GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mr. G. W. Barge, Union Center, Wis., who keeps about 250 colonies in addition to 

 managing a cold-storage business. 



luxuiy now as much as formerly, and nearly 

 all children are fond of it — at least, judg- 

 ing by the number of them who come here 

 to get what they want to eat at extracting 

 time. One of these views shows the honey- 

 house and the hives between that and the 

 cold-storage building which faces on the 

 street, so these are in quite a sheltei'ed 

 place. The trees shown in this picture are 

 mostly apple and plum, with one basswood. 

 The other view is on the other side of the 

 house, and shows the row of hives along the 

 arbor-vitae hedge which divides the garden, 

 bai'n, and chicken-yard from the lawn. 

 There are about a dozen basswood trees in 

 the yard. 



Union Center, Wis. 



STUDYING A SWARM FOR RECREATION 



Bees as Vibrating Molecules 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW 



Is there any fact in all the realm of na- 

 ture more marvelous than the phenomenon 

 expressed in the words, " the vibration of 

 the molecules," of which we all see some of 

 the results while none can understand the 

 cause f We know that a mass apparently 

 solid is not really solid, but that the mole- 

 cules composirg it are in constant and rap- 

 id \ibration. We can soften the bodv. we 



can lessen its solidity; we can, perhajDS, 

 liquefy it, and of it form a larger body 

 mass by forcing the molecules further apart 

 and giving them a wider arc of vibration. 

 The blacksmith is familiar with this fact, 

 though he may not stop to reason about it, 

 nor even to contemplate the wonderful phe- 

 nomenon that takes place in his forge or 

 under his hand. When he wishes to enlarge 

 a band of iron, as, for example, a tire for 

 a wheel, he heats it, slips the hot band 

 around the wheel, cools it by a stream of 

 water, and so binds it firmly in place. A 

 similar phenomenon may be observed on the 

 railroad tracks, where it is necessary to 

 leave a little space between the ends of the 

 rails to allow for their lengthening under 

 the hot sun of a summer day. Every rail is 

 a little longer on a summer afternoon than 

 it is on a winter noon. Heat expands and 

 cold contracts, and onlv a moment's thought 

 will assure us that, if a body is larger when 

 hot than it is when cold, it must be of such 

 composition that we may term it " loose," 

 and that the molecules will fly apart under 

 the application of a high temperature. We 

 seldom stop to think that a stone, a piece 

 of iron, a jDiece of metal, or even a piece of 

 wood, is really made up of an almost in- 

 finite number of infinitely small particles 

 held together by a force that, for lack of 

 definite knowledge, we call cohesion. 



So when I see the small swiftly moving 



