Sept. 1. 1911 



to poultry-appliances as well as various kinds 

 of seeds, "novelties, etc. I think I might as 

 well tell you that this firm is the Gordinier 

 Seed House, of Troy, N. Y. The head of 

 the firm is a gray-headed deacon in the 

 church. A few weeks ago they had a fire 

 that damaged a portion of their seeds more 

 or less. Samples were tested at once to see 

 how much injury they had received from 

 the heat. A good many of the seeds were 

 injured but little; and some of the clerks 

 suggested sellingsome of these injured seeds 

 at a lower price. The old deacon replied 

 something as follows: 



"Yes, we have got insurance on our loss; 

 but there is one thing that was not insured, 

 and which can not be insured." 



Some of the younger me^nbers began to 

 wonder what it was that the various insur- 

 ance companies would not cover. There 

 was a great bigmoial to the old gentleman's 

 reply. It was this: 



"The reputation of the (lordinier Seed 

 business." 



Now, if I had rushed straight home, as I 

 felt like doing, I should have missed another 

 wonderful sight that met my view Monday 

 afternoon. It was this: 



Our good friend and representative, F. A. 

 Salisbury, of Syracuse, N. Y., met me at 

 the train with his electric automobile, and 

 took me over to see Mr. S. D. House, of 

 Camillus, four or five miles out of the city. 

 Friend House was out in his apiary of 270 

 colonies of bees, clustered all around his 

 home, and every bee of the 270 colonies was, 

 for the time being, a "busy bee" in good 

 earnest, bringing in alfalfa honey. Supers 

 and sections were piled away up, and thou- 

 sands of pounds of honey was ready to come 

 off. Sections were filled a^d capped over in 

 a week, and empty supers of sections put on 

 the day before had the cells drawn out and 

 half filled with honey in just 24 hours. I do 

 not think I ever saw honey come in, even 

 in basswood time, as it did on that Monday 

 afternoon. The bees were swarming; and 

 his principal help was a bright little boy ten 

 or twelve years old, a nephew. Just a few 

 days before, I was told that .1. E. Crane, of 

 Middlebury, Vt., would have to feed many 

 barrels of sugar to his several hundred colo- 

 nies because the season was a failure. 



Before I got into Syracuse I noticed from 

 the car windows acres and acres of alfalfa. 

 When I expressed an earnest wish to see a 

 field of alfalfa in full bloom, so as to give a 

 honey-yield like that, this small boy piloted 

 us to one of the hills where a whole field 

 was a solid mass of blue alfalfa-blossoms. 

 On the way back we saw another apiary 

 owned by Irving Kinyon, Camillus, N. Y., 

 and there I saw on one stand yji'e stories all 

 filled with alfalfa honey from top to bottom. 

 They, too, were so rushed in putting on su- 

 pers and sections that they found it hard 

 work to give the bees room. On many hives 

 great quantities of bees were hanging out, 

 and even down in the grass, because their 

 hives were absolutely "chock full," with 

 no room to store more honey. When I re- 



543 



monstrated they said they were clear out 

 of supers and sections. Pointing to my 

 good friend Salisbury, who was by my side, 

 I said, "Why can't this good brother sup- 

 ply you from his ample storeroom filled 

 with supplies ? ' ' 



"Yes, that is all true; but this 'good 

 brother,' as you call him, wants ' spot cash ' 

 for every article that goes out of that nice 

 storeroom, with its splendid assortment of 

 every thing that a bee-keei)er may want." 



Of course, that statement was a "huge 

 goak;"and you ought to have heard the 

 big laugh that went up from all around. 



Now, this was a revelation to me, and I 

 think also to a great part of the readers 

 of Gleanings — that alfalfa will not only 

 succeed splendidly in New York, but that 

 it will, when conditions are all right, give a 

 tremendous flow of honey right in the mid- 

 dle of August, when bee-keepers, as a rule, 

 almost all the world over, are getting little 

 or nothing. Friend House suggested that 

 perhaps a part of the flow was from sweet 

 clover, as we found it all along the roadsides 

 and vacant places, both white and yellow. 

 The yellow, however, seemed smaller, and 

 we did not find as many bees on it. I found 

 some beautiful Red Astrakhan apples at 

 friend House's, so I had my apple supper at 

 about the usual time. When we got over to 

 that hill of alfalfa we found, on coming 

 back, some of the finest Yellow Transparent 

 apples, all ripe and "ready to drop;" so I 

 had another supper of these luscious apples. 



When we got back to Syracuse, friend 

 Salisbury's housekeeper said "supper was 

 ready." I tried to explain that I did not 

 eat suppers; but when the good woman said 

 she had some nice fresh fish, caught that 

 afternoon, especially for me, besides a nice 

 sample of that alfalfa honey I was talking 

 about, I made that evening an exception. 

 You will remember that, when the Savior 

 gave his followers a banquet, it consisted of 

 fish, and "honey in the comb." I thought 

 I ate moderately; but in the middle of the 

 night, in my upper birth in the sleeper, I 

 am afraid I disturbed a lot of ])assengers by 

 having a terrific nightmare. I had not had 

 an attack of it before then for several months. 

 Having three meals a day, instead of two, 

 was what caused it, without question. Now, 

 friends, just think what I would have miss- 

 ed had I yielded to the temptation to rush 

 home and travel on Sunday more or less. 



.Just one thing more before this Home pa- 

 per closes. It was after dark when friend 

 Salisbury took me down to meet my train; 

 and with his beautiful new electric auto we 

 went up and down through the electric- 

 lighted streets of Syracuse. I think I never 

 saw before so many moving electric signs 

 and such myriads of radiating globes. As 

 I began to express wonder, friend Salisbury 

 spoke something like this: 



"Mr. Root, can you realize that every 

 blaze of light we see comes from the power 

 of Niagara Falls? Not only that, these rush- 

 ing cars that dodge so swiftly everywhere 

 through the city, and run away ofT into the 



