834 



GLEANINGS IN BEEoCULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



error. I have been acquainted with maple 

 sugar more or less all my life, and never saw 

 any thing of the kind. The holes through 

 cakes of sugar are caused by syrup leaching 

 out. The worms that friend Moore found had 

 got into the sugar by accident. The following, 

 from our U. S. Eutomologisi, corroborates what 

 I have said: 



United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Division of Entomologv, 

 : Washington D. C. ^i 



Dear S("/'.s.'— The insect which you send with your 

 letter of Oct. 31, and which was sent to you by Mr. 

 Herman F. Moore, of fi303 State Street, Chicago, III., 

 is one of the common grain-worms known as Plodia 

 interpunctclla. This insect is ordinarily found in 

 farinaceous material, and its occurrence in maple 

 sugar was probably accidental. It was probably 

 crawling away from its original food to find some 

 g'ood place in wliich to spin its cocoon. 



Nov. 3. L. O^ Howard. 



mntomologist. 



ON THE WHEEL. 



My first wheel, as you perhaps remember, was 

 a Columbia. My second was a Columbia; my 

 third was a Victor flyer; the next was a Victor 

 racer; then a Eambler. The one I have been 

 riding for the past season is a Remington racer 

 weighing 19 pounds. When my weight was 

 down to 110 or 115, I found that an 18 or 20 lb. 

 wheel did very well; but since I have regained 

 my health, and now weigh from 132 to 135, I 

 find a little heavier weight advisable. While I 

 can still ride the light wheels, I do not like to 

 risk going down one hill and up another, espe- 

 cially where the ground is a little rough at the 

 bottom, as I would do with a heavier wheel. 

 Another thing that has induced me to make 

 a change was that I have felt rather anxious to 

 test one of the latest make of the Columbia, 

 made by the Pope Manufacturing Co. The 

 result is, that now I am riding a 25-lb. Colum- 

 bia; and I shall have to admit that it is the 

 easiest-running wheel I have ever got hold of. 

 The gear is 70*; and for climbing hills I be- 

 lieve I do not want any higher gear. With 

 this I can go up or down any hill that one is 

 likely to find on a decent wagon-load. 



During the last few days I have been having 

 rare enjoyment in riding before some of our 

 October gales. For the greater part of the past 

 week we have had a pretty severe wind from 

 the south; and as there were several places I 

 wanted to visit a few miles north of here, 1 took 

 advantage of the wind. Without very much 

 effort one can easily keep up with a pretty 

 heavy blow. The result is, you scarcely feel any 

 wind at all; and for the most part you are in 

 almost a dead calm; audit seems funny to see 

 the trees bending at each side of the road, and 

 hear the wind whistle while you do not feel it 

 at all. Two miles and a half north of here I 

 passed the old farm where I spent a consider- 

 able part of my early years. The old orchard 

 where I helped to plant the trees attracted me 

 especially. Great quantities of apples have 

 been going to waste in this orchard. The own- 

 er says he has been buying pigs all the while 



* I should mention, also, that this wheel is made 

 with an eight-toothed rear sprocket; and I believe 

 the general decision is that such a sprocket has 

 much less strain, and consequently is easier, than 

 the smaller seven-toothed sprocket. 



in the effort to get enough to eat up the fruit; 

 but the apples are still ahead of the pigs. Over 

 on the east side of the orchard were two trees 

 that I think father and I purchased as fall 

 pippins. Some of the fruit this season weighed 

 1^ lbs. each. You see an apple could be sliced 

 up like a watermelon, and it would do very 

 well for a whole family. I believe thai, as a 

 rule, these monstrosities are considered coarse; 

 but I did not find them so at all after my short 

 wheel ride. As 1 had a ride of ten or twelve 

 miles before me, I ventured on eating two 

 pretty large-sized pippins, and it turnel out 

 ]ustaslfelt sure it would — they did not dis- 

 turb my digestion at all. How I did enjoy that 

 ride that afternoon, up hill and down, through 

 Beebetown and Strongsville! I remember of 

 thinking about the middle of the trip that the 

 greatest event in the way of giving health and 

 muscular strength to the poeple of this age was, 

 without question, the advent of the wheel. 

 Has any prominent doctor— in fact, have all of 

 the doctors — contributed so much to the cause 

 of health as the manufacturers and venders of 

 the modern wheel ? I leave you to answer the 

 question. I am sure nothing in the whole 

 round of amusements and recreations has come 

 anywhere near giving mankind so much real 

 solid wholesome enjoyment as wheelriding. 

 There may be some evils connected with it, as 

 with almost every other form of recreation; but 

 it seems to me they are few and small compared 

 with their advantages. It takes the patient 

 into the open air. It stimulates him to use his 

 muscles. It wakes him up and stirs him up. 

 It gets him out of ruts (sometimes into them, of 

 course) and out of stagnation; it is conducive 

 to kindly feelings toward all humanity: it 

 prompts the rider to " think no evil," but to get 

 out of and above little spites and prejudices. 

 It helps him to have faith, and to believe that 

 he is in real truth created in God's own image. 

 Long live the veteran establishments that have 

 given these beautiful wheels to suffering hu- 

 manity! If I am correct, the Pope Mfg. Co. are 

 not only pioneers in this missionary work, but 

 they have been from the start one of the largest 

 concerns, if not the largest, in the world; and 

 somehow or other I feel sure that their product 

 is equal to any thing made anywhere. 



In the vicinity of Strongsville I visited what 

 is called the great pumping-station. This in- 

 stitution, with massive, beautiful modern 

 machinery, pumps oil from almost all of the 

 great oil-fields in Ohio. This oil is stored in a 

 huge tank having a capacity of 28,000 barrels. 

 From this tank it is pushed through pipes by 

 means of powerful pumps to all the principal 

 oil-refineries, no matter where they are located. 

 Instead of hauling the oil from place to place 

 on the cars they simply pump it through great 

 pipes laid under ground. When asked if they 

 permitted visitors to look about the premises, 

 the clerk replied in a very good-natured 

 manner that I could go anywhere and ask 

 all the questions I pleased provided I did 

 not use tobacco and would not be scratching 

 matches so as to endanger their property. Now, 

 he did not know, as the readers of Gleanings 

 do, that I could be quite safely trusted so far as 

 that part of it was concerned. 



In order to save fuel they condense all the 

 steam made by their great engines. This steam 

 is condensed by a stream of cold water. The 

 water soon becomes quite hot in performing its 

 office, and it is therefore pumped into a sort of 

 race exposed to the open air. The water in 

 this race runs around the margin of a pond that 

 covers perhaps an acre of ground. After it has 

 had time to cool off in the open air it is taken 

 into the works, once more to go over its office of 

 condensing exhaust steam. 



