1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



851 



am told the general average of the county for 

 the years 1SU3, '94, and '95 was only a frac- 

 tion less than thirty-eight bushels per acre." 



Prof. Emory showed me some farming that 

 was certainly ahead of any thing else I ever 

 saw on the face of the earth — that is, in the 

 way of grains ; but this was under irrigation. 

 Even field peas stood up almost as high as 

 one's head, loaded with pods. The peas were 

 grown for feed, and also for the peas them- 

 selves. With the help of these great crops, 

 pork and beef are produced at a figure that it 

 would be impossible to touch in the East. Of 

 course, the expense of transportation to dis- 

 tant markets is a drawback. 



I did not have time to examine the test-plot 

 of potatoes as I should have liked, for I wanted 

 to get the next car back to town. I was 

 somewhat pleased to hear Prof. Emory's as- 

 sistant say, in answer to a question of mine, 

 that, all things considered, the Early Ohio 

 was their best extra-early potato. 



Prof. E. has not only some bright original 

 ideas in regard to growing crops, but he show- 

 ed me how to make comfortable buildings for 

 stock, with a very small outlay in cash. First, 

 log houses are built from the spruce timber 

 that is so cheap and durable in that locality. 

 Now, when you attempt to plaster up the 

 cracks of a log house with clay or mortar the 

 filling will always be dropping out. Prof. E. 

 remedies this by nailing strips of lumber along 

 the logs, one on the upper edge and another 

 on the lower edge. By having them in such 

 a position that a straight-edge just touches 

 the logs as well as the strips, j'ou will notice 

 this will make the chinking so it can not 

 crowd out. Such buildings are exceedingly 

 warm, and well calculated to withstand the 

 rigors of their cold winters. Another point : 

 Prof. Emory says that, to avoid the criticism 

 that farmers make when visiting the experi- 

 ment station, that such work imposes a burden 

 on the farmer by increased taxation, he says 

 he has been so far enabled to state to one and 

 all that the Montana experiment station has 

 not thus far cost the Montana fatmers one 

 solitary copper. The crops that they grow, 

 together with the government aid, has so far 

 paid for all outgoes. Is there another experi- 

 ment station in the United States that can say 

 as much? I feel like congratulating the 

 farmers of Montana, and I hope they will 

 avail themseh'es of the wonderful object- 

 lessons that are to be found all over the 

 farm. 



Oh, yes ! Prof. E. has some bees. There 

 are seven colonies, if I remember correctly; 

 and to refute the oft-repeated statement that 

 bees can never be wintered in such a climate, 

 he has wintered them thus far in the open air, 

 protecting them by a sort of shed or bee- 

 house, and outside packing, something like a 

 chaff hive, permitting the bees to go out 

 through a chute whenever the weather per- 

 mits. With all the other work he has on 

 his hands, the bees, I judge, have not had 

 very much attention ; but they have given 

 large yields of honey and a steady increase 

 since they were purchased, about two years 

 ago. No wonder they get honey, for there 



are acres of clover of all kinds in bloom, and 

 so few bees to visit the clover that I jestingly 

 said to him each bee could have almost an 

 acre of blossoms to itself. What a contrast to 

 our overstocked localities in the East, and 

 also in many parts of Arizona! 



The ladies told me at Gardiner, that, if I 

 took that trip over the mountains on the wheel, 

 I must surely visit the government fish-hatch- 

 ery. This is out of the town, in an opposite 

 direction from the experiment station ; in 

 fact, it is up a beautiful little canyon. As the 

 good friends who went with me to the station 

 could hardly spare the time, I went over on 

 my wheel alone. One of them remarked that 

 it would be easy wheeling, for it was down hill 

 all the way ; but as my pathway was for the 

 whole four miles beside a mountain brook 

 that was constantly running toward me, I did 

 not exactly understand the " down hill " part 

 of it. It looked down hill, but the brook said, 

 " Not so." A great part of the road was sandy 

 and dusty, which made it still more difficult. 

 I was pretty tired and quite thirsty when I 

 caught sight of the government fish-hatchery 

 buildings; and here was another queer optical 

 illusion. When I got over into that notch in 

 the mormtains I wonder.d why the govern- 

 ment had placed its plant in a little narrow 

 gorge where one could hardly find elbow room 

 to turn around; but when you once get there 

 you will find a nice plot of ground, a full half- 

 acre in extent. Oh what a pretty place it is ! 

 A large spring has been diverted, and made 

 to flow through a series of little square ponds. 

 These are arranged with walks between them, 

 much like our beds in market-gardening. 

 The water goes through wire cloth when it 

 goes in, and through wire cloth as it goes out, 

 so the fishes are confined there. Oh what a 

 beautiful sifht ! I thought there must be 

 untold millions. In fact, they were like 

 swarms of bees, or more so. In the first pool 

 we have fishes about as large as cucumber 

 seeds. The next are a little larger, then larger 

 still, and so on. A great part of their time 

 they spend in swimming up stream in the 

 beautiful, limpid, pure spring water. The 

 spring is large enough so the water goes 

 through all the pools at a pretty good speed; 

 and so while the fishes are swimming quite 

 rapidly they are really standing still — that is, 

 in respect to the visitor who stands in the 

 path beside the pool. 



I think I forgot myself several times so far 

 as to ask where they kept the fish in the win- 

 ter time. Each time, Prof. Henshall smiling- 

 ly replied, " We keep them right here, just as 

 they are. There is no winter nor summer to 

 them. The temperature of the water never 

 changes." 



Does it not seem incredible, that, even 



though the weather should be 30 to 40 degrees 



below zero, these beautiful little speckled 



mountain trout six inches below the surface 



feel no change ? I asked for a drink of water. 



You see my wheel-ride had made me thirsty. 



As it touched my lips I was startled. Said I : 



" Why, surely this is ice water." 



" No, the temperature is just 45 — always 45." 



I looked incredulously over the edge of the 



