January, 1914. 



American Ve^ Journal 



the Agricultural College of Missouri. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Gadberry, 

 a committee was appointed to ask the 

 Board of Agriculture for an increase 

 of the present premiums at the State 

 Fair, to at least $500: in view of the 

 fact that the State of Minnesota gives 

 over $1000 for that purpose. 



The election of officers resulted as 



follows: President, J. W. Rouse; Vice- 

 President, H. C. Gadberry ; Secretary- 

 Treasurer, J F. Diemer. 



Such meetings are very pleasant and 

 exceedingly useful. But they should be 

 more fully attended. Instead of 2.5 or 

 30, there should be 1.50 beekeepers in 

 attendance. Those who fail to attend 

 do not realize how mucli they miss. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



Traveling Through France f 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



WE left Paris on July 14, which, as 

 explained before, is the same 

 as our American 4th. We 

 wanted to avoid the crowds 

 and get a good night of sleep. 

 The streets were filling, the flags 

 swinging, and the soldiers marching 

 towards the field of Longchamps, for 

 the annual parade. We turned our 

 backs on all this and took a train, via 

 Reims, for Grandpre, in northeastern 

 France. The surroundings of Paris 

 are beautiful, and on the way we ad- 

 mired the avenues, the gardens, the 

 groves, which show training beyond 

 our American ways. Wife had no idea 

 of the curious shapes into which trees 

 may be trained and trimmed, and of 

 the possibility of having shaded ave- 

 nues in which not a single limb is al- 

 lowed to extend farther than the others 

 to the distance of 6 inches. 



The trip from Paris to Reims, 98 

 miles, was made in 2 hours. But be- 

 yond that, we were in a local train 

 which made 20 stops, and took exactly 

 2K hours to cover 40 miles. This was 

 commented upon by an American 

 traveler, who remarked that if they had 

 kept on at the same rate as at first, 

 they would have run clear out of 

 France, into Belgium, before the time 

 was up. 



Grandpre (see the cuts) is on a hill- 

 side, crowded together as are most 

 European villages, with the church in 

 the center and the inevitable castle on 

 the hill overlooking the village. The 

 church, of the 16th century, contains 

 the tombs of the dukes De Joyeuse. 



At the station house a limping, old 

 man, pushing a wheelbarrow in front 

 of him, offered to guide us to the hotel. 

 As there are two hotels in this small 

 place, there is a little competition, and 

 our porter secured a glass of wine as a 

 reward from the landlady, for guiding 

 us to the hotel Didion, the farthest 

 house in the rear of the picture below 

 the castle. The old lady, a kindly look- 

 ing, bearded woman, informed us that 

 the price of her best room, with two 

 beds was 1 franc .50, or 30 cents. The 

 meals were .50 cents each. This we 

 thought rather high in a country place, 

 but when dinner was served, with six 

 courses, in a quaint dining-room all to 

 ourselves, we thought it cheap enough. 



If the reader will refer to the Sep- 

 tember account of our voyage, he will 

 see that our trip to Grandpre was for 



'■the purpose of visiting the birth place 

 [Sof my wife's mother, and if possible 

 [.'ascertain whether there were any rela- 

 ': fives of hers still living there. So, 

 after our meal, we called the hostess 

 and began asking questions. She 

 directed us, at our request, to one of 

 the oldest ladies in the village, and we 

 were soon informed that we still had 

 in this village two second cousins. All 

 doubts were removed when, upon 

 further enquiry, we were told by the 

 cousins in question that they had heard 

 their grandmother say that she had 

 relatives in America who kept a large 

 lot of bees. The family pictures were 

 brought out ; we e.xhibited some which 

 we had brought ourselves, and this 

 made matters clear. It was over 20 

 years since any correspondence had 

 been exchanged, and the old folks 

 were all dead. But the acquaintance 

 was joyfully renewed, with much won- 

 der on their part that any one should 

 come so far to seejrelatives. 



The rest of that day was spent in 

 meeting French_peasants, visiting their 

 homes, their pretty gardens, narrow 

 lanes, green paths and white roads. 



When evening came, our expected 

 restful night was apparently jeopar- 

 dized by a ball on the public square 

 shown in the picture, right in front of 

 the hotel, exactly in the same fashion 

 as the free-for-all balls of the Paris 

 celebration. We realized then that the 

 whole of France had a dancing floor 



that night wherever a smooth public 

 square was found. But at 11 o'clock it 

 rained, and this put an end to the ball, 

 so we had a peaceful night after all. 



I reported in the September number 

 visiting a beekeeper, who is also a 

 candle-maker in that village. His skill 

 is remarkable in making beautiful 

 white wax candles, with fine wax orna- 

 ments that resemble leaves and blos- 

 soms, mouldings, etc. ; the whole thing 

 with the help of only a few tools of his 

 own devising. But is this any more 

 wonderful than the hand carving of 

 the magnificent stone sculptures so 

 delicate and gauze like that we saw 

 everywhere in the Old World ? 



This man's bees are in his back lot, 

 a pretty vegetable garden surrounded, 

 as usual, with old mossy walls. Every 

 inch of available space is in use, the 

 walls even being latticed, and fruit- 

 trees trained and fastened to the trellis. 

 The production of e.xtracted honey is 

 almost universal there, and he uses our 

 half-stor) method of extracting supers. 

 Our name was very familiar to him, 

 since he uses our hive. Their crops 

 are not large, the yield being confined 

 to some varieties of centaurea, bass- 

 wood, a little alfalfa and white clover. 

 In reply to my questions concerning 

 the May disease, our so-called paraly- 

 sis, he called it vertigo, and ascribed 

 its existence to the honey of the "cen- 

 taurea jacea." As this disease exists 

 in difTerent countries with entirely 

 different flora, I believe that opinion 

 erroneous. 



His method of fastening foundation 

 is rather remarkable. He uses in the 

 brood frames a horizontal wire within 

 a quarter inch (5 millimeters) of the 

 underside of the top-bar. He holds 

 very rationally that, since the greater 

 part of the strain is supported by the 

 upper portion of the sheet, it is this 

 part which must be strengthened. As 

 a rule, we place the top wire too low in 

 the frame. He and most other manu- 

 facturers work their foundation at 

 home with a Rietsche press. It uses 

 about twice as much wax as the cylin- 

 ders. It does not seem profitable. 



After another day partly spent in 

 this pretty village, and a visit to the old 



0R»NDPR4(Af.l«iiii«>). . Voc ([.oir.lc. 



Bird's eye view of the old villak'e of Grandpre 



