1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



477 



I usually take about a week to collect things 

 that are wanted, and put them in my valise. 

 Be especially particular about having accurate 

 addresses for every person you wish to find, 

 and give them notice beforehand, as nearly as 

 you can, when you expect to call on them. 



I find it very convenient to locate- many of 

 the little things in different pockets in my 

 suit of clothing. For instance, I always have 

 one special pocket for my railroad ticket ; 

 another one for dimes and nickels ; still an- 

 other for quarters and halves, and an inside 

 vest pocket for paper money and checks that 

 are to be used as I happen to need them. My 

 vest is also placed under my pillow, and in 

 this way I never go off and forget my pocket- 

 book or watch. One of my inside coat pockets 

 contains postal cards addressed to The A. I. 

 Root Co. In this way I can easily drop Mrs. 

 Root a card, giving her notice every day or 

 two " where I am at." Another inside coat 

 pocket contains addresses or letters of intro- 

 duction. In my outside coat pocket I have an 

 extra clean handkerchief ; then in the hip 

 pocket to my pants is a soiled handkerchief. 

 1 use the latter, so as to keep the former clean 

 when in the presence of company. In riding 

 my wheel I have a still older silk handerchief , 

 to dust off my shoes before I enter a dwelling. 

 In another pocket I have a toothpick ; in still 

 another, my eye-glasses ; and I carry also an 

 extra pair of eye-glasses lest I should mislay 

 or lose the other pair. Then I have sundry 

 other articles that are sometimes in my pock- 

 ets and sometimes in my valise — a bicycle- 

 pump and wrench, for instance. When I 

 travel by wheel my valise is sent ahead by 

 express, or left until my return. By having 

 every thing thus conveniently arranged one 

 may catch a train or make connections that, 

 to miss, might cost hours of waiting, or some- 

 times a whole day. 



Whatever you do, never keep the conductor 

 waiting while you are hunting for your ticket 

 first in one pocket, then in another, and the 

 same way with your money. Never keep any- 

 body waiting while you hunt for it. Have 

 every thing you need so that you may quickly 

 and easily put your finger right on it. 



I reached the city of Washington early 

 Tuesday morning. This was to be a sort of 

 strawberry trip, therefore I proposed hunting 

 up strawberry-growers. I had written to A. 

 T. Goldsborough to meet me at the train, if he 

 could conveniently. Well, I made mistake 

 No. 1 by not remaining on the platform a few 

 minutes longer. He was a little late in get- 

 ting around, and I suppose I stood there about 

 three minutes, and then started on an explor- 

 ing expedition. Starting off too soon was 

 mistake No. 1. 



Mistake No. 2 was in depositing my valise 

 in the check-room before I had taken out the 

 paper containing the addresses of bee-keepers 

 in Washington. I paid ten cents to leave it 

 till called for ; so when I asked the agent if 

 he could let me have it back long enough to 

 get a letter, he said their rules were, no han- 

 dling of baggage until you want to take it 

 away ; so that one piece of omission cost me 

 ten cents. 



Now, do not go on about people being unac- 

 commodating at a great railway station. 

 When a train comes in there is a lot of people 

 wanting to deposit their baggage or take it 

 away ; and this rule is plainly printed and 

 posted up so that careless people won't be all 

 the while bothering them. When you are 

 traveling, submit to the ordinary rules of 

 travel. Do as other people do — look pleasant, 

 and you will have a good time which you w r ill 

 not hive if you stop to grumble and complain 

 of the great busy business world. 



Mistake No. 3 was in discovering that I had 

 neglected to bring friend Goldsborough 's 

 address ; but I felt so sure it was Washington 

 Heights I thought I did not need any address; 

 but when I asked the car conduclor about 

 Washington Heights he said he did not know 

 any thing about such a place. He called to 

 another man on another car, and he said he 

 knew ever so many " Heights " but no Wash- 

 ington Heights. Some of the passengers 

 thought they knew where it was, and I spent 

 all the forenoon (and a lot of nickels) riding 

 all over the city here and there. Toward noon 

 the conductors got so they knew me, and 

 asked me to report progress ; and it seemed 

 to me that most of the motormen in ]] r asliing- 

 ton were helping me to find "Washington 

 Heights " before I got through. 



About dinner time I decided to hunt up a 

 bee-keeper ; but when I got as far as I could 

 go I found the cars were more than a mile 

 from his home. Then I had to go a mile 

 straight back again to a bicycle store to rent 

 a wheel. I found the place by seeing a hive 

 of nice Italians right beside the front door ; 

 but Mr. Johnson was away from home. His 

 wife brought me the bee-journals, and pretty 

 soon I found that A. T. Goldsborough was at 

 Wesley Heights, about four miles out of the 

 city. I found his pretty home away off among 

 the hills, and I was lucky for once in finding 

 him right out at work among his strawberries, 

 eggplants, chickens, etc. He does not allow 

 the grown-up chickens in his garden, by any 

 means ; but he is the man who has on his 

 grounds a brood of little chickens all the 

 while to take care of all kinds of insects that 

 bother his egg-plants or any other garden stuff. 



I was just in time to test some samples of 

 the delicious pink and white Louis Gautier 

 strawberry. He had many other seedlings to 

 show me that were of much interest ; and he 

 has several special seedlings of the Louis 

 Gautier that promise to correct any faults this 

 delicious berry may have.* 



*Since the above was hi type we have Hi e following 

 from friend Goldsborough : 



Mr. Root: — I am sorry you made such a ftykig visit, 

 as I had time to show you only a few strawberrv- 

 plants in the kitchen garden. I have fruiting-beds in 

 four other parts of the 50 acres, and four or five differ- 

 ent soils can be found. I took in a basket of English 

 seedlings to the Department of Agriculture yesterday, 

 as a gift to the Secretary, Mr. Wilson. The berries 

 made quite an excitement there, as I do not believe a 

 two-ounce berry had ever been seen before by any of 

 them. As my berries averaged 3xJs ounces, you can 

 imagine their surprise. 



Mr. Saunders, the veteran horticulturist, said he 

 had never seen such fruit. Acting Pomologist Wm. A. 

 Taylor picked out six which filled a quart box, and 

 weighed nearly 18% ounces — an average of 3 f f, 5 ounces 



