fair price for them. 



I had an exceedingly pleasant visit at Brai- 

 dentown, Manatee Co. This locality is so far 

 south that frost has never done any great dam- 

 age to the orange-trees. Our readers of six 

 years ago may remember my mention of our 

 friend Bannehr, and that his family came 

 from England and stayed in Florida two or 

 three years, but became so homesick they 

 pulled up stakes and went back to England ; 

 but after staying in the fatherland, I think it 

 was less than a year, they became still more 

 homesick, and pulled up stakes again and 

 went back to Florida. They have a very beau- 

 tiful place, with enough tropical plants grow- 

 ing right in the open ground to delight the 

 heart of almost any florist here in the North. 

 Friend Bannehr has sent me quite an assort- 

 ment of rare and beautiful plants which are 

 flourishing finely in our own greenhouse. 



In the town of Manatee, right near his 

 home, I noticed, six years ago, a beautiful 

 spring, of such volume as to make a swamp 

 or quagmire of perhaps % acre in extent. 

 This was an unsightly place almost in the 

 heart of the town ; and I suppose everybody 

 thought the nasty boggy place was of no val- 

 ue at all to anybody, and never would be. 

 The owner, however, has lately caught on to 

 the new celery culture in Florida. He cut 

 channels to let off the water of the spring, 

 threw the ground up into beds, and planted 

 celery. Just at the time of my visit he was 

 harvesting a crop that I think promised to net 

 him over $500 from that worthless % acre. A 

 neighbor over the fence had evidently caught 

 on, for he too was growing some very fine cel- 

 ery. If there was any lack of rain, all they 

 had to do was to dam up the outlet of the 

 spring until the water came up to the roots of 

 the celery to the desired height. The whole 

 thing seemed very simple when you saw the 

 men at work at it. But I am sure there are 

 thousands of places, north, south, east, and 

 west, where this same plan can be managed 

 without any trouble at all. Of course, these 

 people secured large prices by shipping celery 

 to New York in the dead of winter. 



By the way, let me mention right here some- 

 thing to the credit of our commission men. 



