170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES OF TRAVEL 



]NLi.Rcii, 1921 



A. I. Root 



When we started out, I suggested we 

 could make pretty near 200 miles a day, but 

 Huber said altho I might make it the first 

 day, the next I would be pretty nearly used 

 up, especially for a man over 80. Well, I 

 rode about 1800 miles in 13 days ' travel, and 

 felt better the last day than I did the first, 

 and gained 8 pounds in wririht. As we had 

 unusually cold, and sometimes stormy 

 weather, the little stove, described on page 

 754 of December Gleanings, proved a little 

 gem indeed. I don 't think I could have kept 

 warm without it. Below I am going to sub- 

 mit notes to Mrs. Eoot on postal cards: 



Ealeigh, N. C, Nov. 13. — We have just 

 visited Mr. C. L. Sams, employed by the 

 State and the United States to develop bee 

 culture. His wife wanted to meet the author 

 of the ' ' Home Papers. ' ' She and her four 

 daughters sang, "From Sinking Sand, He 

 lifted me" (violin and piano), and it "lift- 

 ed me. "Surely goodness and mercy will 

 follow me all the days of my life," etc. 



Camden, S. C, Nov. 15. — Last night we 

 stopped at a rather fine hotel, where they 

 never lock a door on the premises, and they 

 don't have things stolen, not even an auto- 

 mobile (?). 



Live Oak, Fla., Nov. 18. — Between Au- 

 gusta and Macon, Ga., we saw miles of peach 

 orchards, some of them in very fine condi- 

 tion. Frost enough to kill sweet potatoes. 



Palatka, Nov. 20. — We had a most pleas- 

 ant visit with Profs. Rolfs and Newell at 

 Gainesville Experiment Station. Ernest had 

 so many points to compare, we could hardly 

 get away. They have about the prettiest lit- 

 tle apiary I ever saw right in a thick, dense 

 wood. It has been so cold until today that T 

 have worn my sweater every minute. I am 

 getting very anxious to reach "home," and 

 get to work. 



Crescent City, Nov. 21. — We attended 

 church and Sunday school in Palatka, and 

 this afternoon passed thru Huntington and 

 stopped about an hour to look over our 160 

 acres. Huntington has run down, and seems 

 almost deserted, but there are some of the 

 finest Florida residences I ever saw near 

 there, and also some of the finest orange 

 groves. 



Lakeland, Nov. 23. — We have been thru 

 some of the most beautiful and largest let- 

 tuce farms near Hastings I ever saw, and 

 just miles of orange trees loaded with fruit. 

 We are only 25 miles from Tampa, and ex- 

 pect to be "home" tonight. Yesterday I 

 was up at 15 minutes of 5 and had no nap 

 at all until 7 p. m. 



"Out in the wilderness," somewhere 

 near the line between Georgia and Flor- 

 ida, I saw a little tree close by the roadside 

 loaded with most beautiful, luscious-look- 

 ing fruit. We stopped, and behold, it was 

 wild persimmons, "wasting their sweetness 



on tlic desert air." I began eating until 

 Ernest demanded a stoj). You see he had 

 * ' contracted " to " deliver me ' ' at our Flor- 

 ida home sound and well. I wanted to load 

 a lot in the "Dodge," but he declared we 

 had no time to spare before night. The de- 

 licious fruit hung so low it could be easily 

 picked from the ground, and was close up 

 to a well-traveled highway. I would like 

 to ask my good friend Eeasoner and other 

 nurserymen why something more is not done 

 to develop and disseminate some of the best 

 of our wild persimmons growing more or 

 less from Missouri to Georgia. 



ELECTRIC WINDMILLS. 



This is the third winter we have lighted 

 our home and run our electric auto by wind 

 power, and there has heretofore been very 

 little trouble from lack of wind; but just 

 now (Jan. 12) we have had much less wind 

 than during the two previous winters. To 

 increase our lack, the evening that Ernest 

 and I arrived, of course, I had to "trot out" 

 the new electric devices. The heater was 

 one of the -things exhibited, and, altho no 

 heat was needed, the plug was put in to 

 show how quickly it would be red-hot, and 

 then pushed back under the fable and for- 

 gotten. After thirteen hours my 16-cell house 

 batteries were down to the last limit. From 

 that time to this, we haven 't had enough 

 wind to run the auto at its best, and light 

 the house fully. Now for lighting the home 

 and other light work the outfit made by the 

 Wind Electric Corporation, Wyndmere, 

 North Dakota, is all right; but, if you want 

 to run an electric auto also, in most locali- 

 ties, there should be current available from 

 some other source when there happens to 

 be several days with no wind. A very cheap 

 outfit would do all right for those rare times 

 when the wind doesn 't happen to blow for 

 several days at a time. 



Using electricity to produce heat, takes 

 much more current than for light or me- 

 chanical work, and where used for cooking 

 or warming current should be promptly cut 

 off just as quickly as it can possibfy be dis- 

 pensed with. Even running an auto does not 

 pull down the current, like the little heater 

 I have mentioned. We use the auto for 5 to 

 10 miles almost every day, and, of course, 

 the current used depends on the load car- 

 ried. 



bep: culture in italy. 

 Inasmuch as our Italian bees are provin;i.' 

 to be such a help not only to America, but 

 perhaps to the whole wide world, it is a 

 little strange that we have never heard very 

 much in regard to what the Italian bees dg 



