546 



GLExVNINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Ernest Marchant, the man to whom the success of 

 the Florida venture is due. (He would be battel- 

 looking if his face showed more clearly.) 



corner a workman is fixing sheet after sheet 

 of foundation in the frames. This is one of 

 the wonders, beekeeping having worked a 

 revolution in methods besides saving the 

 time of the bees re- 

 quired for wax-tnak- 

 ing. It is one of tne 

 clever things spoken of 

 in my text. The shad- 

 ows are lengthening. 

 "Time to quit, boys!" 

 Work is finished off 

 and benches straight- 

 ened up, and all hands 

 rush for a refreshing 

 plunge in the river, 

 and then supper, as 

 Pepys would say. 



The bees, like time 

 and tide, wait for no 

 man, and supplies 

 must be ready. Work 

 thei'e is and a plenty; 

 for when the bees go 

 north again in May 

 the three hundred Colo- ,, , ,. 



• 1, I • bnloadiui; tln' h< 



nies will have increas- nearly twenty five bar 



ed to nearly a thousand, and the one carload 

 will have become thiee. Will Marchant 

 succeed? Succeed! Why, that's "his middle 

 name." 



But all work and no play is not the di- 

 vinely ordained order of things. And so the 

 desperate, energetic humming of the count- 

 less bees, and the noise of the work-room., 

 are constantly shot through with a snatch 

 of song or a sudden peal of laughter as the 

 soft, leisurely drawl of the Southerner falls 

 on the ear in some quaint yarn or merry 

 quip. Once in a while, shortly before dusk, 

 the gun is shouldered, and fresh meat is 

 brought into the camp. As our camp wit 

 puts it, " If there is one thing I like better 

 tlian a mess of squirrel, it is more squirrel." 

 The river is at hand; and, after nightfall, 

 iLshing is the sport. A fish chowder, made 

 by our camp cook, " would make a corpse 

 rise U15 and clap his hands." I am hoping 

 to be at one of these spiritualistic seances 

 before I leave the camp. If you have never 

 tasted southern dishes, gi'its, hoe-cake, hot 

 Inscuits, baked yams, etc., cooked to a nicety 

 l)v a mere man body, served up with a 

 tlonrish, and a " The banquet now awaits, 

 gentleman," you have lived in vain. 



Thus the days slip by as swiftly as the 

 brown river flowing past the door. 



Nature is very beautiful in this wonderful 

 bee country. A fish splashes in the sunlight ; 

 a gaily colored butterfly flits on its seeming- 

 ly aimless way. Overhead a buzzard sails 

 against the blue of the sky; higher up, a 

 hawk. A redbird floods the air with melody. 

 A timber-raft drifts by on its way to the 

 mill below. A bumblebee, the bassoon of 

 the bee band, bustles in at the door and out 



iiif\ sent with the last car of bees, 

 rels or over 13,000 pounds. 



In all there were 



