UUM 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1033 



have not got the name right, but that does 

 not matter. I tested a great luscious pear, 

 and decided in regard to the quality; and as 

 it was a coreless I had to get clear down to 

 the core to satisfy myself that it was no 

 myth having a pear without a core. The 

 simplest way seemed to be to keep on biting 

 until I got to the core, and, sure enough, 

 there was nothing there fit to be called a 

 core. The pear might have been pared, and 

 then canned or preserved, without cutting 

 out any core at all. Then Mr. O'Briant had 

 some new varieties of watermelons that I 

 ought to sample while I was there. These 

 new melons were probably extra fine. I 

 had sampled so many things that I was not 

 in shape to be judge. As I had been told 

 friend O'Briant had recently sold his orchard, 

 this creation of his skill and brain, I began 

 to banter him a little about selling out just 

 as he had made a great success. His good 

 wife came in just at this time and suggest- 

 ed that her husband was getting old, and it 

 was a great care and responsibility to get 

 all those apples picked at just the right time, 

 and have them sent to the best market. If 

 I remember correctly the purchase price was 

 $20,000, or $500 an acre for a piece of land 

 in the middle of a great sandy desert where 

 there is plenty of land to be bought for $5.00 

 an acre, perhaps, instead of a hundred 

 times that much. Well, the good wife said 

 something like this: 



"Mr. Root, 'what doth it profit a man if 

 he gain the whole world and lose his' — health, 

 to say nothing of wearing him out soul and 

 body by hard work?" 



The good woman had got it right. It is 

 a grand thing to make the sandy desert blos- 

 som as the rose, and to make two blades of 

 grass grow where one grew before; but that 

 does not half express it. It is a grander 

 thing to make thousands of beautiful apples 

 grow where not a single one ever grew before. 

 But after having done this, I think friend 

 O'Briant and his wife were wise in deciding 

 to sell out and take things a little easier— 

 not that friend O. should sit down in an easy- 

 chair and read newspapers from morning 

 till night, for that would be a still worse ex- 

 treme. I would suggest, say, a "cabin in 

 the woods." If I could have my way about 

 it I would have some woods where it is a 

 little cooler than that locality in Graham Co. 

 But that is easy enough. The great moun- 

 tain that towered over our heads through 

 all our walks during that memorable day 

 has pleasure-resorts clear up to its very peak 

 where you can find frost, I think, almost any 

 time of the year. I looked longingly toward 

 the peak, but my arrangements would not 

 enable me to stay long enough; but I prom- 

 ised myself the pleasure of ascending it at 

 some other time. 



Some of you dyspeptics may be curious to 

 to know whether so much fruit really made 

 me sick, especially when I did my very best 

 to think it was the exact diet that God in- 

 tended his children should use. Well, I ivas 

 sick, now let me tell you, not only all the 

 way home, but for two weeks afterward; 



and I believe it was mainly the result of 

 eating to excess the most luscious fruits that 

 this earth aff'ords. May be if I had had 

 Agua Caliente water to drink all day for sev- 

 eral days afterward it would have been all 

 right. I can not tell. I remember rejoicing 

 to find a can of distilled water at one of the 

 bee-keepers' ranches out in the country. 

 Every village of any size in those torrid cli- 

 mates has an ice-plant; and where they pro- 

 duce ice they always have distilled water for 

 sale. I think the price was only five or ten 

 cents a gallon. Where the common water 

 is alkaline they often take the distilled water 

 around in wagons as they do milk here in the 

 East. 



I was too sick on my way home to enjoy 

 any thing very much. A blizzard that came 

 up suddenly while we were crossing the 

 plains of Kansas gave me a touch of my ma- 

 larial chills. But I wish to mention, before 

 winding up this California trip, something 

 about the wonderful Chicago drainage canal. 

 Our railway, the Santa Fe, struck it perhaps 

 fifty miles before we reached Chicago. I 

 think I got my first glimpse of it early in the 

 morning. A great portion of the way it is 

 cut through the solid rock; and the heaps of 

 blue slate piled up along each side of the 

 canal were so high in some places it made 

 me think of the Arizona mountains. I had 

 read about this wonderful piece of engineer- 

 ing before; but one needs to ride along by it 

 and see it to realize what stupendous under- 

 takings are being and have been carried out 

 in this day of progress. 



SENDING YOUR HORSES TO SCHOOL, ETC. 



Dear Mr. Root:— Don't you think you are too patient 

 with the unreasonable attitude of Mr. Atkinson? There 

 is no possible doubt that his horses can be made fearless 

 in three or four hours. It is pure obstinacy, and a large 

 number of Form Journal subscribers are of the same 

 opinion. S. H. Rous. 



Philadelphia. Pa.. Oct. 13. 



The above was written on the margin of a 

 leaf clipped from some magazine. This leaf 

 gave pictures of the school described in the 

 following extract: 



AUTOMOBILE SCHOOL FOR HORSES. 



While in many sections of the country people are try- 

 ing to devise ineans to educate horses so that they will 

 not become frightened at the sight of an automobile, 

 away out in Bretton Woods, in the mountains of old 

 New Hampshire, a few men have done more than to 

 make suggestions. 



They have established a real school, an automobile 

 school for horses, and J. F. Hathaway, of West Somer- 

 ville. was the auto-philanthropist who took upon himself 

 the task of bringing horse and motor car into harmony. 



The first lesson was to drive his car into the Mt. 

 Washington stables, where there were more than 100 

 horses. At first it caused a commotion, some of the 

 hor.ses becoming so scared that they lay down in their 

 stalls. After a few days most of the horses became 

 used to the sight of the car, and were induced to eat 

 sugar from the machine. 



The results have fully compensated the teachers for 

 their efforts, as there has not been the slightest acci- 

 dent to person, horse, or vehicle. This is the more as- 

 tonishing in view of the great amount of driving and 

 riding done at Bretton Woods. The record for eight 

 days, from August 21 to 28 inclusive, shows that 496 

 horses had been let to guests at Bretton Woods. These 

 horses have almost all been trained not to fear automo- 

 biles. 



The letter may be a little severe on our 



