932 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



NOTES OF TRAVEL 



* BY A. I. ROOT. 



MICHIGAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 



Toward night we made a brief call on 

 Charles Shuneman, of Ionia, Mich. His 

 wife is the bee-keeper, with the help the 

 children give her. Well, just here we met 

 an unexpected situation of affairs. I don't 

 know that I ever before in my life found a 

 bee-keeper (or bee-keeper^55) who was going 

 to quit the business because of being ioo 

 successful. Mrs. S. says she greatly en- 

 joj'ed bees until this season. She had en- 

 joyed studying them and building up colo- 

 nies; and this present year all that marred 

 her enjoyment was the fact that she had se- 

 cured a tremendous honey crop! The hon- 

 ey was beautiful in quality and great in 

 quantity; but she said it was too hard 

 work for any woinan, and her husband was 

 in other business so he could not give her 

 any assistance; so she wanted to sell out 

 and give it up. If the crop had been more 

 moderate, or possibly none at all, she might 

 have gone on keeping bees. There are very 

 queer things in this world of ours, and 

 there are some funny people in it. Perhaps 

 Mrs. S. may conclude that, with the help 

 of the bright boys and girls around her, 

 she may, after a winter's rest, go on with 

 the bee business. The children were great- 

 ly pleased to see an automobile right in 

 their own dooryard. But we were so much 

 behind in our appointments that we had to 

 hurry on. 



Just at dusk we pulled up at the home on 

 the hillside of A. H. Guernsey. Friend G. 

 says I made him a call ever so many years 

 ago while waiting for a train at Ionia; but 

 I have been trying ever since to recall the 

 incident. He pointed out to me some bees 

 in a good-sized hollow log, with modern 

 section boxes on top; and he said I was 

 greatly interested in that log gum when I 

 made that brief call more than twenty years 

 ago; and as I looked at that apiary on the 

 steep hillside there seemed to be a faint 

 glimmer of something familiar in years gone 

 by. Friend G. is a busy man; and when I 

 saw him take a potato-hook in his hand, 

 with a pail and lantern, in the evening, after 

 his wife had whispered something to him, I 

 begged to be permitted to go along and hold 

 the lantern. Well, on another part of that 

 steep hillside we dug some nice potatoes, 

 and what do you think they were? Why, it 

 was my old favorite, the Early Michigan; 

 and it seemed to me as though only Michi- 

 gan can produce such potatoes, so floury 

 and appetizing, as we had for breakfast 

 the next morning. 



We were very pleasantly entertained over 

 night in Lansing, at the home of Isaac 

 Parker. We found friend P. in a very 

 pretty little shop midway between his home 

 and his bee-yard and garden. By the way, 



a pleasant tidy shop with convenient tools, 

 each one in its place, is one of the pleasant- 

 est sights I know of around a bee-yard, or 

 near any farmer's home, for that matter; 

 but a shop that is full of disorder, the tools 

 sticky with honey, and so full of rubbish 

 you can never get through it, is any thing 

 but pleasant to contemplate. Now, dear 

 friends, don't any of you be in haste to put 

 on the coat I have made, for the honey- 

 house in "our own apiary," and another 

 building where we store hives, cushions, 

 etc., come pretty near the picture I have 

 been trying to describe. Well, friend Par- 

 ker has a very prett}' shop, and he looked 

 happy and contented when we found him 

 at work there. Perhaps one reason why 

 things were in such good order all around 

 is that he and his wife are prett}' well 

 along in years, and, if I am correct, he has 

 no other business on hand except his gar- 

 den and small apiary. He probably has 

 plenty of time to keep things tidy, and have 

 his tools all in order. But I have wondered 

 a great many times if it were not possible 

 that a tidy shop saves enough time to pay 

 for keeping it in order. I suppose there 

 are extremes both ways. Sometimes I have 

 thought it next to impossible for a busy 

 man to keep every thing tidy — tools all 

 under shelter when a storm comes up, etc. 

 Then again, I have decided, when I have 

 spent time enough in hunting for something 

 to buj' a new one, that it paid in dollars 

 and cents to have things put away, besides 

 the feeling of comfort and happiness that it 

 gives to look around when you get up in 

 the morning and find every thing in good 

 shape. Another thing, friend Parker's 

 home is emphatically a Christian home. 



Our arrangements were such that we had 

 time enough to make only a brief call at 

 the home of A. D. D. Wood and sons, who 

 have for many years done quite a business 

 in manufacturing hives, etc., in Lansing. 

 The warm welcome I received, even though 

 my stay was so brief, I shall not soon for- 

 get. 



When we passed through Lansing we had 

 our machine overhauled again at the auto- 

 mobile factory, and they said our job of put- 

 ting in the new shaft was all right. A few 

 trifling repairs were made at Lansing, and 

 we ran on to the town of Charlotte. This 

 is another of the beautiful Michigan towns, 

 with its great multitude of handsome up-to- 

 date homes. We reached Charlotte at just 

 sundown, and arrived at Hillsdale, 57 miles 

 distant, before 11 o'clock. At this point I 

 bade Huber good-by and went home on the 

 cars, leaving him to manipulate the auto- 

 mobile alone. If anj' one of j'ou is curi- 

 ous to know just why we parted company, 

 I think I shall have to explain briefly that 

 he was more interested in a certain young 

 lady he became acquainted with while go- 

 ing to school in Oberlmthan I was; and he 

 rather wanted the automobile with him when 

 he made her a call. Our trip through Michi- 

 gan, and return, occupied us, with the calls 

 we made on bee-keepers, about three weeks; 



