GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



friends Elvey and Carey took their guns and 

 went off for a hunt, I visited friend Cassner's 

 garden and fruit-orchards, all of which are 

 kept booming under the Influence of this bab- 

 bling brook. The growth of apple-trees, apri- 

 cots, peach, pear, cherry, and every thing else 

 up in the*e mountains, is absolutely wonderful. 

 Let me give you some figures. I was shown 

 one apricot-tree that had yielded ^.W 00 worth 

 of fruit during the past season: one Ben Davis 

 apple-tree only nine years old, the fruit from 

 which brought 825.00 during the past season. 

 Four peach-trees bore a ton of peaches. In the 

 garden, eight rows of peppers, each row 30 steps 

 lone, yielded S.50 00 worth of peppers, and they 

 were sold at 10 cts. per lb. Now, one secret of 

 the large amounts received is, that almost all 

 kinds of fruit brought at Flagstaff and Jerome 

 8 or 10 cts. per lb. The owner says he received 

 about S1.500 from the fruit grown on four or five 

 acres right around his little home. 



Now, before you all get the fever for moving 

 out on some of these mountain canyons to get 

 rich raising fruit, let me tell you that this fruit 

 had to be all hauled over mountain roads from 

 30 to 50 miles. There are nine children in the 

 Cassner home; and, as nearly as I can make 

 out, pretty much all of the nine were busy dur- 

 ing fruit time, gathering fruit and getting it 

 to the city markets. I know the prices men- 

 tioned are not very much out of the way. be- 

 cause while I was present in one of the mining 

 towns a little girl came in and said her ma 

 wanted 50 cents' worth of apples. Now, if a 

 customer should give me such an order I should 

 want a stout man with a wheelbarrow to deliv- 

 er the .50 cents' worth. Not so in this case. 

 The storekeeper put the few apples into a com- 

 mon tin grocery-scoop. He weighed them up 

 as he would tea and coffee, put them into a 

 paper bag. and the little girl carried them home 

 without very much trouble. She got 5 lbs. of 

 apples for her half-dollar. Why not ship apples 

 into these mining towns, from the East? Well, 

 it is the old story of the awful freights. In one 

 of these raining towns they tell a story of a 

 peddler who wanted 5 cts. apiece for some sew- 

 ing-needles. When his customer remonstrated 

 he said it was as low as they could possibly be 

 sold, on account of the expense of shipping so 

 far over the mountains! 



Now. there is something exceedingly strange 

 about these mountain-canyon homes. I sup- 

 posed I had seen all of the fruit- orchards; but 

 my comrade said he had another nice little 

 strip of orchard over there by the creek. 



"But," said I. "there is no room for an or- 

 chard. On the further side there are the rocky 

 cliffs close up to the water, and we have already 

 seen every thins there is on this side." 



"Oh!" said he, "you will find quite a little 

 strip of wonderfully nice ground when we get 

 there." 



And when we did " get there," sure enough, 

 there it was. After we had seen the fruit-trees 

 with their wonderfully luxuriant growth, we 

 sat down by the donr and tasted some of the 

 beautiful apples. Although it was in the 

 month of January, they were as crisp and 

 delicious as any apple I ever tasted picked 

 right from the tree. In fact, it seemed that 

 day as if they were the handsomest and most 

 luscious apples I had ever tasted in my life. I 

 did not wonder then so much that people were 

 willing to give 10 cts. per lb. for them. 



I expressed a wish to see the wonderful spring 

 where this babbling brook came out of the 

 mountain-side. All the time it looked to me 

 exactly as if we were walking down hill while 

 the brook was running up hill to meet us. It 

 looked down hill; but when I tried to walk I 



could not get along as easily as on'* does in 

 going down hill in reality. The spring came 

 out of the rocky mountain in several places, 

 making the moss, grass, and other vegetation 

 grow with wonderful luxuriance wherever it 

 laved them with its magic touch. The banks 

 to keep the irrigating water within bounds are 

 sometimes very frail, and, it seemed to me, in- 

 secure. But evervbody has learned to be care- 

 ful. If in jumping across the bi-ook you should 

 put your foot on the soft edge of the bank, you 

 might let all the water get away in a hurry: 

 but, as I have said, every one learns to be 

 careful. 



After I had finished my visit I jumped on my 

 wheel and rode along beside the babbling brook. 

 Oh, yes! sure enough, the wheel tells very 

 quickly which way is down hill and which is 

 up. Hills that looked too steep to climb up in 

 going one direction were surmounted without 

 any effort at all; but if you are going the other 

 way, a hill that seemed very moderate to the 

 eye would make you puff and blow till you 

 decided to give it up and walk. I can not tell 

 why these mountain canyons confuse one's 

 ordinary judgment in this matter of up hill and 

 down. There is something weird and enchant- 

 ing about the whole matter. Mr. Cassner has 

 the last dwelling-place up in the canyon. In 

 fact, the road ends at his little plantation. I 

 suppose there are hundreds of other places 

 where wonderful results could be accomplished 

 in the way of gardening and fruit-growing; but 

 the great trouble at present is the enormous 

 expense of getting your produce to market. 



Our Homes. 



Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth 

 all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from de- 

 struction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness 

 and tender mercies.— Psalm 103:3, 4. J 



I returned from my western trip so asi^to 

 reach home Saturday morning, Jan. 16. Sev- 

 eral had cautioned me about going north right 

 in the depth of the winter, especially in regard 

 to the sudden transition from a warm or tropi- 

 cal climate to the cold Ohio winters. Saturday 

 was a rather mild day for January, and I went 

 all around home looking after things, feeling 

 about as well as usual. Sunday morning I dis- 

 covered I had taken cold. I went to church in 

 the morning, but on the way home I felt pretty 

 well satisfied that something was the matter. 

 Next day a doctor was called, and he said my 

 old trouble, malarial fever, had got hold of me, 

 together with a very severe cold. He said I 

 should have to keep warm, and not even look 

 out of doors. He did not tell me my disease 

 was grip; but from what I had heard of it I 

 decided it must be "grip" for sure. At any 

 rate, some tremendous thing was gripping at 

 my vitals in a way I believe I had never experi- 

 enced before. By the time our blizzard got 

 along, 16 degrees below zero, I felt pretty sick. 

 I do not know what gave me such a terrible 

 cold unless it was the sudden transition. I was 

 whirled from New Orleans up to my home here 

 in Northern Ohio in just about 26 hours, thanks 

 to the L. & N. R. R. I was well bundled up, 

 and can not understand even now just how or 

 why I caught such a cold; but I do know that. 

 In a few brief days, my physical strength and 

 energy seemed entirely gone, and I fell aston- 

 ished to find my spiritual life also dwindling 

 away, as it were. Iremember of feeling strong- 

 ly i in pressed that a sick-bed was not the best 

 place in the world for one to make his peace 



