574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1 



generally stands at 75 or SO; but several old 

 residents assured me that I had accidental- 

 ly picked out about the three warmest weeks 

 they had had in a dozen years. That you 

 may have accurate figures in the matter, I 

 submit the above table of temperatures for 

 •luly, for ten years past, furnished by Mr. 

 Ten Broeck. 



l-'rom the table It will be seen .July was about the 

 average for ten .vears past, the greatest departure 

 being In the number of mornings with the ten^per- 

 ature below 75"^. In regard to the number of days 

 on which rain tell, it is to be noted that the hours 

 of rainfall are few in number.' on several of the 

 rainy days the sun shone all the time except during 

 the shower. The average duration of rains is about 

 30 minutes: seldom over an hour. During 18 years 

 there have been only four days on which rain fell 

 continuously from sunrise to sunset. It will be 

 noted that in no day in last July was it entirely 

 cloudy. Those features of the absence of much 

 cloudy weather and long rains make the Florida 

 climate so delightful. The heat, too, while steadily 

 uniform, is never so extreme as it is further north: 

 and the absence of chilly weather, when fires or 

 thick clothing is necessary, that is so common 

 north. Is also a delightful feature of the Florida cli- 

 mate during the summer season: so that It may be 

 safely as.serted that the climate of Florida is the 

 least miserable of that of any part of the United 

 States. The Pacific coast, with its rainless summer 

 and con.sequent dust and high range of tempera- 

 ture, is a good deal more miserable than the moist 

 summer season of Florida with its lower ranee of 

 temperature and vigorous growth of vegetation. 

 Then in winter the Pacific coast has its long cold 

 rainy spells and gales, and l-'lorida has dry clear 

 weather, with just rain enough till .March: then we 

 are usually short, it must be confessed, till ,Iune. 

 H. H. Ten Uroeck. 



WATER FOR DRINKING I'URl'OSES; WHERE 

 SHALL WE GET IT? 



Since Terry's book has gone out, inquiries 

 keep coming right along as to where to get 

 such a filter as he describes. In answer to 

 the question, he sends us the following; 



Dear Mr. 7?oo<.-— The man whose letter you en- 

 close asks for a filter to make rain water nice and 

 clean. The one we have used for year.s, bought of 

 Montgomery Ward A Co., is a coihplete success for 

 this purpose. It is the best I know of on the market. 

 ( )f course, no filter will take mineral nwt of hard wa- 

 ter. Boiling dangerous water is, of cour.se, some 

 help: but one simply eats the dead carcasses of the 

 bacteria, instead of the live things. It doesn't seem 

 as though there were any great gain. There are 

 only two kinds of water that are right, the best 

 known to mortals. They are clean rain water filter- 

 ed, and distilled water. We use the former entire- 

 ly. ( ;od gives anyone a chance to have pure water. 



Hudson, O., July 19, T. B. Terkv, 



The above agrees exactly with my exi)eri- 

 ence. Once in a while I am obliged to drink 



water containing minerals; but I have so 

 long been accustomed to i)ure soft water 

 that nature always makes some kind of 

 protest, especially when I drink the artesian 

 water of Florida. I am told I might become 

 accustomed to it, so it would be i)erfectly 

 agreeable; but while rain water is so cheaj) 

 I do not think I shall change my drinking- 

 water. You will understand from what Ter- 

 ry says in the above that he filters even his 

 rain water. Well. I suppose a gooil filter 

 will remove some dust, dirt, and debris from 

 almost any rain water, even if it falls on a 

 clean slate roof. We have not used a filter 

 for some years. Distilled water is, of course, 

 all right; but the world seems slow in learn- 

 ing the im|)ortance of keeping this distilled 

 water in either a glass or stoneware recepta- 

 cle. If put into nletal pails or tanks, es]>e- 

 cially galvanized receptacles, the distilled 

 water begins at once to attack and dissolve 

 with rem irkable avidity almost any metal. 

 Down in Florida, when it does not rain very 

 often in the winter time, say for a week or 

 more, I often catch water in a lot of clean 

 tin ])ans set out in the rain. This is then 

 kept in a large covered pitcher. Of course 

 the ]iitcher is i)laced in tho coolest i)lace in 

 the house; and this pure rain water suits me 

 to a dot. 



And by the way. friends, I do think that 

 Montgomery Ward iS: Co. should have a vote 

 of thanks from the whole United States, 

 and i)erhai)s from the whole wide world, for 

 having done more toward establishing fair 

 and uniform prices for every thing any one 

 may want to buy. Their catalog will be 

 worth dollars to you if studied, even if you 

 never send them an order at all, because it 

 gives you a birdseye view of what is in the 

 market, and what you ought to pay for it. 



I'KICE OF SEED ADVANCING YEAR BY YEAR. 



1 have been very much interested in the possibil- 

 ities of sweet clover as a soil-Improver, for six or 

 seven years, I have been obliged to lime my land 

 and inoculate it with the sweet-clover bacteria, and 

 Mm now making some headway. The first seed I 

 bought in quantity was from Alabama at -S5.00 per 

 100 lbs., and for the last five or six years they have 

 advanced the price each year, and the iiast spring 

 I paid -8.00 per 100 lbs., and freight. I am now sow- 

 ing a little with other legumes in my eighty-acre 

 orchard. 



I have just started In with bees this spring, to .see 

 if they will make the setting of the apples any more 

 certain, 



DuBols, 111,, July 5. A. A. Htnki.ey. 



