1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



913 



after which thej- are weaned and given a 

 coarser food. For further particulars in regard 

 to these views, see Cheshire, Vol. I., page 81, 

 and Cowan on the Honey-bee, page 131. After 

 carefully reading and weighing the arguments 

 of both, we favor the view that royal jelly is 

 the product of the chyle-stomach— that is, a 

 mixture of honey, pollen, and water, digested in 

 the stomach of young worker bees, and. by 

 them after regurgitation, dispensed to the 

 larva?.J 



RAMBLE NO. 48. 



WITH DK. MASON AND E. E. HASTY. 



From Medina I pi-oposed to go to Michigan. 

 In looking up the best way with E. R. Root he 

 advised the Toledo route and a call upon Dr. 

 A. B. Mason. The advice struck the Rambler 

 as eminently agreeable, and a few hours after- 

 ward found me inspecting the streets of the 

 lively city of Toledo. Auburndale is a suburb 

 of the city, and readily reached by street-car. 

 This little town has long been known the coun- 

 try over as Wagonworks. Tiiis is a very com- 

 mon and homely name, and very suggestive as 

 to how and why the place was founded, the 

 wagon-business having grown to immense pro- 

 portions, and having drawn much other busi- 

 ness to its side. The inhabitants have become 

 very refined and poetical. They could no 

 longer endure the idea that a cart was the 

 foundation of all their prosperity, and the name 

 has therefore been changed to Auburndale. 



DR. MASON BEHIND THE BARS OF A HEXAGON 

 POSTOFFICE. 



If an old resident is asked the name of the 

 town he will unthinkingly commence with a 

 loud coarse Wa — ; but the sound warns him, 

 and. giving his lips a poetical twist, he says in a 

 subdued tone. "This is Auburndale." It is 

 evident that this place will soon be absorbed 

 by the rapid growth of Toledo, and then Au- 

 burndale too will have to go. 



Dr. Mason is at present serving his country 

 by regulating the Auburndale postoffice at a 

 salary almost any bee-keeper would be willing 

 to receive. I found him, at the time of my call, 



a close prisoner to his duties. I stepped into 

 the office, and, putting my nose up to the deliv- 

 ery window, says I. " Is there any mail here for 

 John Doe or Richard Roe?" 



He gave a brief look at the nose, and said. 

 "Come around, Mr. Rambler, and sit down." 



As this was our first meeting it is an enigma 

 to the Rambler to know how Dr. Mason so 

 quickly recognized me. I spent a very pleasant 

 afternoon in the postoffice. Dr. M. was busy a 

 good share of the time, dispensing mail, knowl- 

 edge, and jokes to his numerous callers. He 



DR. MASON S APIARY. 



seemed to be on the best of terms with every 

 man, woman, and child, and especially the girls, 

 and they all went away well pleased and smil- 

 ing, and some smiled till they crossed the street, 

 whether they received any mail or not. Dr. M. 

 had quite a trade in miscellaneous letters, or to 

 those who had no box. He would carefully look 

 over the pile under the letter called for every 

 time. 



" Why," Dr. M., said I, " that's the eleventh 

 time you have looked that pile over, and you 

 knew that man had no letter. Why didn't you 

 tell him so, and let him go about his business?" 



" But," said he, " that would not satisfy the 

 man. He sees me shuffle the letters over, and 

 goes away perfectly satisfied: whereas if I had 

 merely said ' No letter,' the fellow would have 

 gone off muttering hard things against the 

 government. The honor of this great nation 

 has to be defended. Her fiag must not trail in 

 the dust; so I make it my duty to send every- 

 body away feeling happy toward Uncle Sam.'"' 



Any person would readily observe that a bee- 

 keeper was running this ofifice, for the boxes 

 are all put in hexagonally,as will be seen. The 

 advantage, as explained by the doctor, is, that 

 the letters can not get down flat, and are always 

 in sight, and easily grasped and delivered; so 

 " hexagony" is not only a fine thing for an api- 

 ary but also for the government. 



At the time of my call. Dr. Mason was con- 

 fined to his duties with unusual severity. His 

 son, who is deputy, was east on a vacation trip: 

 and from early morn until late at night the doc- 

 tor was at his post, relieved occasionally by his 

 wife and daughter, and a lunch - basket, of 

 which we all partook more or less. Dr. M. has 

 a very pleasant home in the suburbs of Wa — 

 Auburndale, and in the rear we found his apia- 

 ry, the lawn surrounding them being very 

 smooth and pretty. Dr. M. has reduced his 

 number of colonies, and is not making honey 

 production so much of a specialty as formerly. 



In the early morning, after witnessing the 

 doctor milk his Jersey cow, the camera was 

 brought to bear on the apiary and Dr. M., and I 

 give you the result. He appears to be perfectly 

 at home in the midst of his portico L. hives. 

 That morning he said. " You must go out and 



