604 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



much from the tip of the front end to the 

 end of the steering apparatus.* 



While conversing with tlie brothers I made 

 the remark that we had seen the bicycle go 

 through an evolution, and that the automo- 

 bile was also now so well along in its evolu- 

 tion that the inventors of both machines are 

 now settling down to very narrow lines. 

 Inventors have about ceased making 

 changes in the bicycle, and most of the au- 

 tomobiles on the market are getting closer 

 and closer to established lines. I then re- 

 marked to the brothers, " How long will it 

 take for the flying-machine to go through a 

 like evolution? " 



Orville replied at once, "Mr. Root, the 

 flying-machine has already passed- the peri- 

 od of evolution;" and he pointed me to the 

 fact that the machine I was looking at that 

 day, and admiring, was but slightly differ- 

 ent in its main features from the one I saw 

 years ago. In talking the matter over after- 

 ward, Orville snid he did not mean to say 

 that there would not be great improvements, 

 and very likely many important improve- 

 ments, on the machine; but he felt pretty 

 certain the successful machines are going to 

 be either along the line of their invention, 

 double plane or possibly monoplanes, such 

 as they have now, and propellers to push it 

 through the air. England, France, and 

 Germany have each purchased the patent 

 from the Wright brothers, and have factories 

 turning them out more or less rapidly. 



During my first visits, years ago, before 

 their patents were secured, I was asked to 

 omit certain things in my write-up; but 

 when I to-day asked if I could describe all I 

 saw Wilbur replied, "Mr. Root, you may 

 tell any thing you choose about our work, 

 providing you tell the truth.'' God knows 

 we as a people want the truth always and 

 everywhere. 



Six years ago, in my write-up of inven- 

 tions I referred to Columbus' discovery of 

 America. When he looked abroad over 

 this green earth and across the great waters 

 he asked the question, "What is beyond 

 and across the great sea?" But the world 

 had lived 1492 years, and no one till his time 

 had been able to tell what was away off 

 across that watery waste. Just think of it, 

 friends! Yankee ingenuity and Yankee 

 curiosity have now got to such a pitch that 

 we have compassed the North Pole, or at 

 least have come pretty near it; and now in- 

 ventive genius is at work to solve the mys- 

 tery of the South Pole. Recent dev^elop- 

 ments in Alaska indicate great things are 

 destined to be brought to life in that region. 

 Columbus was not content until he had 

 pushed ahead and opened vij) a new world 

 beyond the one known in his time. And 

 let me predict once more in closing that the 

 Wright brothers have by honest, faithful, 



hard, and untiring work, and scientific study, 

 wrested from Nature this great secret, and 

 we are just now on the eve of exploring the 

 mystery of the great "upper deep." 



Poultry Department 



By A. I. Rout 



* Inventors aU over the world have tried " some- 

 thing different " — machines to float by the flapping 

 of wings, as a bird flies, for instance: but their ma- 

 chines ciiii not 11 1! — tliat is. they do not fly unless 

 they make it pretty near something in the line of 

 following the Wright brothers from first to last. 



POULTRY-HOUSES FOB SOUTH FLORIDA; IS 

 A ROOF NEEDED? ETC. 



The writer, being very anxious to find the right 

 kind of poultry-house for South Florida, has sub- 

 mitted Mr. A. I. Root's article to the best poultry 

 experts he can And in this section. In the article 

 of July 15, page 457, criticism is asked for. The 

 writer's knowledge of the conditions here being so 

 recently acquired he does not feel competent to 

 criticise. The men whose views he will try to give 

 are fitted by long experience to speak, and he 

 attaches considerable importance to what they 

 have said. As his plans call for about forty colony 

 houses in the near future, the Question is a very 

 vital one to him. Is it necessary to build as expen- 

 sive a house as the senior editor's ? Can a few dol- 

 lars be saved on each one of the forty without det- 

 riment to the fowls and without cutting down the 

 egg-production ? 



The matter was first laid before Mr. B.. who came 

 here 18 years ago from Northern Ohio. He is a hus- 

 tling, wideawake, active man who has not lost his 

 energy by long residence in this warm country. 

 He landed at Ft, Myers with a sick wile and a little 

 babe and no mnney. The doctors had said that 

 Mrs, B. could not live. As a forlorn hope he spent 

 all he had to get her here. Seeing that there was 

 government land here he came up the river in a 

 skiff and began the then herculean task of opening 

 a home in the wilderness. There were no markets 

 and no means of transportation: but he won out. 

 and the wife still lives, perhajxs the most tiseful 

 woman in the community. The above is written 

 that one may judge whether or not his experience 

 was gained in a school that fits him to pass judg- 

 ment. He pronounces the house too costly, and 

 too uncomfortable for the chickens, I5etter, as he 

 sees it, a cold rain occasionally with a few days 

 slowing up on the eggs, than the fleas. The raking- 

 out of the house each morning is too much labor, 

 and is unnecessary. In this sandy soil, and in this 

 healthy climate, things keep sweet and clean much 

 longer than they do in Ohio. One who is running 

 a large poultry-ranch can't stand either the work 

 or the expense of daily cleaning, and it is not need- 

 ed here. His poultry-house is boarded up six feet 

 high on the north, east, and Mest. The south side 

 and the top are covered with two-inch poultry- 

 mesh to keep out the varmints. His fowls are 

 healthy and vigorous. His egg production is large, 

 and almost continvious the year rovmd. 



It is hard for us who have formed an idea of what 

 is good poultry management under the rigorous 

 conditions of the North to understand the far 

 South and what it reciuires, I. therefore, quote 

 the opinion of a successful farmer who has been 28 

 years in this neighborhood and 40 years in this 

 State. He is one of those practical fellows who 

 make a success of life, always having something to 

 sell, and that something the thing that the market 

 demands. He says no roof on the hen-house. The 

 cold storms come very rarely. When they do the 

 egg yield suffers for a few days. lender a roof the 

 fleas flourish and the hens sicken and die. 



The most successful chicken-man in this section 

 is Mr. S., who has a live-acre grape-fruit grove 

 about half a mile east of Alva, and who fertilizes 

 his trees with the droppings from 000 hens. He has 

 been at this business 12 years, and makes egg-pro- 

 dviction yield him a good living. He is a shrewd 

 thrifty New Knglander, counting the cost of every 

 thing and getting a maximum yield at a minimum 

 cost. He feeds oats, corn, and shorts. The first and 

 the last are kept about the place In boxes to which 

 the birds have free access. They are given about 

 half as much corn three times a week as they would 

 like to have. Corn is too heating for tliis climate. 

 His birds roost in the trees to cut out the cost of 



