AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 279 



climatic, and after we have done our duty all must bow to wind and waves. Agri- 

 culturists and horticulturists have suffered equally, or even more than the bee- 

 keeper. Let us prepare to renew the battle all along the line. — Farm, Stock and 

 Home. ' Forestville, Minn. 



BBH-BUZZI]!^OS FROM BII^TMORE. 



BY ROBERT PESTELL. 



Agreeable to the request made in the Bee Journal of July 26th, asking : 

 "What have you learned this year in your apiary ? Have you discovered any new 

 kinks (or is ic kicks) that are worth knowing '?" I will endeavor to contribute my 

 portion. 



Biltmore, as many of the readers of the Bee Journal may know, is the name 

 given to the estate purchased by Mr. Geo. Vanderbilt, and is situated near Asheville, 

 N. C. The Baron de Alingo has the entire management of the agricultural opera- 

 tions here. He has, by his intelligently directed energy, made the once barren hill- 

 sides and unkempt valleys to blossom like a veritable Arcadia. Not until last 

 autumn did he lay the foundation of an apiary — some 30 colonies occupying dove- 

 tailed hives, being then purchased. Upon my arrival here, early in April last, I 

 found 17 colonies of the 30 living, they being in a very weak condition. The severe 

 frosts during the latter days of March rudely stripped the forest landscape of its 

 spring garment, reducing it to its winter costume, thereby utterly destroying all 

 outside bee-provender, so that it was only through the medium of heavy artificial 

 feeding that the bees were kept going. The continued drouth during the late 

 spring and early summer kept the thermometer of our honied hopes at a low ebb, 

 which has since, however, been raised almost to set fairly a most bountiful sour- 

 wood harvest, which we are yet enjoying. 



The colonies have been increased from 17 to a present number of 46, princi- 

 pally by nuclei and introduced queens. This increase, with the addition of some 

 considerable quantity of surplus honey, is encouraging. 



The accompanying sketch is one I have made of an old-time log-constructed 

 farm-house — one of the few old-timers remaining on the estate — where a portion of 

 the apiary is located. The barrels shown in the illustration have been committed 

 to the cellar preparatory for a brew, no further indication of bee-paralysis showing. 

 (See Mr. Thompson's article on barrels used as a cure for bee-paralysis, published 

 in the Bee Journal of July lUth.) 



Not a great distance from the old-fashioned homestead stands the palatial 

 residence of Mr. Geo. Vanderbilt, now nearing completion, and occupying a com- 

 manding situation overlooking the lovely and exceedingly fertile Frenchbroad 

 valley which is framed by a chain of Blueridge Mountains, bathing their sylvan- 

 clad summits in a soothing mist of azure. Through the valley meanders, like a 

 silver band, the Frenchbroad river, seemingly kept in bounds by the walls of the 

 forest which nestle on its brink. Traversing the woodlands of the valley are many 

 miles of undulating and gracefully, yet decidedly curved, carriage drives, which 

 have been surveyed and constructed under the direction of Mr. Geo. J. Weston. 

 Their windings constantly unfold to the vision of the traveller fresh vistas of forest 

 grandeur. 



Over this lovely landscape, and under a canopy of the bluest of blue skies, buzz 

 the bees of Biltmore. Biltmore, N. C, Aug. 5. 



[The pencil "sketch" mentioned above was received with the article, and, as 

 Mr. Pestell says, truly represents "an old-time farm-house." — Ei>itor. I 



