1902 



GLEANIGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



953 



King of Michig-an, even, on exhibition. 

 There was one jar of extracted honey among 

 the jellies; not a single section of comb hon- 

 ey, and yet Mr. Hilbert has sent us some- 

 thing- like a ton of his handsome honey in 

 the latest and most approved sections I 

 think I ever saw. One case of his honey at 

 that fair would have attracted as much or 

 more attention than any other one exhibit. 

 It would have opened the eyes to the possi- 

 bilities of bee culture in that region; and 

 had he had stated what his crop was it 

 would have been still more valuable. 



Perhaps some of you say, "Mr. Root, why 

 didn't you take some oi your nice sections. 

 King of Michigan potatoes, big onions, and 

 other things you have grown around the 

 cabin in the v/oods?" Well, I should have 

 done so, but I have had no horse during the 

 past season; and as Maple City is not on a 

 railroad, I can not easily get there with my 

 exhibits. Besides, I do not live in Leela- 

 naw Co. except in the summer time. 



Before I forget it I wish to mention the 

 factthat I saw the largest and finest ground- 

 cherries (or husk tomatoes) I ever saw in 

 my life, at this fair. They looked like large 

 beautiful plums incased in husks. There 

 was no label to indicate what the new 

 variety was, so I can not tell whether it was 

 because the soil is specially adapted to it, 

 or whether it is one of the new kinds we 

 find mentioned in seed catalogs. A man 

 from that vicinity, who felt sad, as I did, 

 to see such a state of affairs, especially in 

 a county with the wonderful privileges of- 

 fered by Leelanaw, said something like this: 



" Mr. Root, it is the flourishing saloons 

 and ivhiskv that are at the bottom of all this 

 sort of work. When the Anti-saloon League 

 gets to work in earnest in our county we 

 shall have a different state of affairs, not 

 only with county fairs, but in every man- 

 ner of 'affairs'' pertaining to everyday life." 



On my way home I had a little time to 

 wait for a train at Solon. I asked the ticket 

 agent how far away it was to the town 

 where the stores and business houses were. 



"Why, Mr. Root, there isn't any town. 

 It is all right here, right before you." 



"Why, I think this must be the place. 

 I met a man who is quite a temperance 

 worker at one of our Sunday-school conven- 

 tions. He told me his name was White, 

 and I afterward learned that he owned a 

 hotel and store; and I think they said it was 

 at Solon. I was a little surprised to find a 

 hotel-keeper who was such an earnest ad- 

 vocate of temperance Christianity." 



"Oh! yes, that is all right. There is the 

 store and the hotel right before your face; 

 and all they said of Mr. White is true. " 



" Why, do you mean that that neat-looking 

 farmhouse is a hotel and store?" 



Just then I caught sight of some hives in 

 the dooryard, and I walked over. My good 

 friend White was absent at the county fair; 

 but when his wife found out who I was she 

 said "Jimmy," who was out in the cornfield, 

 would be delighted to see me, and she has- 

 tened to call him in. Jimmy was a boy in 



short pants, but he had the ABC book, 

 and took Gleanings. He was greatly tak- 

 en up with the chapter on bee-hunting and 

 getting wild bees in the woods. His apiary 

 was largely composed of swarms he had 

 captured in the woods, and transferred into 

 hives. A little crowd soon collected when 

 told that the senior editor of Gleanings 

 was in the neighborhood. Oh, how it re- 

 joiced my heart to meet a young boy like 

 J immy ! It made me think of that other boy 

 in Florida whom I called the youngest sub- 

 scriber to Gleanings. Jimmy can not be 

 more than twelve years old, yet he is not 

 only well posted but he has made a success 

 of capturing wild swarms, and setting them 

 at work in his dooryard. Just think of it, 

 friends. With a little encouragement a boy 

 may be interested in things of this sort, or 

 if he has a little encouragement in another 

 way he may be induced to spend all his 

 small earnings at a saloon up town. 

 Which shall it be? And by the way, friends, 

 since I have met with so many discourage- 

 ments in the way of trying to interest the 

 boys in making the county fair what it ought 

 to be, I wish in j'our letters to me you would 

 give me briefly some hints in regard to such 

 fairs. How are they run in your county? 

 and am I not right in taking the stand that 

 they should be a means of education to the 

 young boys growing up on the farm? May 

 God help us in looking after the fairs held 

 annually, or perhaps that should be held 

 annually, in our respective counties. 



On my way home I went to Traverse City, 

 and tried to find such a potato-digger as I 

 have described, at one of the leading hard- 

 ware stores. 'I'hey had onlj^ the blunt- 

 pointed ones at 75 cents. They said there 

 were no others in the market. But on an- 

 other street, at a place where they sell noth- 

 ing but farming-implements, I found a very 

 light neat potato-hook, with tapering oval- 

 shape steel tines ending in a sharp point, 

 and the price of this superior tool was only 

 55 cents. I took it home, and carried it out 

 into the field where the two young men were 

 digging potatoes. They gave a whistle as 

 soon as they tried it, and the implement paid 

 for itself in the next two or three da3^s. 

 Our boy Earl (Mr. Earl Rosga) is an ex- 

 pert in digging potatoes, and he has an in- 

 vention of his own in the shape of a leather 

 strap attached to the digger so as to form 

 a loop for the hand. This loop enables one 

 to give a strong pull at the handle without 

 being obliged to grasp it so tightly to pre- 

 vent the hand from slipping. With the 

 new digger Earl dug and picked up 45 bush- 

 els of Lee's Favorite potatoes in one day, 

 for which he received 5 cents a bushel, or 

 $2.25, while his regular wages is only Si. 25 

 per day. I have gone into details as above 

 to show you the importance of having the 

 best tools there are in the market. And let 

 me say again in closing that the county fair 

 is exactly the place where the ' best tools 

 made should be exhibited, both for the ben- 

 fit of the manufacturer and dealer as well 

 as for the customer. 



