584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



small brush were gone it began to devour the 

 larger branches. I have seen so many cases of 

 this kird I should like to see some cattle, hors- 

 es, or sheep that can not be taught to eat sweet 

 clover. 



BASSWOODS ; HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO 

 GROW THEM SO AS TO YIELD HONEY ? 



Dr. Miller has a row of basswoods along his 

 lane leading to the house. There are perhaps 

 fifteen or twenty of them. They vvtre loaded 

 with bloom, and were roaring with bees at the 

 time ot mj' visit. Basswoods are not found in 

 his locality unless they are planted ; but they 

 seem to grow just as well as here in Medina. 

 I think his trees were planted fifteen or twenty 

 years ago One near the window where I 

 write, planted 20 years ago, is now over a foot 

 in diameter, and perhaps 40 feet high. 



After a visit of less than 24 hours I took the 

 train back to a station opposite St. Charles, 

 then had a very enjoyable ride along the Fox 

 River for eight miles, and in due time I was 

 welcomed ai iriend Pike's pretty little home 

 with his string of greenhouses back of the 

 house. I wondered some why a florist who 

 kept no bees was taking Gleanings and was 

 so anxious to have me pay him a visit. Our 

 veteran readers, especially those who took the 

 American Bee Journal back in the time of 

 Samuel Wagner, will remember the name of 

 M. M, Baldridge, vSt. Charles, 111. He is now 

 an old gray -headed veteran, and has a very 

 pretty apiary containing a limited number of 

 hives, near friend Pike's. Well, a good many 

 years ago friend Baldridge loaned his neighbor 

 Pike (then a boy) some copies of Gleanings, 

 and he read about my high-pressure gardening. 

 When I published my book, "What to Do," 

 he procured it and studied it over and over 

 until he says he can tell what is on almost 

 every page in the book, even now. While we 

 were talking, a customer wanted something 

 from the greenhouse ; and in his absence his 

 good wife confided to me that he used to bring 

 the book along with him in his courting days, 

 and insist that she listen while he read aloud 

 some of A I. R.'s choicest passages about 

 what could be done with plants under glass 

 and otherwise. It was this book that gave 

 friend Pike a start in greenhouse work ; and 

 now one of his best customers is Vaughn's 

 great establishment, of Chicago. PViend Pike 

 grows vegetable-plants as well as flowers. I 

 was pleased to see his boys at work on the 

 plant-beds at the time of my arrival, with 

 some cotton sheeting .'stretched over their 

 heads. This, I believe, is for the double pur- 

 pose of protecting the boys and the plants 

 themselves from the fierce rays of the sun. 

 Friend Pike has five pretty children. The 

 older ones are already experts in making 

 things grow ; but he finds that the price of 

 success is in being constantly on hand, and to 

 be ready to stop in the midclle of a breakfast 

 or dinner to wait on a customer, if need be. 

 One of his great specialties is rooted cuttings, 

 as many of our readers kmow. Usually he is 

 able to fill all orders promptly ; but, once this 

 season he had an order far beyond his ability, 

 so he got another florist to help him out on it. 



Very soon a letter came from his customer 

 something like this : 



Friend Pike. — The greater part of your shipment was 

 ju.st as it always has been, and every thing grew al- 

 rnost without a failure ; but there was one lot of cut- 

 tings thai were long-legged, and had very poor roots 

 — nothing like what you have always sent V)efore, and 

 these were just about a total failure. Did you grow 

 these poor things, or did somebody else help you to 

 fill the order? 



You see he has built up a reputation by 

 years of hard work and practical experience. 

 His most successful greenhouses are built with 

 the short span to the south on the plan ad- 

 vocated by Thomas Slack, on page 185 of this 

 journal, current volume. His houses are 

 warmed by hot water run in cast-iron pipes 

 put together with cement. The greenhouses 

 and the home slope toward the street, and on 

 the street is an electric carline. When I wrote 

 that book, "What to Do," I recommended 

 that your gardens should be adjoining a public 

 road, so that their attractive appearance would 

 induce every one who passed by to stop and 

 look, even if he did not make a purchase. I 

 did not think of adding that an electric car- 

 line would be better. In fact, they were not 

 as common at that time as they are now. 



In the evening friend Baldridge came over, 

 and another bee-keeper who lived near, and 

 we talked bees, sweet clover, etc., and finally 

 the different political parties, until it was 

 pretty close to midnight. I had a good nap 

 after my wheelride, so I had the advantage of 

 the rest in the way of sitting up. Well, I sup- 

 pose I shall not be telling stories out of school 

 if I say that our old friend Baldridge, and Mr. 

 Pike also, are Democrats. The fourth one of 

 our party was a pretty strong Republican, and 

 we had an exceedingly friendly discussion. 

 As I knelt down before retiring I thanked God 

 for having given me a better view of our Dem- 

 ocratic brethren and what they are trying to 

 do ; and it seemed to me, too, that I caught a 

 glimpse of a good time coming when Demo- 

 crats and Republicans — yes, and Populists and 

 Prohibitionists — shall meet together, and not 

 only say, but feel from the bottom of their 

 hearts, "We be brethren." Of course, my 

 two friends are pronounced temperance men, 

 even if they are Democrats. Now, please do 

 not feel hurt, anybody, when I say this : My 

 education and bringing-up among Republicans 

 has, perhaps, led me to fall in with the Re- 

 publican idea that Democrats are not specially 

 temperance people. I do not feel that way 

 now, mind you. My two friends said they 

 lamented, as much as anybody else, that the 

 Democrats seemed to fear to say any thing or 

 do any thing for temperance, because, like the 

 Republicans, it might " hurt the party." Here 

 is something I just clipped from the Ohio 

 FarDier: 



Soon the political campaign will be opened, and we 

 shall hear it from the stump and read it in our politi- 

 cal journals, that unless "our ticket" is elected the 

 country will be totally ruined. Don't believe it for a 

 moment. The country is not going to be ruined by 

 the election of either ticket. 



The truth is, we have good pure clean men 

 in all our parties, and enough of them, to save 

 our nation ; but they are all handicapped, and, 

 I might almost say, fettered hand and foot, by 



