1894 



(} LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



881 



he is going to have all his dishes right side up 

 to catch the (low. 



The apiary lool<ed very neat and tidy by 

 moonlight, and I praised it so much that the 

 good wife said she almost believed I had better 

 not come around in the morning and see it by 

 daylight at all, for the clear light of day would 

 reveal much rubbish and confusion that I had 

 not seen. By the way, peach-trees seem to 

 grow with remarkable thrift and luxuriance all 

 along the Kansas and .Missouri line. At friend 

 Leonard's there was a large peach-tree with 

 such wide-spreading branches that I took a tape- 

 line and measured one of the limbs. It extend- 

 ed out from the trunk of the tree 20 feet and 9 

 inches. Doesn't this almost match the story 

 from our California friend in another column ? 



What is life without a home? If some of my 

 bachelor friends could catch such glimpses as I 

 do of home life, with all the children as much 

 interested as the father and mother in the bees. 

 garden, and fruits. I do not see how they could 

 stand it to live alone any longer. Not only 

 were these children interested in all that inter- 

 ested the father and mother, but the father and 

 mother seemed interested in all the studies and 

 juvenile pursuits of the children. Long live 

 the home I 



Next morning I visited Lee Emorick, of Ijone 

 Tree, Cass Co., Mo. He was not intending to 

 go to the farmers' institute, but at my urgent 

 solicitation he did so. He lives on a hill, or 

 high mound, such as they have in that part of 

 Missouri. In fact, in some directions one can 

 see away over into Kansas, for more than 40 

 miles, from a point right in his apiary. The 

 ground is so high he escaped most of the frost 

 last spring, and has secured something like two 

 tons of honey from forty or tifty colonies. He 

 has also the finest orchard, with tr^es all bend- 

 ing with beautiful luscious apples, that I think 

 I ever saw in my life. When I expressed fear 

 that it would not do for me to eat so many raw 

 apples, he took me to a tree of ramboes that 

 were just dead ripe, and declared that anybody 

 could eat as many ramljoes as he pleased, with- 

 out any injury. I was thirsty, and just hungry 

 for nice apples, after my long wheelrides. and I 

 tried the experiment of eating nice mellow 

 ramboes to my heart's content. They did not 

 hurt me a particle. In fact, they did not pro- 

 duce any eflfect except to make me feel well 

 and strong. 



Friend Emerick insisted on my looking at his 

 carp-ponds. There are five large ones — one 

 below another, besides some smaller ones on 

 different parts of his farm. He has been build- 

 ing them for several years, and now he has 

 water enough and tish enough. When I asked 

 him if he could afford to give so much good 

 land to be simply covered with water, he in- 

 formed me that he had about 600 acres, and 

 some of it might as well be under water as to 

 be devoted to any other use. 



Harrisonville is a very pretty Missouri county- 

 seat; but Cass Co. ought to have furnished at 

 least several hundred farmers who could profit- 

 ably attend the institute. I am afraid, how- 

 ever, there were less than half a hundred. Of 

 course, the attendance was larger during the 

 evening sessions; but these were largely made 

 up of the people from the town. Friend Abbott 

 gave his inimitable poultry talk. When it was 

 announced beforehand, I feared I should not be 

 very much interested in hearing how to keep 

 poultry; but Abbott's talk was a wonderful 

 surprise. He has the knack of combining good 

 sound sense and fun. I believe, in a larger de- 

 cree than any other speaker I ever heard; and 

 some of his sallies broke forth into some pretty 

 bright scintillations of oratory. His talk on 

 diseases of poultry ought to be worth large 



sums of luoney to such a .State as Missouri, 

 where poultry cuts such a figure among their 

 industries and commerce. 



Just before going to press we extract the fol- 

 lowing from Colman's /tural World, Oct. 25: 



Mr. Abljott's talk on "Poultry," as usual, was in- 

 structive and interesting', perliaps made more so by 

 Mr. Aljbott's eloquence. One of tiie greatest factors 

 in the success of this meeting' was the presence of 

 Mr. Root, of Ohio, who is an active and energetic 

 gentleman as tiorist and apiarist, and a man of vim 

 and vigor, wliose very presence inspires an audi- 

 ence His lecture on agriculture as related to api- 

 culture, and the need of advancement and progress, 

 was received in a manner most complimentary to 

 the speaker. 



I feel all the more thankful to get the above 

 kind notice because it comes from Dr. Ramsey, 

 whom I have before alluded to as giving such 

 valuable talks on the diseases of domestic ani- 

 mals. I think Dr. Ramsey must be a particular 

 friend of mine, and this accounts for his ex- 

 travagant words of praise. I presume the 

 word "florist" got in because I spoke about 

 growing crops under glass; and, if I am correct, 

 some one complained that I scarcely mentioned 

 bee culture at all. Friend Kellogg, from his 

 magnificent greenhouses at Pleasant Hill, pre- 

 sented the institute with an enormous bouquet, 

 perhaps the finest I ever saw in my life. 



C. J. Hostetter, of East Lynn, Mo., has a 

 windmill 2.5 feet across, which he uses for grind- 

 ing grain. It is not put up in the air as high as 

 it ought to be for his location; but, notwith- 

 standing, he says it has been quite a well-pay- 

 ing investment. It is true, he can not grind 

 unless the wind blows; but there are very few 

 days when he does not do more or less grinding. 

 He is at no expense whatever for an engineer: 

 and with his elevators and capacious grain- 

 bins he can leave it so as to grind alone when 

 the wind blows; and he often finds a wind has 

 sprung up in the night time, so that a grist is 

 ground, ready to be taken care of, when he 

 gets up in the morning. You may remember 

 that grinding grain by wind power is an old 

 hobby of mine, and I was very glad indeed to 

 find one man who has made a success of it. Of 

 course, the windmill must have some care. 

 One who is inclined to neglect his machinery, 

 leaving his mowing-machine and other tools in 

 the fence-corners during winter, had better not 

 invest in a windmill; but one who takes the 

 wind as one of God's precious gifts, and likes to 

 keep machinery in nice order, and every thing 

 slicked up in neat trim, will certainly find wind 

 power a very valuable thing where he has spare 

 time on his hands. 



Friend Hostetter is also something of a gar- 

 dener; and one of his ventures during the past 

 season was to raise onion-sets. He succeeded 

 so well that he has, or had on hand when I was 

 there, about 200 bushels. Now, I want you to 

 listen while I tell you of a mistake he made. 

 He had had no previous experience in raising 

 onion-sets at all, but launched out into a crop 

 of 200 bushels for his first venture; and from 

 his statement I am inclined to think that he 

 would have made a big success of it had he 

 harvested his crop before the fall rains set 

 in. The sets were of fair size, but many of 

 them were green and growing. He kept wait- 

 ing for the tops to die down on all of them, as 

 they had already done on a part of them, and 

 at this stage the rains came; and those that 

 were matured, and hard and firm, started again 

 and sent out new roots. When he saw what 

 they were doing he hustled them out of the 

 ground and spread them out on trays to dry. 

 But they had got started on a second growth, 

 and they seemed determined to grow in spite of 

 him. He will, however, by a good deal of la- 

 borious sorting, and spreading them out in 



