850 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



NOTES OF TRAVLL 



i BY A. I. ROOT. 



THE SMAIXEST ELECTRIC-LIGHT PLANT IN 

 THE WORLD. 

 While visiting with the ladies at Mr. Mc- 

 Kay's, in the little town of Gardiner, I hap- 

 pened to glance out the back door, and caught 

 a glimpse of the Yellowstone River. In re- 

 ply to some questions, Mrs. McKay said the 

 Yellowstone and the Gardiner Rivers united 

 just at the foot of the mountain, and I soon 

 climVjed down. The first thing that met my 

 sight was a man wading in the clear water of 

 the Gardiner River, fixing up a sort of dam 

 with stones, to turn a part of the water into a 

 sort of race, or irrigating-ditch, that ran along 

 the side of the hill; but the speed of the water 

 along this flume, or race, made me think it 

 was not for irrigating purposes after all. The 

 stranger informed me, in answer to my ques- 

 tions, that this water in the race carried a lit- 

 tle water-wheel that pumped water up into 

 the town, and also carried a little electric- 

 light plant. He said he had been told that 

 it was the smallest electric-light plant in the 

 world. He courteously showed me over the 

 plant, and started it up. The water-wheel 

 was only an ordinary overshot wheel, much 

 like the old-fashioned water-mills. It could 

 be arranged to run the pump or a dynamo, 

 either one or both together. The current ran 

 up the hill, then branched out around the 

 town to light the houses. It seems to me the 

 expense of the whole plant could not very 

 much have exceeded 8500, and yet here were 

 water and light both, carried up the hill to 

 the little village of perhaps a hundred inhab- 

 itants. 



BOZEMAN, MONTANA, AND ITS VICINITY. 



In the Home Paper in our last issue I spoke 

 of crossing the Rocky Mountains on my 

 wheel, for I found that it was indeed the 

 Rocky Mountains up one side of which I 

 climbed and then down the other, after that 

 precious gift of physical strength — at least the 

 little book called "Wonder Land," published 

 by the Northern Pacific R. R. Co., says it was 

 the Rocky Mountains. Over the mountains 

 on the western side I came down into the 

 Gallatin Valley; and going down that moun- 

 tain canyon was one of ihe most delightful 

 experiences I ever had in my travels. A great 

 part of the road is cut in the mountain side, 

 and it runs around first to one side and then 

 the other, all the way going down hill ; and 

 there is something strange and weird in this 

 queer thing I have mentioned before, where 

 you get your sense of level mixed up. At 

 several points it seemed as if the crooked 

 roadway, and railroad as well, were really 

 running down into a frightful abyss to the 

 interior of the earth. If somebody had told 

 me there was a spot in the world where a 

 great hole went down to China by a zigzag 

 course, I should have said this was the very 

 spot. Several times I alighted from my wheel 



and looked down into that awful abyss with 

 open eyes and open-mouthed astonishment. 

 I knew it must be a sort of optical illusion, 

 but it was just as grand, nevertheless. It 

 reall}^ seemed as if my wheel would pitch 

 headlong down this tremendous incline in 

 spite of brake or any thing else — that is, it 

 looked that way ; but I knew by the effort to 

 hold the wheel back that it was not so very 

 steep after all.* 



Part way down the incline there is one of 

 the most beautiful springs I ever saw any- 

 where on the face of the earth; and this is a 

 real cold-water spring. It comes out from 

 the side of a great sandy rock or mountain; 

 and the prettiest part of it is, the whole sur- 

 face of the water is covered with a most mag- 

 nificent growth of water-cress. I ate cress 

 and drank spring water, and bathed my hands 

 and face in the cooling liquid again and 

 again. When you get clear down into the 

 valley, the winding road goes off through 

 shady woods alternated with fields of alfalfa 

 and other grains. 



It was a little after dinner-time when I 

 reached the beautiful town of Bozeman. Here 

 we have fine buildings, street railwa)-s, and 

 almost all the improvements of an Eastern 

 city. A little out of Bozeman, at the ter- 

 minus of the electric railway, is the Montana 

 Experiment Station. I had letters to some of 

 the prominent citizens, and they very kindly 

 left their business and went out with me to 

 visit the station. The very first thing that 

 caught my eye on entering the grounds was a 

 plot of white clover grown by irrigation. I 

 wish the bee-keepers of our land could all 

 have a glimpse of this, and see what is possi- 

 ble in the way of growing clover. The heads 

 were so exceedingly large that I should have 

 called it a field of red clover had it not been 

 for the shape of the leaves and blossoms I 

 am gieatly indebted to Prof. S. M. Emory for 

 his very kind services in showing me over the 

 grounds as he did during my limited stay. To 

 tell -the truth, I should not have visited the 

 experiment station at all had it not been for 

 the fact that I had laid my plans so as not to 

 travel on Sunday, so I had Friday and Satur- 

 day for explorations through the Gallatin Val- 

 ley. It is a little singular that there are spe- 

 cial localities in this great land of ours that 

 arc fitted for some one particular crop better 

 than any thing else. Now, this valley seems 

 to be the great place above all others for 

 growing barley. W^e are told that 14,000,000 

 lbs. was shipped to Europe in 1896. It is also 

 a great wheat country. Prof. Emory said, 

 "Mr. Root, you can not grow wheat in the 

 East for fifty cents a bushel; but we can grow 

 it here in Montana at that price and do well." 

 In fact, winter grains, all of them, can be 

 grown nicely without irrigation. Here in 

 Gallatin County a yield of winter wheat of 

 fifty bushels per acre is not unusual; and I 



* By the way, for climbing mountains it i.s of the 

 greatest importance that the wheel have a good sub- 

 stantial brake. If something should give way, going 

 down these terrible declivities, especially where you 

 are making any sort of speed, it would probably be 

 death to the rider. The brake on my chainless Co- 

 lumbia seemed to be all that could be desired. 



