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GIvEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Jui,Y 15. 



NOTES or TRAVL^ 



I BY A.I.ROOT. 



Dear friends, what I have to say just now 

 will come under the head of Travels, Homes, 

 and Gardening — all three, and I do not see 

 how I can w^ell separate them. I'nderthe cir- 

 cumstances I can not well choose a text either; 

 for if I do I shall not stick to it. I shall, how- 

 ever, get around to some texts now and then 

 that have been a good deal on my mind : "A 

 new commandment I give unto you, That ye 

 love one another ; " and, " We be brethren." 



Some time ago our good friend Pike the 

 florist invited me to call and see his green- 

 houses. He said he was not far away from 

 Dr. Miller's; and then I told our folks that, 

 whenever there was a low rate on the railroads 

 leading into Chicago, I was going to take a 

 trip that way ; therefore when I saw that a 

 special rate of only S8 50 would be made from 

 Medina to Chicago and return on June 26, I 

 decided that was my time to go. This special 

 rate was on account of the national Prohibi- 

 tion convention ; and as I have of late been 

 trying to post myself in regard to all political 

 parties I decided to take in at least a part of 

 the convention. Some people, when they are 

 going to take a long ride in the cars, take 

 along a book or a paper. I have sometimes 

 done so, but of late I never want any book or 

 paper — that is, while the cars are in motion. 

 I never want any printed page when I can 

 have the book of nature spread out before me, 

 passing like a panorama. 



WHITE CLOVER IN CULTIVATED FIELDS. 



As I approached Toledo I was struck, as I 

 have been before, by the wonderful fertility of 

 the soil and the great crops occupying almost 

 every acre. But this time I was delighted and 

 astonished to see some fields of white clover, 

 eclipsing any thing I had ever seen before. 

 You u.«ually find white clover mixed in with 

 timothy, and often with red and alsike clover. 

 When near Toledo there was field after field 

 of piwe white clover^ and nothing else — not a 

 spear of grass — in fact, not even a clover leaf 

 broke the expanse of heads of white clover. 

 They were not only as thick as they could 

 stand, but they seemed piled one on the other, 

 two or three deep. I can not think it was 

 natural growth, for the fields were thrown up 

 in beds, with dead furrows at regular inter- 

 vals. I think it must be grown for the seed ; 

 and if so, what a wonderful chance for bees ! 

 I wonder if Dr. Mason has seen these white- 

 clover fields, and can tell us any thing about 

 it. In de;^cribing it to our veteran bee-keep- 

 er M. M. Baldridge, of St. Charles, 111., he 

 said it was probably white Dutch clover, grown 

 for seed. He said that, some years ago, a man 

 in Wisconsin who made a specialty of white 

 Dutch clover seed for market succeeded in 

 growing $100 worth of seed on one acre of 

 ground. Can any of our readers tell us some- 

 thing more about it ? I know there was a time 

 when white Dutch clover seed brought from 



$12.00 to $14.00 a bushel. Is it possible to 

 grow six or more bushels to the acre? and how 

 much are such fields worth to the bee-keeper? 

 The glimpse I got out of the open car window 

 revived my old enthusiasm in regard to a mod- 

 el honey-farm. Permit me to say, parentheti- 

 cally, that we sowed our buckwheat and crim- 

 son clover with a sprinkling of turnip seed, 

 all together, yesterday, July 4. It is a little 

 early, but we had the ground ready (a clover 

 sod turned under), and I thought I would try 

 extra early sowing on all three. I will now 

 go back to my travels, and a slight change of 

 subject. 



I reached Chicago between 9 and 10 o'clock 

 at night. As I passed out of the Lakeshore 

 Depot I thought of what the New Voice had 

 said in regard to saloons in that great city. 

 There they were, sure enough, thick on every 

 street. All sorts of indhcements were thrown 

 out to get people to enter. I will mention just 

 one of the attractive advertisements. On a 

 great building, in large letters, there is a proc- 

 lamation something like this : " I am the man 

 who first inaugurated Kentucky whisky at 

 only 5 cents a glass." A sign, with the man's 

 name on it, was just below this inscription, 

 and many other reasons were given why one 

 should patronize this establishment instead of 

 a hundred others roundabout. This person 

 seemed to think he had conferred a lasting 

 benefit on humanity, something like the man 

 who invented the mowing-machine and reap- 

 er, the telegraph, etc. But he was the piojieer; 

 and people out of gratitude, looking to him as 

 a benefactor to his race, should buy their Ken- 

 tucky whisky there. Again and again in pass- 

 ing through Chicago I was struck with the 

 suggestion that the people engaged in the liq- 

 uor-traffic did not even seem to know that any- 

 body objects to their business. Evidently, it 

 has never occurred to them that more than 

 half of the people of the United States are op- 

 posed to the business they are engaged in. 



Before 4 o'clock next morning I was up and 

 dressed, and my wheel and I sallied out of 

 the hotel. When I am in a great city like 

 Chicago I can not afford to waste precious 

 hours. By 5 o'clock I was out in Lincoln 

 Park, a good many miles away, admiring the 

 flowers, the green lawns, the beautiful wheel- 

 paths,~'and thanking God that he had given 

 me a human life to live. The flowers possess- 

 ed a new beauty for me this time, because I 

 knew the names of most of them. I was 

 somewhat disappointed, however, in not find- 

 ing any nice colei in the open air. In fact, I did 

 not see any at Vaughn's great string of green- 

 houses, nor anywhere else on this trip. As 

 nearly as I could learn, the weather has been 

 unfavorable for the coleus outdoors ; but with 

 warm nights and sunshiny days they will prob- 

 ably put on their gorgeous hues later on. It 

 was consoling to me to find this state of af- 

 fairs, because we have succeeded so poorly in 

 getting handsome colei on our own grounds 

 in the* open air. The most attractive bed to 

 me at Lincoln Park was a collection of ten- 

 weeks' stocks. At a distance a plant in full 

 bloom looks considerably like a hyacinth. 

 There is a tall stalk with flowers set closely 



