Year: 1903
Type: book
Abstract: Moreover, I don't mean to undertake to lay down a method-ical system of bee-keeping whereby one with no knowledge of the business can learn in "twelve short lessons" all about it, but will just talk about some of the things that I think would interest you, if we were sitting down together for a familiar chat.I take it you are familiar with the good books and_ periodicals that we as bee-keepers are blest with, and in some things, if not most, you are a better bee-keeper than I; so you have my full permission, as you go from rage to page, to make such remarks as, "Oh, how foolish!" "I know a good deal better way than that," etc., but I hope some may find a hint here and there that may prove useful.I have no expectation nor desire to write a complete treatise on bee-keeping.Many important matters connected with the art I do not mention at all, because they have not come within my own experience.Others that have come within my experience I do not mention, because I suppose the reader to be already familiar with them.I merely try to tall about such things as I think a brother bee-keeper would be most interested in if he should remain with me during the year. FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. BIOGRAPHICAL--BOYHOOD DAYS.Fifty miles east of Pittsburg lies the little village of Ligonier, Pa., where I was born June 10, 1831.Twenty miles away, across the mountain, lies the ill-fated city of Johnstown, where my family lived later on, and where my only living sister resides at the present day.The scenery about Ligonier is of such a charming character that in recent years it has become a summer resort, a branch railroad terminating at that point.Looking down upon the town from the south is a hill so steep that one wonders how it is possible to cultivate it, while between it and the town flows a little stream called the Loyalhanna, with a milldam upon whose broad bosom I spent many a happy winter hour gliding over the icy surface on the glittering steel; and in the hot and lazy summer days, with trouserlegs rolled up to the highest, I waded all about the dam, the bubbles from its oozy bed running up my legs in a creepy way, while I watched with keen eyes for the breathing-hole of some snapping turtle hidden beneath the mud, then cautiously felt my way to its tail, lifted it and held it at arm's length for fear of its vicious jaws, and with no little effort carried it snapping and struggling to the shore.Ever in sight was the mountain, abounding in chestnuts, rattlesnakes, and huckleberries, and I distinctly recall how strange it seemed, when all was still about me, to hear the roar of the wind in the tree-tops on the mountain eight or ten miles away. EARLY EDUCATION.My earliest opportunities for education were not of the best.Public schools were not then what they are ' .
Author: C. C. Miller
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W3040997554