1134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



I feel as though my letter would be more com- 

 plete if I were to go back a little. 



When Leon F. Howden was four years of age 

 he fell from a chair on a hard floor and sustained 

 a bruise on the hip which caused blood-poison- 

 ing and a psoas abcess, and, later, diseased bone 

 beneath it. When he was taken down with this 

 trouble he was a fat, rugged boy, and weighed 

 50 pounds. The abcess was not properly drain- 

 ed at the start, and the blood soon conveyed puss 

 to other parts of his body until other abcesses of 

 like nature appeared one at a time for a period of 



1 A \ K 



bLL 



COVEVOU S AGITATOR FOR HONL"i-in\M\ 

 PAGE 1067, SEPT. 1. 

 The movement of the parts in opposite directions causes the honey to circu 

 late freely, so that the whole mass is Icept at the same temperature. 



two years, until he had had twelve of them in all. 

 Several of them were so deep-seated that, while 

 they were gathering, they caused an unusually 

 high temperature, and some even started on the 

 bone, not healing for months, and then only 

 when pieces of bone had been discharged through 

 the openings. 



Many noted doctors and surgeons of the country 

 pronounced the boy incurable. He underwent 

 seven operations at his home, some of which 

 were of two hours' duration. When he had im- 

 proved a little, but before he was able to walk 



again, his parents took him in their arms and 

 went by train to Rochester to consult Dr. E. M. 

 Moore, at that time an old, white-haired, feeble 

 man, but one who had been one of the greatest 

 surgeons known in Western New York. At that 

 time Dr. Moore said the only thing to do was to 

 get that dead bone out of the boy's hip. If it 

 couldn't be done at one operation, another trial 

 should be made. He was brought back home 

 without the operation at that time, but was later 

 operated upon by a son of the former surgeon. 

 At this time Leon was away from home, and was 

 in the hospital bed two weeks. He 

 was in the General Hospital in Buf- 

 falo two weeks at a time, two differ- 

 ent times, and each time was operat- 

 ed on. He took chloroform twelve 

 times in all. 



When he commenced to gain, his 

 weight was 25 pounds; and at 15 

 years of age he was sickly and far 

 from being able to work on the farm 

 with his father and brothers. It 

 happened, however, that a near rel- 

 ative was about to go out of the 

 bee business, having 24 colonies of 

 bees in good double-walled hives. 

 These were bought by his father, 

 with 50 good empty hives, for 

 $40.00. Because of Leon's condi- 

 tion they were brought home and 

 turned over to him for his own. In 

 a short time he showed an unmis- 

 takable interest in the bees, and his 

 parents were sure that he would be 

 successful with them if he had the 

 strength to take care of them. He 

 soon had a copy of the A B C of 

 Bee Culture, and a little later sub- 

 scribed for Gleanings. His moth- 

 er says that it always brings a 

 smile to Leon's face when he comes 

 in and finds on the stand a new 

 Gleanings. 



Well, he kept improving in 

 health until the last thing to do 

 was to have a piece of skin the size 

 of a silver dollar taken from one of 

 his limbs and grafted on to a sore 

 that would not heal, which was on 

 the other limb, just above the 

 ankle. Now he is 20 years of age, 

 standing by his bench near his oil- 

 stove in his honey-room folding 

 sections and putting in foundation 

 at the rate of over a thousand a 

 day. In one day recently he put 

 together 40 honey -boards of 33 

 pieces each, driving 90 nails in each 

 board. From the little fever-burned boy of 25 

 pounds he now tips the scales at 160, weighing 

 the most of any one person in the whole Howden 

 families. He is hearty and strong, and always 

 wants a good big chunk of candied honey near 

 his plate at meal time. Last season he sold nearly 

 a full carload of good to fancy comb honey; be- 

 sides that, he extracted and sold to his friends 

 and neighbors 12,000 pounds. He has 250 col- 

 onies of bees. Leon aspires to be tne greatest 

 producer of fancy comb honey in the State. 

 Fillmore, N. Y. 



