1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



615 



of the ports, a< the necessity of the case de- 

 mandeo, to admit or cut off steam 



Then we visited thn dilterent buildings where 

 power was being us>.d. A little bit of electric 

 motor, shut up iii a closet or box, propels pon- 

 derous machinery. It seems almost incredible 

 that such trifling and diminutive pieces of ma- 

 chinery could move a great wide belt of h.-avy 

 leather with such irresistible power. You see, 

 the idea here is, instead of the old-fashioned 

 way of great long shafting and belting, just a 

 little copper wire carries the amount of force 

 needed. Our readers who visited the World's 

 Fair, perhaps noticed great hoisting machinery 

 that tuoved overhead on a suitable carriage. 

 Well, the electric motor is located at one end of 

 these movable carriages, and a trained man or 

 boy sits by it and moves simple little levers, 

 much a> the motorman uses on the street cars 

 as he throws on and off the electric current. 

 Iron pipes, glowing redhot, large enough for a 

 child to walk through standing erect, are 

 handled by these hoisting-engines as easily and 

 as silently as a child would swing an apple by 

 the stem. I suggested that this work was 

 dangerous to life and limb, even with the best 

 trained experts, to handle the lever. The day 

 after my visit, by the breaking of a chain one 

 poor man was both crushed and blistered by one 

 of these great redhot iron pipes. Was there 

 ever a time in the history of the world when 

 careful and skilled mt^n and women were more 

 needed than now ? It seemed to me as I looked 

 on, that, if I were one of those workmen. I 

 should want to be sure that the one who is in- 

 trusted with this miariity power should be a de- 

 voted Christian. He should be a man who 

 loves his neighbor as himself, in the truest 

 sense of the word — one who would work as 

 carefully and faithfully as if the busy crowd 

 below were each and every one his oivn child. 

 I was pleased to see cooling streams of beauti- 

 ful pure water all through this great plan*. 

 The men who handled the melted iron were, 

 many of them, naked to the waist, and once in a 

 while they would take off their " sweaters " — 

 at least that is what I should call them— and 

 wring otit the pprspi ration, and cool oft' the 

 garment under one of tlie steady streams of 

 pure cold water. Every thing is handhd with 

 such accuracy and precision, and every thing is 

 kept so neat and tidy throughout the whole 

 plant, that I am told that accidents are compa?'- 

 atlvely rare. Notwithstanding the intense heat 

 at m;iny points, and the laborious work, thf^ 

 utmost good nature seemed to prevail all 

 around among the workmen. Even though the 

 30th of July was an exceedingly warm day, 

 they all seemed to be bright and happv. 



Some time in April, as soon as we cnul 1 get a 

 piece of ground dry enough, we planted extra 

 early sweet corn, wax beans, shell beans, and 

 early peas. We usually put in all thes<> things 

 early, thinking we shall be so much ahead if 

 the fro»t does not catch th(^m. If it does, then 

 we can plant over. With the vipw of planting 

 a second crop between, we put the rows rather 

 farther apart than usual. The frost did not 

 catch them, so we secured a good crop of all, if 

 we except the early sweet corn, wiiich was 

 pretty badly used up by the cut-worms. After 

 the crops had got pretty well along we gave 



them an extra good hoeing and cultivating; 

 then with our marker and furrower we made a 

 deep furrow between every two rows. We 

 made this as deep as we could and not injure 

 the beans, corn, and peas by hilling them up 

 too much. Then we planted Craig potatoes in 

 the furrows The covering had to be done 

 partly with the cultivator and partly by hand; 

 but it enabled tts to double- crop the land. The 

 Craig potatoes came up promptly, and for a 

 time we feared they were going to crowd the 

 other stuff ; but with the abundant rains they 

 all itiade an excellent growth. With th<> tops 

 of the Craig potatoes, and the first crop too, the 

 ground was fully occupied, so there was hardly 

 a chance for a weed to come up. Some weeds 

 did get in, however, especially where the corn 

 was missing on account of the cut- worms, and 

 of course no cultivating with the horse could 

 be done until the early crops were gathered 

 and out of the way. By this time the Craig 

 vines were so rank and long that we had to 

 throw them over to one side with the hoe- 

 handle, so as to get the horse and cultivator 

 through. In this way we gave the whole patch 

 one good cultivating, hoed and pulled by hand 

 all the weeds that got in. then spread th" tops 

 back again. The prospect is now that we shall 

 have two good paying crops on the same 

 ground, and for sevi-ral weeks both crops occti- 

 pied the ground at the sam*^ time. Of course, 

 this mnkes more work, and necessarily some 

 hand work; but with very rich high-priced 

 ground close to market I think it will pay.' 



adui.tp:ration of:!Seeds. 



Mr. J. S. Johnson, of Kyneton, Australia, 

 sends us in a letter a newspaper clipping, which 

 we take pleasure in giving below: 



A bill introduced by Mr. Frank Madden, M. L. A., 

 to prevent the adulteration of seeds, and to regu- 

 late the sale thereof, has been circulated. Jt states 

 tliat any person who witli intent to def i and •' kills " 

 seeds ' y artificial means so as to destroy their ger- 

 minating power, or dyes seeds by any process of 

 coioriiip-. dyeing-, or sulpljur smoking, or sells any 

 such killed or dyed seeds, shall bo liable to a tine of 

 £.5 for ttie first offense, and to one of £oO for the 

 second, and to have bis name published, together 

 with the particnlars of hi-< offense, at his expense. 

 The bill further provides tiiat "on the trial f>f any 

 such offense it shall not be neressiiry to prove an 

 intent to defravid any particular pt'ison; it si all be 

 sufficient, to prove that the person accused did the 

 act cliarged with an intent to defraud." Persons 

 making unieiisonal)le complaints against seedsmen 

 will be liable to pay the cosi s of the legal proceed- 

 ings. 



I have long been aware that the seeos of 

 commerce are more or less "doctored"' by the 

 plans outlined above. Let me explain a little. 

 We used to have a black wax snap bean that 

 we thought a good deal of; but I noticed al- 

 most every year that tbere, would be mere or 

 less bogus plants among the others. These 

 bogus plants produced a dry-shelled bean look- 

 ing jtHt exactly like the others; but they 

 had a green pod, and were not a wax bean at 

 all. Now. in this case had the s[)urioiis seeds 

 got in accioeutally. or was it because tiie grow- 

 er was ni)t careful enouah to weed out the 

 spurious plants? Hut years when the seed 

 was Very scarce and high priced, we found 

 more and mo?'e of these spurious plants. The 

 customer who purchased them cotn plained, 

 sooner or later, as a matter of course; therefore 

 it became an advantage to kill the vitality of 

 the spurious clieap bean, so that the tieans not 

 only looked all right when planted, but looked 

 all right when the crop came up. only it took a 

 good deal more seed to plant a given length of 

 row Stratagem peas have always been scarce 

 and high-priced; but the dry peas themselves 



