1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



743 



Were it not that this is in the department of 

 High-pressure Gardening I might tell you 

 something about the fish ; but I will say this 

 much, anyhow : The result of our fishing was 

 between 50 and 75 pounds of white fish. 



The day I came away Mrs. Hilbert took 

 charge of about a dozen girls and women pick- 

 ing blackberries. While the women-folks 

 were picking the berries a seventeen year-old 

 son, with another boy to help him, went out 

 to take in the gill-nets ; and in the afternoon 

 friend Hilbert, with his smart ponies, was to 

 take a load of fish and blackberries to Traverse 

 City Now, here is rt«£'/'/;^r object-lesson from 

 that Elmwood fruit-farm. Every load of stuff 

 he takes out is sold before he starts. His 

 ponies run it right into the city double quick. 

 He unloads and goes right back home to at- 

 tend to business. This is accomplished by 

 means of his telephone. I was a little sur- 

 prised to see a telephone-wire running away 

 off something like ten miles into the country. 

 With this telephone he informs them in town 

 what he has got, and they all know by past 

 experience what kind of stuff he brings to 

 market, and then they make their offers. If 

 any grocer or fruit dealer has a call for some- 

 thing, he just phones friend Hilbert, and out 

 it comes. That telephone saves him dollars 

 (I might almost say, every day) in time. 



Friend Hilbert, like most other bee-keepers, 

 is a genius. He has an evaporator of his own 

 invention for making maple syrup ; and judg- 

 ing from the syrup I should call it a big in- 

 vention. He has not any on hand now, for 

 every one of his 540 gallons was sold as soon 

 as made, and he has lots of orders for more. 



Now, don't all of you get an idea that ei- 

 ther friend Hilbert or myself have some land 

 to dispose of in the Traverse Peninsula. It is 

 the man as well as the locality. When I first 

 entered the home I saw the Rural New-y^ork- 

 ^y spread out on a stand in the sitting-room. 

 Later I asked him how many people in that 

 vicinity took the Rural. He said he did not 

 know of any who took it. The publishers had 

 asked him to trv to get up a club there, but 

 his neighbors said they could not afford it ; 

 and if vou would look at a potato-field almost 

 adjoining his own you would be led to think 

 perhaps they could not afford a dollar for an 

 agricultural paper. Many people would call 

 the peninsula a poor place to grow potatoes. 



Of course, there are advantages in the way 

 of a cooler climate than we have here in Ohio, 

 in a soft mellow loam — that is, in the hard- 

 wood land where there is enough clav to make 

 the sandy land productive. Mr Hilbert has 

 got his land acre by acre into a high state of 

 fertility by carefully saving all his manure and 

 turning under clover. I believe the locality 

 is not favorable for cattle or sheep ; therefore 

 they do not secure the amount of manure here 

 in grazing that they do in the butter and cheese 

 localities of Ohio and adjoining States. Mr. 

 H. says it is a fact that their soft loamy soil 

 does not hold manure as it does here in Ohio, 

 and that humus must be furnished by turning 

 under clover or other green crops. There are 

 people in the vicinity (I came pretty near say- 

 iT\g farmers) who undertake to raise potatoes 



on the same ground year after year without 

 clover or manure of any kind, and it is just 

 depressing to look over such places. But this 

 is true more or less almost everywhere. I felt 

 attracted to the locality because of the cool 

 climate, the loose soil that seldom if ever needs 

 undraining, and its particular adaptability for 

 potatoes, strawberries, buckwheat, and clover 

 when managed intelligently. 



MORE ABOUT THE SUMMER OUTING IN THE 

 MUSKOKA REGION. 

 In view of the general interest in regard to 

 this article, especially during the past season, 

 I have asked Mr. Grainger to write up their trip 

 from the point where I left off. We can give 

 him credit for one thing — he gives a truthful 

 and honest statement of the discomforts as 

 well as the enjoyable things of the Muskoka 

 lakes and islands. In the write ups we gener- 

 ally get, there is not much said about mosqui- 

 toes, especially where the object is to get peo- 

 ple to patronize the boats and railroads. 



We had received the hearty handshake, and the fer- 

 vent " God bless you, boy.s," and our pleasant outing 

 with A. I. Root in the backwoods of Muskoka was a 

 thing of the past It did seem too bad that he should 

 have to leave us just when he appeared to be receiv- 

 ing some benefit from the trip, for we had noticed of 

 late he had been doing ample justice to the large 

 quantities of porridge, plates of fi.'-h, beans, potatoes, 

 coffee, etc. A story might be told of some black bass 

 and coffee which mysteriously disappeared after some 

 one had said, " Not any more for me, thank you." 



As we paddled away from the wharf we played, as 

 a parting message on our cornet, " The Sweet i3y and 

 By " and " L,ead Thou me on ; " and as the last notes 

 died away, the strain was taken up by voices across 

 the lake, and quite distinctly we heard the words as 

 we paddled back to camp. 



We had hoped to use the sail but the wind shifted 

 around and blew a gale from the opposite direction, 

 so we had head wind all the way We were a little 

 anxious about a fire we had left burning in thf morn- 

 ing, but were very much pleased on reaching our 

 camp late in the evening, tired, hot, and thirsty, to 

 find every thing all right. We were not long in get- 

 ting into the water for a bath, which refreshed us 

 greatly ; then followe 1 a good supper of fried fish, 

 potatoes, beans toast, and berries After sundown 

 the wind dropped, and the river was like a sheet of 

 glass. The night was too warm to light a fire ; and 

 as the mosquitoes were troublesome we decided to 

 spend the evening on the river. Accordingly we made 

 ourselves comfortable in the canoe, and, paddling out 

 into the middle of the .stream, permitted ourselves to 

 drift with the current while we listened to the echo of 

 our favorite hymns played on the cornet. The air was 

 so fresh, and the mo nlight so beautiful that it seem- 

 ed too bad to miss any of it ; but at 11 p. m., in spite 

 of the inspiring surroundings, we retired to our tent. 

 We felt just a little lonely at first without our com- 

 panion of the past week ; but that feeling did not last 

 long, for who that really loves nature could he lonely 

 here? Our island is almost surrounded with marsh. 

 We have an aquatic garden, with an endless number 

 of plants, not to mention animals, of which we have 

 a great variety. We call it the farmyard, on account 

 of the wild ducks being so numerous. They are get- 

 ting quite tame, and often come quite close to our tent. 

 W^hile we were at breakfast this morning (Monday) a 

 crane was walking about in our duck-pond, with his 

 characteristic stride, looking for his early morning 

 meal. Very often the "quack, quack." of the ducks 

 is relieved by the coarse gruff croaking of immense 

 Mu.skoka frogs, noted for the excellent qualities of 

 their hind quarters, nicely browned in the frying-pan, 

 with butter, etc. 



lyater in the evening we heard the welcome and 

 rather mu.sical notes of the whippoorwill. When at 

 last we are just about to draw the curtain, and close 

 the tent for the night, a last look out to see if our fire 

 is all right generally reveals five or six bats making 

 their apparently aimless flight. Of land animals we 

 have a goodly number. At the back of our island 

 there is what is called a deer-lick, and the tracks to 



