710 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



round is easy. I sit and put in foundation. 

 It is just as easy as to sit and read. I 

 have put in a whole lot in one day, too, for 

 Mr. B. F. Smith, of Cowley, Wyo. I have 

 filled 60 supers a day, two pieees in each 

 box, 28 boxes to the super, and I tried to 

 put thein in as well as Miss Wilson does for 

 Dr. Miller. 



No other business on earth requires a 

 more reliable man than the bee business. A 

 man must not only know how to do the 

 woik, but he must do it on time, and a lot 

 of it, to earn even $1.50 a day. 



This honey-house, owned by my present 

 employer, Mr. B. M. Allen, of Birmingham, 

 Ala., has a concrete floor, hydrant water, 

 stove, roll-top writing-desk. Outside are 

 shoAvn some of the 200 hive-stands that I 

 am painting, ready to replace old ones. 

 While ants are hard on wood here. I paint- 

 ed with roof tar. There are 250 colonies 

 near this house. 



No, I do not use the tank shown in the 



illustration for extracted honey. It holds 

 14,000 gallons of water supplied from an 

 artesian well. 



For cutting foundation I make a miter- 

 box, similar to what carpenters use, except 

 that I make it the same width as the foim- 

 dation used and six inches longer. It is 

 liigh enough to hold twenty-five sheets of 

 foundation — a block held a little at the end 

 to butt the foundation against, another to 

 push it along. The same saw-cut is used lo 

 cut narrow and wide starters. I use a case- 

 knife with a wavy edge which is sharpened 

 all along on one side, so that the bevel 

 pushes tlie foundation away. 



Not so much of the melted wax gets on 

 the end to stick to the cut-off sheet. Then, 

 too, I wipe all the wax off the knife after 

 every cut and keep the caseknife blade on 

 the hot plate of the foundation-machine. It 

 is as easy to cut foundation as to eat buck- 

 vheat cakes and honey. 



Birmingham, Ala. 



THE POLLEN -YIELDING WATTLES 



BY T. PAYMENT 



The wattles are undoubtedly the national 

 lioweis of Australia. Like the gum-trees* 

 they are spread over the entire continent in 

 varying forms, some of which are very 

 beautiful indeed. The illustration depicts 

 the bright-yellow pollinia very clearly. 

 When fully opened the flowers have a 

 unique fluffiness extremely difficult to de- 

 lineate. A close scrutiny of the blos,som 

 gives one the impres- 

 sion of floral pompoms 

 composed of delicate 

 stamens radiating 

 from a common center. 

 The specimen shown is 

 a native of New Soutli 

 Wales, g e n e r a 1 1 y 

 known as "Cootamun- 

 dra'' wattle {Acaoia 

 Baileyana). This va- 

 riety is greatly favor- 

 ed for garden ]:tlant- 

 ing on account of if.s 

 rapid growth a n d 

 great beauty. The fo- 

 liage is very featliery 

 and of a rare shade of 

 green, somewhat like 

 that of the carnation. 



While Australia has 

 a vast number of 



good (eucalypt) pollen-plants, none are 

 comparable with the wattles. In Gleanings, 

 June 15, J. E. Crane desires an analysis 

 of pollen. W^e are better oflt' than that, for 

 we have had many samples of pollen anal- 

 yzed, and the wattles are away ahead of 

 anything in Australia for nitrogenous pro- 

 tein content. It is doubtful wliether any 

 pollen in the world is richer in the essential 



* The vpin.iculJir name 

 for tl:e various species of 

 eucalypti. 



Floral pompoms, delicate stamens radiating from a common center. 



