1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



407 



There are some good beekeepers among the colored population of the South 



up to the front in development. 

 There is a great diversity of condi- 

 tions within the State, and a visitor 

 to an isolated locality might find 

 things very backward, but one who 

 travels in all parts of the common- 

 wealth and sees the best as well as 

 the worst, will be convinced that 

 Mississippi is in advance of some of 

 the States which have made more 

 noise about what they are doing. 

 There are many side-1'ghts on the 

 trip which must be passed over for 

 lack of space; the delightful hos- 

 pitality of the people, the big planta- 

 tions with their magnificent old 

 mansions, and many delightful hours 

 spent afield, will long remain as 

 pleasant memories of the land of 

 cotton. 



exposing a set of teeth that a young 

 man would have been proud of. He 

 called our attention to his rose beds 

 that he might be justly proud of, 

 then to his home apiary. In twenty 

 minutes of visit my ideal was fully 

 realized. We bade him farewell and 

 started away in silence. 



I had not been disappointed, but I 

 wanted to hear what my wife had to 

 say. Before we reached the public 

 highway she spoke: "Isn't he a 

 nice, clean old man?" I cannot recall 

 a single act of my life that gave me 

 more pleasure than this short visit 

 with Dr. C. C. Miller. 



P. B. McCABE, 



Elburn, 111. 



MY FIRST AND LAST MEETING 

 WITH DR. MILLER 



I procured a copy of Dr. Miller's 

 "Forty Years Among the Bees" in 

 1909. and through it and his other 

 writings I have become a great ad- 

 mirer of the man, to such an extent 

 that my wife suggested that, since 

 we lived but 25 miles from Marengo, 

 we should become personally ac- 

 quainted with him. So on a Sunday 

 in August, we motored to Marengo. 



Arriving at the town, we enquired 

 for his home. At the gate, however, 

 I hesitated, under the impression that 

 the Doctor might be very much re- 

 served in his home life, and having 

 also learned that he had been sick. 

 But we disliked to turn back after 

 coming this far. So we drove up a 

 long avenue of basswood trees, to the 

 home. Everything looked just as de- 

 scribed in his book. We drove to 

 the well and took a drink. By that 

 time the Doctor came out. No in- 

 troduction was needed. It seemed as 

 if I had known him always, although 

 he seemed very weak. He walked 

 up to our car, shook hands and ex- 

 plained to my wife that he had an 

 affection of the heart from which he 

 did not expect to recover. He smiled. 



MALLOW AS A HONEY PLANT 



From G. G. Aylmer, of Quebec, 

 Canada, we received a specimen of 

 the common mallow, with the state- 

 ment that it is very attractive to his 



bees. The common mallow, also 

 called Dutch cheese, doll cheese, 

 fairy cheese, and sometimes cheeses 

 (from the shape of the small seed 

 pod), as well as blue mallow, is a 

 widely distributed weed introduced 

 from Europe and generally natural- 

 ized in this country. It grows com- 

 monly along railroads, in barn lots 

 and waste places. It blooms 

 tlirough a long period, and at this 

 writing (Oct. 27) is still in bloom 

 here at Hamilton. The letter men- 

 tions the fact that it blooms there in 

 September, and this year, because of 

 the mild weather, into October. It is 

 probable that the bees were at- 

 tracted to it at a time when there 

 was little else on which they oould 

 work. While bees work upon it to 

 some extent, the writer regards it of 

 little value as a source of nectar. If 

 any beekeepers have found it other- 

 wise we would be glad of the infor- 

 mation. — F. C. P. 



MORE ABOUT LAVENDER 



On page 375 of our November is- 

 sue is a short note concerning lav- 

 ender, together with a picture of 

 the plant in bloom. The plant is ex- 

 tensively cultivated in some coun- 

 tries for the oil which is derived 

 from it. Von Mueller, in his book on 

 "Extra Tropical Plants," which is 

 published by the government at Mel- 

 bourne, Australia, states that one 

 species of lavender, Lavandula Stoe- 

 chas, is one of the best plants to hold 

 light, sandy soils, and it is also esti- 

 mated that one acre of it will enable 

 the bees to store a ton of the finest 

 flavored honey every year. A plant 

 which may become the source of a 

 ton of honey per year from each 

 acre is well worthy the attention of 

 the beekeeper. Since lavender is 

 cultivated for commercial purposes 

 entirely aside from its honey, it 

 might very profitably be tried out in 

 this country. 



Mexican clover covers the ground in Gulf Coast tields 



