l")FrKM''!F:R 1,-, 1015 



1025 



A progressive CotswuUl jrarrten ajiiary. Notiic 

 launched out into a few modern hives, homemade 

 which good returns of honey are obtained. 



And SO the months of summer would go 

 by until, with the an-ival of September, the 

 bee-master would prepare to gather " the 

 fruits in their season." In the crimson 

 gloaming of late evening might be seen a 

 dusk}' tigaire moving among the hives. It is 

 the beeman '' hefting " his skeps, and mark- 

 ing those which shall be " taken up," and 

 these, too, that must remain to provide 

 swarms next season. Next he digs a shal- 

 low pit near by ; then a piece of brown 

 jjaper thickly plastered with brimstone is 

 let in the cleft of a small stick stuck at the 

 bottom of the hole, and lighted, and as the 



the suljjhurous flame 

 burns brightly the 

 heaviest hives are 

 lifted over and earth 

 thrown against their 

 sides to keep in the 

 fumes. A sudden 

 fearsome buzzing 

 arises from the skep; 

 but it is gradually 

 hushed to a deathlike 

 stillness as tlie dead- 

 ly sulphur smoke 

 does its work of de- 

 struction. 



Then the honey is 

 set a-dripping over a 

 pan in the oool lard- 

 er, where the wasps 

 cannot infest. When 

 all runs out the 

 crushed honeycombs 

 are washed to make 

 a cask of methheglin 

 and then rendered down into wax. Taking- 

 time reduces the hives to half the summer 

 number, and each lot would be carefully 

 plastered to its stool with mortar as a win- 

 ter precaution against mice that might 

 creejD in when the bees were dormant. 



AVhether the bees are suffocated or got 

 from their hives by the more humane prac- 

 tice of driving, it matters not to the villager 

 who leaves the whys and wherefores to 

 wiser heads than his OAvn, knowing only 

 suHicient to make the humble skep a source 

 of income. 



Cheltenham, England. 



that, the owner has 

 but serviceable, from 



J. Y. DETWILER 



BY E. R. ROOT 



Down in Florida, at New Smyrna, is a 

 man named J. Y. Dctwiler — the only J. Y. 

 Detwiler in the world, for the simple rea- 

 son that there could not be anothei*. He is 

 one of the most unique characters that one 

 '•ver meets. As he says of himself, he is an 



everlasting talker;" but his talk is not 

 die nor witliout ]iith, point, and ready wit. 

 It is as good as a circus to hear him talk 

 a.s lie draws on his wonderful fund of in- 

 formation. 



A beekeejter? Yes, for many years away 

 i)ack in Tfdedo, where he formerly lived. 

 An orange-grower? Yes. he knows all about 

 the business. A landowner and real-estate 

 agent? He knows every angle of that line, 

 and can talk interestingly to you about 

 good and poor lands in I'lorida for hours 



at a time. Fish and game? Yes, he knows 

 about all the animals that walk, creep, or 

 swim in that south land. He is, or was at 

 the time of my visit there, two or three 

 years ago, the game and fish commissioner 

 of Florida. That he would make a good 

 commissioner — 'One who would enforce the 

 law to the very letter — can be plainly seen 

 in that strong face and the tightly drawn 

 lips that seem to bespeak "You obej- the 

 law or take the consecjuences." 



Mr. Detwiler is so well known that an 

 artist or sculptor, seeing that face, said. 

 " Oh! here I liave a model;" and he set to 

 work to reproduce the original in clay. We 

 secured a ph<itograph, and the picture be- 

 fore you shows tlie only J. Y. Detwiler who 

 ever lived or ever will live — the loquacious 



