190)i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



378 



Notes ojTrgwel 



%-A.LROOT 



SODTHWEST FLORIDA — ITS OBJECTIONABLE 

 FEATURES. 



Mrs. Root declares that, while I mention 

 and even dwell at length on the pleasant 

 things to be found in this land of sunshine 

 and perpetual summer, there are some disa- 

 greeable things I pass over entirely, and no 

 doubt she is, at least to a certain extent, right 

 about it; and I have promised in this talk to 

 give a truthful glimpse of all these objection- 

 able things I can think of. 



A good many have inquired more or less 

 anxiously about mosquitoes, and I am glad 

 to say that here in Bradentown I have never 

 seen any worth mentioning from the 5th of 

 last November up to the present date, Feb. 

 20. There have been a few evenings when 

 Mrs. Root not only heard a mosquito buzz, 

 hut I believe she actually found may be half a 

 dozen, all told, so she killed them with a 

 folded newspaper. While down on our is- 

 land near swampy places we found them a 

 few limes quite "troublesome; but I do not 

 remember that they ever came up around 

 our cottage so as to annoy us. Little gnats, 

 almost too small to be visible, and so small 

 as to get through window screens, are at 

 times, during damp warm weather, quite 

 vexatious, especially when you happen to be 

 too busy with hands and eyes to give them 

 your attention. When we first moved into 

 our new house there wasn't a house-fly to be 

 seen, and none came for quite a few days. 

 The neighbors assured us, however, that, in 

 due time, especially after we commenced 

 cooking, they would be around. Sure 

 enough, they did come, and for a few days 

 almost drove Mrs. Root frantic. I said: 



"Now, Sue, don't get so excited about a 

 few flies. The weather will soon turn cold 

 again, probably; and if it doesn't we will 

 get some fly-paper and give them such a reg- 

 ular fight all round they will conclude this 

 isn't a healthy place for flies." 



Let me tell you something here. You can 

 get rid of all sorts of domestic pests, rats, 

 mice, flies, fleas, and even coons, 'possums, 

 and polecats, if you go at it with enough en- 

 ergy and vigor. Let them know you mean 

 business, and then "go in" and fight them 

 to extermination. We got the fly-paper and 

 caught them until there wasn't standing room 

 on the paper for another fly. We killed 

 them with "fly-slappers," and still they 

 came; and Mrs Root said, "I told you so." 

 Then I declared something was baiting them. 

 You bee-keepers know that bees will never 

 stop robbing as long as they find a drop of 

 honey (sticky doorknobs and the like). 

 Well, it is just so with flies, and 1 declared 

 something must be baiting them around a 



certain back door. We keep our food in a 

 wire-cloth-covered safe on the back porch in 

 the wood-shed, and she remarked that she 

 was surprised to find flies coming out every 

 time the door was opened. Investigation re- 

 vealed that this safe was so poorly made that 

 flies were crowding in under the edges of the 

 wire screen. A few tacks and a thorough 

 going over stopped that "baiting." Then 

 when a cool night came, very early in the 

 morning with a brush-broom 1 killed every 

 fly "roosting" around that safe and back 

 door. Every morning I found fewer and 

 fewer, and soon we both forgot all about the 

 flies until the matter happened to be men- 

 tioned, and then we both wondered, because 

 there was not a fly to be found, and it was 

 then my turn to say "I told you so." 



Now, my friends, this war of extermina- 

 tion will work with all sorts of "vermin." 

 Don't say you haven't time, for it is really a 

 great saving of time. Do you suppose I 

 could write these Home papers with flies 

 crawling over my hands (and bald head), 

 and coming back and back again, when I 

 tried to chase them away? As for myself, 1 

 greatly enjoy coming out ahead in all such 

 faghts. A Home isnH a home, in the true 

 sense of the word, when flies hold "high car- 

 nival" in every room and on all occasions. 



Now I suppose I shall have to confess be- 

 fore you all something I didn't tell even Mrs. 

 Root about for a long while. I think I did 

 tell you that our one acre of land runs from 

 the road, in front, back a little more than 

 100 yards to a bay or creek that juts out 

 from the Manatee River; so we have a little 

 piece of salt water at the lower end of our 

 garden, where there are oysters and salt- 

 water fish. When the tide went out one 

 day, Raymond Rood, 11 years old, caught a 

 fish with his hands that made a nice supper 

 for the whole family. Well, one night after 

 I first took possession of my place 1 thought 

 I would have a bath in salt sea- water on my 

 own premises, without saying a word to any- 

 body. A rotten stump stood on the grassy 

 bank close to the edge of the water, and I 

 said, mentally, "Now, that stump will be just 

 the thing to hold all my clothing and keep it 

 nicely out of the dirt." I remember, too, 

 thinking that, as things were so extremely 

 handy, I would take a salt-water bath almost 

 every day. No, dear reader, that was over 

 three months ago; and, to tell the truth, I 

 haven't had my second salt-water bath yet. 

 In fact, I have scarcely gone near that part 

 of my premises, especially that particular 

 rotten stump. It makes me feel sad even yet 

 to think of it. I took my bath Saturday 

 night. Monday morning I confided the mat- 

 ter to Mr. Rood, and explained things by 

 showing him one of my ankles. 



"Red bugs!" he ejaculated; and after a 

 little questioning I told him about laying 

 my clothes on that rotten stump. A little 

 later I was itching all over so it took all my 

 time and both hands to scratch the place 

 that itched the worst. Another day, the 

 places I had scratched were scabby sores, 

 and any part of my body, almost, would 



