1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



249 



just as Mr. Hale, the peach-man, is mak- 

 ing- a success of peach-orchards by the 

 square mile down in Georgia. But where 

 there is one like Mr. Hale there are thou- 

 sands who had better keep in the beaten 

 track. I know the above hits me a little, 

 and I thank friend B. for his timely and 

 wholesome rebuke. It will help me to be 

 -careful about what I recommend — especial- 

 \y any thing- along the line of real estate or 

 other sorts of speculation gotten up on pur- 

 pose to draw in the unsuspecting. 



MRS. HARRISON TELLS US HOW TO MAKK A 



HOE-CAKE, AND SOMETHING ABOUT 



FLORIDA. 



Mr. Editor.— Vve exceedingly enjoyed reading your 

 account of how you made that outiiig-place in Mich- 

 igan. I would shut my eyes and watch you digging 

 out the spring, and listen to the rippling water as it 

 went purling away. 



What a sweet piney smell in that new cottage ! 

 How I should have loved to sit around that improvised 

 table, and share the fresh fish and potatoes — much 

 more than at the home in Medina ! There was one 

 thing you lacked, and that was a hoe-cake, baked as 

 the native Floridians bake it, with slight variations. 

 Take two small cupfuls of corn meal, one teaspoqnful 

 of salt, the same of sugar, and pour on to it boiling 

 water until it is thick enough to spread on a griddle 

 nicely, and then set it over a slow fire When it is 

 baked on the bottom turn it over, or, better .still, put 

 it into a hot oven until it browns nicely. When fish is 

 eaten with this kind of bread the stomach has such a 

 restful feeling, and you are not troubled with thirst 

 as when it is eaten with fine flour bread. This is 

 the true bread of the South; and we often meet South- 

 erners who have been north and starved because thev 

 could not get their bread. With many kinds of food 

 they don't want corn bread made with eggs and sour 

 milk, which they call egg bread. 



Mr. Root, why didn't you make a winter home in 

 Florida ? You could have found some sheltered sunny 

 nook, and taught us how to raise crops all winter. 

 On my veranda I keep bnxes of rich s il, supported 

 by tin milk-cans, to keep the floor from decay. The 

 first day of my return I empty the .soil from the boxes 

 and shovel it back again; then plant onion-sets, rad- 

 ish and lettuce seed; sprinkle with warm water, and 

 cover up at night, if chillv. In a few days the plants 

 are up, and in a short time we are pulling out the 

 crisp tender onions to make room for the lettuce. 

 During the zero freeze we did not lose our lettuce. 

 The ground froze, but we thawed it out with water 

 from the well, and it was not injured. We also make 

 garden in the open ground, but we can protect our 

 box garden easier during frosty weather. Every 

 thing grown in Florida soil is very sweet. Her tur- 

 nips and beets can not be surpassed anywhere. 



Any person. who has to seek a warmer clime every 

 winter had better purchase a little home. Plenty of 

 them can be had cheap, and a person be more com- 

 fortable than traveling around. I once a.sked a lady 

 living in a fine house, elegantly furnished, if .she did 

 not like to leave it and live in her board cottage of 

 one room in Florida, and not have to sweep, dust, and 

 clean? She replied, " Indeed I do. And I'm just as 

 happy, and more comfortable." 



I've one orange on one of my trees, but it's a big 

 one ; and, Mr. Root, if you come we will sit before the 

 open fire and eat it, and talk bees. If you remain 

 over night you can sleep on a bed made of saw pal- 

 metto leaves, and breakfast on fish and oysters from 

 the finest bay on the continent, with a hot hoe-cake, 

 of Mrs. Harrison's own make. 



Peoria, 111. Mrs L. Harrison. 



Dear Mrs. H., nothing- would give us 

 more pleasure than to have yoti sit down 

 with us at our meal in our cabin in the 

 woods; and if I ever get down j'our way 

 again I shall mo.st stirely hunt you up, and 

 I shall be sure of just such a warm wel- 

 come as you promise. We may some time 

 try a cabin in the woods in Florida. 



Tobacco. 



TOBACCO AND OUR SCHOOLS. 



In years past I have spoken some very 

 kind words in regard to our Ohio State 

 University at Columbus. I have spoken 

 with pride of their buildings ; I have spo- 

 ken of their apparatus, their machinery, 

 and their methods. But I am now going to 

 complain of just one thing — perhaps I might 

 say of just one person. They have a pro- 

 fessor there, one who, I understand, is 

 "away up," and who smokes a pipe while 

 he gives his pupils advice and instruction. 

 I do not know that he does this as a gen- 

 eral thing, right along ; but I know that 

 he did talk to one young man, advising him 

 as to how much and how little Latin he 

 should take, besides other matters, and he 

 was obliged to take his pipe out of his 

 mouth when he spoke. This young man 

 was not a pupil; but he visited the State 

 University with the view of becoming one. 

 I am not sure that the pipe was the means 

 of deciding him to go elsewhere, but he did 

 go elsewhere. I talked with several others 

 of our educators in the service of the State, 

 and they admitted that such was his cus- 

 tom, and deplored with me the influence 

 that this example was likely to have on our 

 Ohio boys. Now for the fruit of keeping a 

 professor of this sort. 



A few days ago a young man who has 

 been for some years finishing his education 

 at the Ohio State University received an 

 application for a recommend, and this is 

 the one I gave him, addressed to a well- 

 known professor at Ithaca, N. Y., where 

 my young friend expected to get a situa- 

 tion: 



Prof. L. H. Bailev Ithaca, N. Y. 



Dear Sir : — It affords me great pleasure to sav that 

 I have known the bearer from boyhood up, and that 

 he has all his life been a model of steadiness and up- 

 rightness. I believe him to be a young man who will 

 make his mark in the world, especially if diligence 

 and close attention and most excellent habits will con- 

 tribute to that end. Any thing that you can do for 

 him will not onlv be gratifying to me and his host of 

 friends here in Medina, but I think it will prove an 

 advantage to yourself and any others with whom he 

 may have to do. Your old friend, A. I. Root. 



After I wrote the above recommend it 

 troubled me a little because I had not 

 known personally very much about this 

 young man since he left his home on the 

 farm near Medina; and several days after- 

 ward I wsa not only astonished but almost 

 appalled on being told that this model 

 young man — one who, from what I knew of 

 his Christian parentage and early habits — 

 one whom I felt almost as sure of as of my 

 own boys— was not only using tobacco, but 

 that he defended its use, and, in spite of 

 every thing his friends could say, he de- 

 clared his intention to stick to it! I at once 

 wrote him what I had heard, and said that, 

 if it were really true, I must ask to with- 

 draw my recommend, and that, if it had al- 

 ready been sent on to Ithaca, I could not 

 see any honest, straightforward way out of 

 the dilemma but to send this second letter, 



