676 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 15 



beat them at every point. He made three 

 stops on the way; but had he not been 

 obhged to wait for the coming of the train 

 containing his gasohne with which to fill 

 his tank he might have made the distance, 

 187 miles, with only two stops. At one 

 time when the wind was strongly against 

 him the train came pretty near getting 

 ahead; but when this puff of wind let up a 

 little he easily showed his supremacy, at 

 this early stage of the invention of the fly- 

 ing-machine, over the locomotive. The pa- 

 pers call it "a new air-line through Illi- 

 nois." Expensive railroad tracks and big 

 bridges are done away with. With this new 

 method of travel it is easy to make a bee- 

 line (exactly as the bee has always been do- 

 ing it) not skipping around the hills and 

 mountains and following the twistings of 

 rivers as land-transportation lines and rail- 

 ways have been doing. I did not notice any 

 mention anywhere on the route of people 

 singing "Praise God, from whom all bless- 

 ings flow;" but it seems to me it would 

 have been very appropriate. 



His average speed, leaving out stops, was 

 33 miles an hour; and if I am correct the 

 greater part of it was against head winds. 

 At one place where he had to wait for the 

 train containing his gasoline he threw him- 

 self down on the ground, boy fashion, and 

 slept till the crowd with the gasoline woke 

 him up. At one time he stopped in a corn- 

 field. From the elevation at which he flew 

 the cornfields looked like pasture lots; but 

 the crowd soon cut the corn out of the way, 

 and he started up out of the field without a 

 particle of trouble. When he reached 

 Springfield he ran up to a pretty good 

 height and circled down like a bird; but the 

 crowds were so great, ready to welcome him, 

 that he really found trouble in finding a 

 place to alight without endangering the 

 lives of some of them. 



The Be cord- Her aid gives us not only a 

 picture of the boy, but nearly a dozen other 

 pictures of his machine, and of the crowds 

 that gathered everywhere. A copy of the 

 Eecord-Herald was sent us by our long- 

 time friend Dr. C. C. Miller. If you wish 

 to read the whole account, get a copy of that 

 paper of the date mentioned. 



Wilbur Wright expresses himself as being 

 well pleased, not only with this new ma- 

 chine (very likely the one we pictured on p. 

 6) but he seemed also exceedingly well 

 pleased with the management of his young 

 pupil. 



An old gentleman of Springfield said, as 

 he witnessed the spectacle, "I have seen a 

 horse fly, but I never before expected to see 

 a man fly." 



At one point on the route the aviator 

 dropped a note where one of the spectators 

 got it, saying, "Machine is working all 

 right. Will make the trip O. K." 



Divers accidents happened along the 

 route to people who were so crazy at the 

 sight of the flying-machine that they forgot 

 every thing else. A little girl was run over, 

 and a boy fell from the top of a box car; and 



a man fell and sprained his shoulder in try- 

 ing to reach the roof of his house by an at- 

 tic stairway. 



At his elevation of something like 2000 

 feet Mr. Broolcins caught sight of the city 

 of Springfield when •14 miles away. He 

 started from Chicago at 9:25, and reached 

 Springfield in 7 hours and 9 minutes. He 

 was in the air 5 hours and 45 minutes, and 

 at one time made 88 miles without descend- 

 ing. In all respects he has broken all pre- 

 vious records. 



After the above was in type the following 

 came from our " long-time " friend, the al- 

 itor of the American Bee Journal: 



It may interest A. I. R. to know that I 

 touched the identical aeroplane that 

 went on from Chicago to Springfield. A 

 name of Iloxie flew there yesterday, using 

 machine. It worked tine. There were 

 more people at the fair yesterday, looki 

 heaven, than ever before at that place ! 



Chicago, 111.. r)ct. 6. Geo. W 



saw and 

 Brookins 

 fellow by 

 the same 

 probably 

 na uv in 



. York. 



Poultry Department 



By A, I. Root 



SELECTING EGGS THAT WILL, PKODUCE PUL- 

 LETS INSTEAD OF ROOSTERS, ETC. 



Langstroth told us, years ago, that no col- 

 ony of bees could prosper unless there were 

 daily accessions of voung workers — young 

 blood, for instance — for that is what we must 

 have. Well, I believe all our successful egg- 

 farms or egg-farmtrs, perhaps I should say, 

 declare there must be a lot of pullets coming 

 on every year to take the place of the old 

 hens; and I think it h:is been estimated that, 

 if you want 250 pullets every year, you must 

 set about 1000 eggs. As a "rule it takes two 

 eggs to make a chicken. Again, only half 

 the chickens will be pullets. The males 

 must be disposed of for broilers or roasters. 

 AVell, we used to be told that certain eggs, 

 say the long ones, would produce roosters, 

 and the round eggs pullets. But this has 

 been exploded by our experiment stations, 

 and, so far as I know, every other test has 

 been exploded. No man alive can tell 

 whether an egg will protluce a pullet or a 

 rooster. But now comes in a new invention 

 or discovery, that is, if it turns out true. We 

 grant in the outset that no one can pick out 

 eggs that will produce pullets; but one of 

 our subscribers thinks he has hit on a plan 

 whereby we can produce eggs to order that 

 will make moislly pullets. Listen to him: 



1 will give you something I think is new in the 

 chicken busines.s, at least. Three of us neighbors 

 here have tested it, and found it to come true. Get 

 a full-blooded M'hite Wyandotte rooster and full- 

 blooded Plymouth Rock hens. Put them together: 

 set the eggs from those hens and you will raise 

 mostly black chicks, and all the black chicks will 

 be pullets, or at least it turned out so with our neigh- 

 bors and us. They may not always all turn out pul- 

 let.s, but they did with us— not a rooster among 

 them, and they made large hens and good layers. 



Gate, Wash., May 27. J. S. Blair. 



After receiving the above letter I wrote 

 back I thought he must be mistaken; and 



