892 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



held very well for over 200 miles. We were 

 about a day and a half in doing- it. 



At the town of Grawn, a little this side of 

 Traverse City, a hotel- keeper who did not 

 like automobiles informed us that another 

 "billy g-oat " just like ours had passed 

 through there only the day before. Auto- 

 mobiles have had a great many names, but 

 Huber and I thought this capped them ail- 

 not a very dignified name, surely. 



We got into Cadillac between seven and 

 eight in the evening; and although we had 

 relatives there, Huber- was in such a hurry 

 to get home he thought we could stop only 

 about twenty minutes — long enough to 

 shake hands, etc. A bright-eyed accom- 

 plished cousin of his, however, so changed 

 his mind that, before the evening was over, 

 he concluded it would not put us back very 

 materially if we stopped over in Cadillac a 

 whole day. Cadillac is situated on the shores 

 of a beautiful lake, and the enterprising in- 

 habitants have built a macadamized road 

 nine miles in length clear around the lake, 

 close to its shore. Our auto made it easily in 

 one- half hour, and it is certainly one of the 

 finest "drives" in Michigan. Cadillac is 

 quite a manufacturing town; and when it 

 comes to beautiful homes with cement walks 

 and grassy lawns and nicely paved streets, 

 I do not think I have ever found a prettier 

 town in all my travels. 



Somewhere between Cadillac and Big 

 Rapids, I am sorry I can not tell just where, 

 we passed by one of the fish-hatcheries es- 

 tablished by the State. It was one of my 

 " happy surprises." I did not know any 

 thing about it until I saw some dainty little 

 fish-ponds surrounded by bright grassy 

 lawns. Finally I told Huber I thought it 

 must be a fish-hatchery, and, no matter how 

 great our hurry was, we must stop and look 

 it over. There were little fishes, about the 

 size of bees, or larger; speckled trout, black 

 bass, and all the best food fishes known. 

 In one of these little ponds you would find 

 the fish about the size of bees; in the next, 

 perhaps an inch long; then two and three 

 inches long, and so on all the way up to 

 fish big enough to produce spawn, and 

 breed. I believe they are hatched out in a 

 properly constructed building. It was just 

 feeding-time when we stopped. I think the 

 principal food for the fishes is raw liver, or 

 some kind of cheap meat. This is ground 

 in a machine, and then tossed into the wa- 

 ter for the fish. For the little fishes it is 

 ground very fine, larger for the larger ones, 

 and so on. I think some of them are also 

 fed on vegetable foods. When the food was 

 thrown in among the fishes, a great lot of 

 them, to show their joy, jumped clear out of 

 the water. These fish-hatcheries can be lo- 

 cated only where there is an abundance of 

 clear cold spring water. This keeps the 

 temperature of the fish-ponds very near the 

 same, winter and summer, and washes out 

 all filth, giving the fish a constant stream 

 of pure fresh water. In the shallow tanks 

 in the buildings it is interesting to see the 

 baby fishes, each one swimming with all its 



might; but the current of water through the 

 shallow box or trough was graduated so the 

 movement of the water was just about at the 

 rate the fishes could swim; so they exercis- 

 ed their tiny fins in swimming with all 

 their might, but they did not move along 

 any. I noticed they all seemed eager to get 

 close to where the water was admitted into 

 the tank. They like fresh water just as we 

 like fresh air. 



Lake View is a very pretty little town al- 

 so on the border of a dainty little lake. We 

 stopped there to get water at a country store 

 for our machine. I used to tell people our 

 horse did not eat oats, but he needed water 

 to drink about every 25 miles. While we 

 were filling up the water-tank, I noticed 

 some baskets of very nice-looking Red As- 

 trachan apples standing out in front of the 

 store; and then I noticed every man, woman, 

 and child in the crowd standing around the 

 machine was eating red apples as if they 

 really enjoyed them. I handed the woman 

 who kept the store a nickel, and told her to 

 give us some mellow apples that were ripe 

 enough to eat. When she prepared to give 

 me about a peck in a paper bag, I remon- 

 strated. I told her we could not take care 

 of so many, and, besides, she could not af- 

 ford so many for a nickel. 



"Oh, yes!" she said, "that is all right. 

 We sell them for twenty cents a bushel, and 

 you ought to have about a peck for the 

 nickel." 



That was a woman's idea of storekeeping; 

 but I think most of the men would want a 

 little Ijarger profit than that. I ate two ap- 

 ples, and they seemed to " hit the spot " so 

 exactly I told Huber I felt sure they must 

 be exactly what God intended we should 

 have for food. Then I looked into the bag 

 and saw a great big one that was so ripe it 

 was breaking open. I thought I would just 

 taste it, and see if it was as good as the oth- 

 er two. Then I remembered what Terry 

 said, and I said to myself, "If I just think 

 these apples will not disagree with me, 

 they will be all right; so, here goes." 



I will confide to you, dear reader, that 

 within less than an hour there was quite a 

 little delay with our automobile trip. I pre- 

 sume one reason why the apples made me 

 sick was, they were the first ripe ones I had 

 tasted for the season. If I had taken half 

 an apple the first day, the next day a whole 

 one, then two apples, until I had got a little 

 used to them, I could probably have eaten 

 three without disagreeable consequences. 

 Dame Nature objects, or seems to, to too big 

 a dose of almost any thing in the way of 

 food to begin with. Some of you may sug- 

 gest that it is not a very bad thing, after all, 

 if one does get a severe physicking with new 

 fruit. This may also be true; but mj' opin- 

 ion is, it is better to go a little slow in upset- 

 ting the machinery of the digestive organs 

 a little too suddenly. At the present time, 

 Oct. 2, I am eating two good-sized ripe ap- 

 ples every day without bad consequences. 



At Greenville, Montcalm Co., Mich., I was . 

 surprised to see some beautiful large facto- 



