JUNE 1, 1914 



Grand Kapids. How is that for 42 miles'? 

 In about an hour we left the Pere Mar- 

 quette yards for Chicago. 



I will say right here, before I proceed 

 further, for fear some one will say I ought 

 to have gotten busy Avith the telephone, that 

 I was a railroad man myself in my younger 

 days, and I believe that I did every thing 

 possible all along my trip to hurry matters. 

 In fact, I met several of my old chums on 

 my journey who did every thing they could 

 (o hurry the trip. Getting out of Grand 

 Rapids in just one hour shows that I left no 

 stone unturned to get out at the first oppor- 

 tunity. 



When we arrived in Chicago my first 

 mistake, and my only one, showed up. 

 Nearly all (or all) railroad laws state that 

 each car of bees must be accompanied by 

 an attendant bearing a first-class ticket to 

 place of destination ; and the agent at ray 

 loading station told me I could put a cow 

 or horse in my car if I so wished, and the 

 railroad would have to give me a pass. I 

 had a very choice Jersey heifer which I 

 wanted to take with me, so I put her in ; 

 and the very first thing they asked me when 

 I arrived at Chicago was, " Is your cow 

 inspected ? " as the laws of the State I was 

 going into forbade the entrance of any live 

 stock without inspection. I telephoned over 

 to the government inspecting offiee, and got 

 word that a man would be on hand to begin 

 operations at 1 P. M. At 9 :30 the next 

 morning he arrived and started the test for 

 tuberculosis. It takes 24 hours to carry it 

 through, so I was in Chicago just 48 hours. 

 If I had known, I could have had her in- 

 spected before I left home, as there was a 

 neighbor of mine who was a deputy State 

 inspector for Jlichigan. 



At 11 A. M. they took my car over to the 

 Wabash yards, and I hardly waited for it to 

 stop and find where it would be switched 

 before I was on the way to the transfer 

 office to have my papers transferred. I had 

 billed my car by the Wabash from Chicago 

 to East St. Louis, and from there to desti- 

 nation by Missouri Paeifie Railroad. When 

 I arrived at the AVabash office in Chicago, I 

 was informed they had just received news 

 of a washout and bad wreck on their freight 

 line near East St. Louis, and it would be 24 

 hours, and may be longer, before they could 

 get a train through. 



They consulted maps as to my destination, 

 and told me they could take me to Kansas 

 City and transfer me there to the Missouii 

 Pacific, as they said, and showed me that the 

 Missouri Pacific would take me to within 

 about 30 miles of Kansas City before thej' 

 took me south to my destination. So they 

 changed my papers to read by Kansas City. 

 I hurried over to the yardmaster's office, 

 and received the pleasant intelligence that a 

 train couldn't leave till an engine arrived, 

 as they had had several wrecks lately, and 

 were badly hampered for motor jDower. He 

 thought they could put a train out by 4 P. 

 M. ; but in i^laee of 4 p. m. it was 1 :30 A. M. 

 when we finally left the windy city. 



About two hours before we left Chicago 

 it began to snow and blow; and the further 

 south we went the harder it snowed and 

 blew ; and in place of being the custom- 

 ary three-days' storm it was three times 

 three, and then some. Well, we kept going 

 until we finally got out of Illinois across the 

 Mississippi River into north Missouri; but 

 there Avasn't a division point that we got 

 out of in less than 12 hours, and in one 

 place I remember it was 16 hours before we 



Migratory beekeeping with straw hives as practiced by H. Gravenhorst. — From Der Practische Imker. 



