The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17
FROM SHORTHAND TO BEES.
Miss Wheeler Finds the Change
Pleasant and Profitable

\ furnishing little farm of three acres
ON the north end of Lake Champlain pro-
duces yearly more than two and a half
tons of honey and 1900 ducks besides
/ quantities of fruit which is marketed at
| the neighhoring summer hotels. 1t is
/ owned and run by Miss Frances Wheeler.
( for several years a stenographer and
! typewriter in New York. says the ''Trib-
! une.' In an interview Miss Wheeler said:
1T seems far cry from stenograph
! ers place in New York to the ownership
and superintendent of a duck and bee
ranch. Yet, in looking backward the
sense of harmony between the two occu-
pations deepens. / have grown to under
stand that it does not so much matter
what we do as how We do it; that the
qualities required for successful stem
ographer are equally necessary for a
duck and bee rancher. In both callings,
If success is to be attained. ignorance
must he overcome by perseverance, tact
and common sense
Miss Wheeler learned stenography in
the first class of the kind formed by the
! Young Women's Christian Association at
/ No East Fifteenth Street. After sew
eral years of office work her hands be-
came disabled. and the problem arose
how to save the little family home at
Chazy, N Y, with its bee plant.
Regarding her first experiences she
Now that the difficulties are surnount-
ed can smile al the combinations which
ignorance and ingenuity inflicted on those
bees and the results that swept back
upon their owner that first summer 1t
can be safely said that my apiary ran the
gamut of all the nisfortunes to which a
bee yard can be subjected without actual
ruin. A winter study of bee literature,
coupled with the practical knowledge
already gained, paved the way, however
to future success, and | have never had
trouble with the bees since that time, ex-
cept through occasional inefficient help
hl in cod ~
TO seventy colonies.
TT he duck industry grew out of the bee
work, and was started to justify me in
hiring a capable man for the entire 6. a.
son, so that | might have his services in
the apiary. The first year | had five Pc
king ducks, their eggs being set under
hens. That fall thirty We're kept, and in
the spring incubatOrs were used for
Matching. l now winter seventy for
breeding. While nearly every incubator
on the market can give fair hatch what
is most needed is machine which, with
out the aid of the operator. will hold the
temperature steady all night in the egg
chamber. No one can appreciate this who
has not been up and down night after
night during the Matching season re2u-
lating refractory incubator. The ma
chimes that l now use hold the tempera-
ture steady for days at time.
My market is the biggest hotel on the
lake, and furnish all the ducks that il
uses, another hotel taking the overflow.
The birds are shipped twice a week from
the middle OF June until October l. [
spare no expense trouble to produce
the finest table duck.
began with practically no capital
This, OF course. was disadvantage be
cause il necessitated an economy which
was costly in time and bird life and
Obliged the use of lot of exasperatine
makeshifts. My greatest losses and trou-
bles were caused by poor help. When a
woman selects rural pursuits as her vo-
cation the question of hired help I'm the
form of general utility man confronts
her at the outset The laws of nature
some way seem reversed when she takes
the reins, and it requires study for her TO
learn to guide her team in her own ferni-
nine way to the end of the trip without
bolt or smash-up.
1t Is fascinating work to take a Mace
and develop its possibilities. The sofl re-
sponds generously to ones efforts and
all nature smiles gratefully in fruit and
mower. About such life there is an in
dependence and scope beside which an
office position seems very tame"
CloVernook Miss Wheeler's homo ia
an ideal spot. 1t occupies a sunny slope
running down to the river, and conprises
three broad terraces The middle terrace
is In the possession Of the bees The
lowest one. along the river is covered bv
a grove. The buildings, backwards ana
garden front the road.