554 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 15. 



NOTES QF TRAVEL 



^^^ru^^i^^-^S:^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAI, SKETCH OF W. K. MORRISON. 

 Mr. Morrison is a vScotchmaii by birth. He 

 kept bees to some extent in Scotland before 

 coming to the United States, and had bees 

 when eight years old. He left Scotland when 

 17 years of age. He has always been of a 

 rambling disposition, and an enthusiastic 

 traveler. His first stop in the United States 

 was at Pittsburgh. Lati r he settled down at 

 Bellaire, Belmont Co., Ohio, where he follow- 

 ed bee-keeping for about four years ; and 

 although he was right on the line of a railway 

 that runs through Medina, for some unknown 

 reason he never got around to make a call at 

 the Home of the Honey bees. After leaving 

 Bellaire he went to Baltimore and then to 

 other points in Maryland. Finally he got 

 into business in a canning-factory in Greens- 

 boro, Md., where he stayed one year. Then 

 he went to Port Royal, S. C. 



w. K. MORRISON. 



During these early years he spent most of 

 the time in experimenting with things he was 

 curious about. He finally "fetched up " at 

 Charleston, just in time to be on hand for the 

 earthquake; and from the conversation I had 

 with him I think his appetite for the curious 

 and wonderful was pretty well satisfied for a 

 time. He says he looked down into the 

 crevices and chasms made by the earthquake, 

 and stayed there (as book-keeper of the 

 Charleston Bagging Mfg. Co.) studying the 

 matter, not only till the earthquake was all 

 over, but until the ill-fated city was pretty 

 well fixed up and put in running order again. 

 Then, being curious about Florida, he visited 

 our friend W. S. Hart, and also stopped for a 



time at Daytona, Fla. From Daytona he 

 walked through the woods across the un- 

 broken wilderness over to the west side. After 

 staying one winter in Florida he was back 

 again in Charleston. Of course, it needed 

 some means to do so much traveling ; and, if 

 I am correct, the money he had brought with 

 him from the old country (besides a good deal 

 he earned in Charleston) began to run short; 

 but he had such an intense longing to see the 

 great West that he procured a stereopticon 

 and began to give lectures on scientific sub- 

 jects. My talk with him brought vividly to 

 mind the time when the writer was traveling 

 about and seeing the world, and paying his 

 way by giving lectures, or, rather, familiar 

 talks, on chemistry and electricity. With the 

 stereopticon and the lectures he made his way 

 to Denver, Col., and while there he became 

 interested in galena-mining. He became a 

 student at the State School of Mines. In the 

 pursuit of these studies he was employed by 

 the railroad company to visit various mines, 

 and the State afterward paid his expenses 

 while he went about giving lectures on chem- 

 istry, especially that part of chemistry that 

 properly belongs to geology and agriculture. 

 These studies seem to have turned his atten- 

 tion again to the head of our nation, for we 

 find him back in Washington, D. C, in a 

 book-shop and printing-office. While there 

 he became acquainted with many well-known 

 public officials. Most of you will remember 

 Nellie L. Rossiter's little book on the care of 

 silkworms. Mr. Morrison thinks more than 

 .?20,000 was wasted by the government in try- 

 ing to develop the silk industry. My opinion 

 is, however, that, if they never waste money 

 in a worse way than that, they will do pretty 

 well. 



While at Washington he became intimately 

 acquainted with Senator Teller, Secretary 

 Rusk, Senator Plumb, and others. As he 

 still held on to his interest in bee culture, at 

 an opportune time, as it seemed to him, 

 he was permitted to urge that an appropria- 

 tion of S5000 be made for the benefit of bee 

 culture in the United States, and he was suc- 

 cessful in securing this appropriation. Prof. 

 Cook took hold of it about a year after the 

 money was given, and I do not know but 

 friend Cook had the credit of it, although Mr. 

 Morrison, if I am correct, was the first mover 

 in the matter, and the one who finally secured 

 the enactment * 



When in Washington he became acquainted 

 with the embassador from Venezuela, Nicolas 

 Bolet Peraza, and finally succeeded in secur- 

 ing an appointment as apiarist to the United 

 States of Venezuela. He accordingly left the 

 United States and spent one year in Venezuela 

 in trying to introduce improved bee culture 

 in that part of S^uth America. The disturb- 



* Friend Morrison, in reviewing this biographical 

 sketch, adds here the following footnote, and also the 

 others appended to this sketch. — A. I. R. 



Besides myself and the secretary, no one knew. Dr. 

 Tinker was "the first to know. Secretary Rusk pledg- 

 ed the Senate Committee not to spend money on the 

 study of wild bees, but to put the money to practical 

 purpo.ses. Prof. Riley did not like this. Secretary 

 Rusk also pledged himself in writing that I should be 

 the first appointee. — W. K. M. 



