1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



849 



pay; and how to lighten the labor and increase 

 the pay is a problem that gives much food for re- 

 flection to the Rxmbler. 



Good friend Rambler, we might have had 

 an opinion that you were one of the slow 

 and easy sort of people, as ramblers are 

 quite apt to be ; but if you can fix a hive in 

 the way you describe, in two minutes, I 

 guess we shall have to give it up. Have 

 you timed yourself by the watch, or do you 

 guess it would be about a couple of min- 

 utes? I agree with you in regard to wages. 

 There is another point you have not yet 

 touched upon. Those who get 25 cents an 

 hour are usually located in the city, where 

 expenses are far different from what it costs 

 for board and lodging on a farm. Nowa- 

 days one is almost looked down upon if he 

 looks for a hotel where he can get accommo- 

 dations for only a dollar a day. Now, one 

 who has to pay about a dollar a day for 

 board certainly can not hire out for the 

 wages paid to farm laborers. The average 

 farmer gets board and lodging for perhaps 

 less than 25 cents a day, therefore he can 

 afford to work at a low price. Whenever I 

 get back from one of my trips I always feel 

 an additional degree of satisfaction with 

 both bed and board at home. We have just 

 what we want to eat at home, and a good 

 bed to sleep in. Our meals do not cost 50 

 cents apiece, nor does a good comfortable 

 bed cost half a dollar, or two dollars or more 

 if you take a Pullman sleeper. Give me a 

 farm or the suburbs of a country town, 

 rather than the city with all its privileges. 



EXHIBITING AT FAIKS. 



CORNERING UP THOSE WHO PERSIST THAT COMB 



HONEY IS MANUFACTURED. AND MAKING THEM 



RECANT. 



|P| UR fair passed off week before last. I was 

 4^1 successful in capturing all the premiums 

 |<^J pertaining to honey and bee-keepers' sup- 

 ^* plies, comb and extracted honey, and first 

 and second on display of hives and fixtures. 

 I had the two-story chaff hive; the one-story chaff 

 hive, with the Simplicity top and also without; the 

 Simplicity portico hive with all its combinations; 

 zinc queen-excluders, crates, T supers, etc. But 

 the greatest novelty I had on the fairground was 

 the extractor. It created more queer expressions 

 than all the other stuff I had. Some people would 

 call it a washing-machine; some an ice-cream freez- 

 er, others a machine to manufacture artificial hon- 

 ey, and there is just where the fun would come in 

 sometimes. Some would contend that artificial 

 comb honey could be manufactured, and then out 

 would come a pack of the $1000-offer cards. One 

 smart Alec from Iowa, who happened to be at our 

 fair, jumped me heavy. He said there was a man 

 who lived l l / 2 miles from him who followed it for a 

 living— kept bees, though, but sold hundreds of 

 pounds of manufactured comb honey. I let him go 

 on till he got about to the right place, then I went 

 for him with a vim. I had a good crowd around, 

 and I went for him with cards, etc., till he craw- 

 fished clear out. 1 explained to him, with a sheet 

 of foundation in my hands, how it was made, its 

 uses, etc., till he just confessed that he believed 

 that was the kind of stuff the man in Iowa was 



making. I have worked off a great prtjudice 

 against extracted honey in the last three years, 

 and can sell my crop of it at the price of comb — 

 from 15 to 520 cts. per lb. Lewis Hockett. 



Fairmount, Grant Co., Ind., Oct. :i, 1889. 



THE WHIP SCORPION. 



PROF. COOK TELLS US SOME MORE WONDERFUL 

 THINGS. 



Tjo SUBSCRIBER for Gleanings, S. C. Corwin, 

 9fX|, Sara Sota, Fla., sends me a very curious ani- 



/JW mal which he wishes me to name and de- 

 ■*=*■ scribe. This I am glad to do, and to send a 

 good drawing, made by one of my students, 

 Mr. H. B. Weed, as the animal is not only a curiosi- 

 ty in itself, but is very rare in the United States. I 

 believe this one species is all that comes within our 

 limit; and this is found only on our very southern 

 border. It is more common, I think, in Mexico. 

 This is the " whip 

 scorpion," or Thrhj- 

 ph o n u s giga/ntei0; 

 The figure gives 

 half the natural 

 size. The name 

 "whip scorpion " is 

 given because of its 

 long lash-like tail. 

 Its striking resem- 

 blance to the true 

 scorpion explains 

 that part of its 

 name. The scientif- 

 ic name, giganteus, 

 is easily explained, 

 and is very appro- 

 priate. By the eight 

 legs we are sure that 

 this belongs to the 

 sub-class Arachnoidea, or spider group. Its joint 

 ed abdomen removes it from the true spider order 

 and also from the mites. Its long maxillse, or pal 

 pi, places it with the harvestmen, false scorpions 

 and true scorpions, in the order Pedipalpi. Trans 

 lated, this word means foot-like palpi. These palpi 

 are the large organs just ia front of the first pair of 

 legs. In the true scorpions and little false scorpions 

 (chelifers) they present claspers, or forcep - like 

 pinchers, at the end. This is true in a less degree 

 in the whip scorpion, as is seen in the figure. Th< se 

 whip scorpions are easily told from true scorpions, 

 as the long lash-like tail takes the place of the 

 horn, or sting, of the true scorpion. Thus th<se 

 animals are harmless so far as this part of the body 

 is concerned, while the true scorpions can give a 

 poisonous sting, which is often reported fatal to 

 man, though it is probable that this is exaggerated. 

 The friend who sends this specimen asks if it be 

 true as stated, that the tail can do fatal damage. 

 This is another case like that of the tomato larva, 

 where man's nonsensical fear has lead to gross de- 

 ception. Neither the lash of this animal nor the 

 horn of the tomato larva is in the least harmful. 

 The long front legs are quite reuiarkaMe in the 

 whip scorpion. As will be seen in the figure, tfotse 

 front legs are nearly twice as long as the o;h' rs. 

 In this group of animals the jaws are called cheli- 

 cerce. In these, as in true spiders, there is a poison 

 apparatus connected with the chdicerw. As 1 have 



