1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



555 



■ed state of affairs in Venezuela at that time, 

 however, prevented his getting his pay for his 

 services, and that caused 'him to give it up. 

 During this time he investigated very thor- 

 oughly the stingless bees of the tropics, and 

 wrote them up better than they had been 

 before. These stingless bees do actually 

 gather honey enough so it is an article of com- 

 merce. He said about three to four pounds 

 from a nest was, however, about as much as 

 he had ever secured. 



From Venezuela Mr. Morrison went all 

 through the West Indies, traveling over Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Hayti, Trinidad, and nobody knows 

 how many other islands. From the West 

 Indies, for some unknown reason he took a 

 sudden fancy to go to California, f Then for 

 the third time he swung back to Charleston, 

 S. C. Then a desire seized him to see the 

 metropolis of the New World, and we find 

 him establishing an apiary on the roof of the 

 building where he was staying in New York ; 

 and I believe one of our bee- journals has given 

 an account of the apiary that was kept for 

 over a year on the housetop with tolerable 

 success in the heart of the great city, said 

 apiary consisting of over 50 colonies. Finally 

 he became somewhat disgusted with the 

 Yankees and their ways of doing things. j 

 Now, he did not tell me that, but I rather 

 guess it; and, to tell the truth, I myself, al- 

 though a Yankee to the very backbone, have 

 been, especially in traveling, considerably dis- 

 pleased several times at some of the ways we 

 Yankees have of doing things. I do not mean 

 by this that there are any better people in the 

 world, all things considered ; but I do think 

 that the Yankees might learn some things of 

 other nations as well as having other nations 

 learn things of us, J, to our mutual advantage. 

 Friend Morrison finally took his fifty colonies 

 of bees down from the housetops and moved 

 them to Bermuda about three years ago, and 

 has been there ever since. Not a colony was 

 lost, and scarcely a bee was lost, although he 

 made the trip in the middle of the winter. 

 He gave as a reason for prolonging his stay in 

 Bermuda that his health has been better there 

 than ever before at any other place in all his 

 travels. True to his instincts he has succeed- 

 ed in getting a sort of experiment station 

 established on the island, without so much as 

 "thank you." During his travels he has 

 contributed at different times to the Aiiiej'ican 

 AgyicuUurist, Rural Neiv -Yorker^ Neivs and 

 Courier, Charleston, and various other jour- 

 nals. He visited England and Ireland before 

 he was 17 years old. His sttidies have given 

 him a deep insight into entomology, botany, 

 horticulture, biography, and government. 

 He can tell you how public affairs are man- 

 aged by almost every nation on the face of the 



fl was in New Orleans when the Italians were 

 lynched. 



X Several doctors advised me to leave on account of 

 the malaria in my system, my own desire being to 

 live in the West Indies, especially the island of 

 Grenada — the spice island ; but I had to come here 

 where there is no malaria. A cold climate does not 

 agree with me at all ; my system is apparently too 

 sensitive. I liked Washington, except its climate. 



g All other nations are in the same fix, I am afraid. 



earth; and when it comes to botany and horti- 

 culture he shows a wonderful familiarity with 

 almost all rare and costly plants found in dif- 

 ferent parts of the earth. Perhaps the island 

 of Bernmda gives a larger number of speci- 

 mens than almost any other place ; and espe- 

 cially are there more curious plants grouped 

 there in a small area than almost anywhere 

 else.* I fear that friend Morrison, like many 

 another capable man, is lessening his oppor- 

 tunities for good by giving way to that rest- 

 less disposition of his that prompts him to be 

 so constantly moving about. 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. I. R OOT. 



I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my 

 God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. — Psalm 

 84 : 10. 



In my talk thus far in regard to Bermuda 

 I have mentioned only the pleasant features 

 of the trip, and have, at least in some in- 

 stances, refrained from finding fault or from 

 telling of disagreeable things ; and so far as 

 Bermuda is concerned, and the people who 

 live in Bermuda, I shall have nothing to com- 

 plain of. The principal thing I saw to find 

 fault with was with our own American people 

 on the island and on the boat, especially with 

 the way in which the rich and fashionable — 

 the stylish people, if you choose — behave at 

 vacation time. Somebody may say, "Well, 

 Bro. Root, why not have your own vacation 

 after your fashion, and let the millionaires do 

 likewise after their own fashion ? " To this I 

 would heartily say, "All right." But, hold 

 on a bit. In taking my vacation after my own 

 fashion, I am sure I did not inconvenience 

 anybody else — at least, I took very great care 

 that I might not do so. Perhaps the trouble 

 is I am not built for fashionable society and 

 wealth. If so, then I thank God again that, 

 in the language of our text, I am not at all at 

 home in the tents of wickedness. I believe 

 there is a reform coming in methods of travel. 

 On the Pullman train running between New 

 York and Chicago I found a Pullman without 

 any smoking-room attached. You might go 

 all through the car, in and out, and not find a 

 scent of tobacco about it. But there was a 

 special car fitted up for the convenience of 

 tobacco-users. If I am correct, the W. C. T. 

 U. has had something to do with banishing 

 smoking entirely from cars made especially 

 for the use of ladies. 



On steamers, however, there is almost no 

 escaping the fumes of tobacco. Of course, 

 you might go down into the ladies' cabin; but 

 when one is seasick he wants the open air if 

 he ever does in his life, and he does not want 

 a heated cabin. You suggest the stateroom. 

 Well, when I lay down in my upper berth, 

 with the port-hole (or bullseye) wide open so 

 the wind could blow right in, I was for a time 



*This is a mistake. The West Indies are greatly 

 superior. 



