624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



OCTOBEE, 1918 



ON page 956 

 of the De- 

 cember is- 

 u s e I said: 

 " We are told 

 by competent 

 authority that 

 more gasoline is 

 being used just 

 now every day 

 than is produc- 

 ed by the whole 

 wide world, and 

 we get along 

 only by draw- 

 ing on our re- 

 serve stores. 

 How long can this last?" 



At the time I made the above statement 

 I felt sure that a. crisis was coming, both 

 on coal, gas, and gasoline — more especially 

 on the latter. I was moved to make the 

 remark, largely because of the tremendous 

 traffic in automobiles on Sunday, especially 

 when the weather is fair. Even on the 

 country road that goes past our home, au- 

 tomobiles were flying past so thickly and 

 with such speed that I felt sure that few if 

 any of the occupants were on the way to 

 public worship, even if they did seem 

 thicker than ever about church time. And 

 I felt, again and again, that a large part 

 of this waste of gasoline was unnecessary, 

 especially so far as the Sunday traffic was 

 concerned. 



Now, I suppose I hardly need tell any- 

 body who lives in our. United States what 

 hapjiened on the first Sunday in Septem- 

 ber*, 1918. A pi^oelamation was issued, re- 

 questing that all pleasure trips on Sunday 

 be stopped. Greatly to my surprise as well 

 as pain, church-going was not even men- 

 tioned in the exceptions to the rule; and 

 while I felt pained to think how it would 

 interfere in many cases with church at- 

 tendance, I felt glad to witness the alaci-ity 

 with which our people, so far as I knoAv, 

 tlu'uout the land, acquiesced in the rule. 

 As it was brought about to win the war, 

 there was nothing for patriotic people to 

 do but to choose some other way to get 

 to church or stay at home. . What intei'est- 

 ed me particularly was that electric auto- 

 mobiles did not require any gasoline, and, 

 of course, they were permitted to go as usual 

 the same as horse-drawn vehicles. We are 

 told that in the city of Cleveland close to 

 1,200 electrically jiropelled automobiles 

 were on the streets. Now, this was well ; 

 but at the same time every one oP those 

 1,200 autos depended on the consumption 

 of coal, gas, or gasoline indirectly. I need 

 not tell you there is almost as much wori-y, 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



Who hath gathered the wind in his fists ? who 

 hath bound the waters in a garment? — Prov. 30 ;4. 



I will give unto you a land flowing with milk and 

 honey — Lev. 20:24. 



Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know 

 to choose the evil from the good. — Isaiah 7:15. 



if not quite, 

 about the short- 

 age of coal for 

 tlie coming win- 

 t e r ; and the 

 wells that are 

 producing gas 

 in a large part 

 of our country 

 are giving out 

 more or less. It 

 is probably only 

 a question o f 

 time when 

 something must 

 take the place 

 of gas, gasoline, 

 or coal. Of course, quite a little is being 

 done about clearing up stumps and useless 

 trees in what remains of our forests. And 

 here comes in the wind once more. 



With the above preface I am ready to 

 take up my travels in North and South 

 Dakota, as given in our last issue. In my 

 closing remarks I spoke of the expense of 

 storage batteries. My good friend Forrest, 

 mentioned in our last issue, has some stor- 

 age batteries of his own make; and for 

 stationary purposes I think they may do 

 Aery well. When I asked him how he got 

 his lead in porous shape for the leaden 

 plates of the battery, he said he poured 

 melted lead into water, and then flattened 

 it out so as to make his plates. 



After leaving Wyndmere, N. D., I called 

 on 0. J. Seller of Jamestown, N. D. Mr. 

 Seiler has recently installed one of the 

 electric windmills. It is up on a little hill 

 near where his various buildings are in- 

 stalled in the center of his great farm. 

 Perhaps I should mention that, on account 

 of the severe wind in both of the Dakotas, 

 most residences have a plantation of trees 

 about the buildings, barns, etc., to cut off 

 these fierce winds from the northwest. 

 Well, in this region there are a few native 

 trees along the streams and rivers. Quite 

 a good-sized stream runs thru the Seiler 

 farm ; and some beautiful large forest trees 

 are found along this stream. As a protec- 

 tion, both to the stock and the people, the 

 barns and other buildings are located down 

 in the valley close to the stream. For this 

 reason the electric current from the mill 

 has to be carried quite a little distance by 

 wire. Well, I can hardly take space to tell 

 you of the different kinds of machinery 

 worked by power fi-om that windmill. I 

 can give you some idea of it by telling you 

 that his storage battery consisted of 90 

 Edison cells. I think he told me that he 

 paid something like $800 for the batteries 

 alone; and these batteries store up suffi- 



