Jan. 1. l!»r.> 



me, for I have a fan run by a belt froin a 

 pulley on the engine. The fan was too 

 much of a good thing at first, for it kept 

 blowing out the blaze: but I remedied this 

 by making a shield of a board in front of 

 the stove, so that I have had no trouble 

 since. 



The great advantage of the steam knife is 

 that one does not have to stop to scrape the 

 cappings olT the blade. The metal is so hot 

 that they slide off as fast as they get on, 

 and it is just liere that the hot knife saves 

 a great deal of time. Some have objected 

 to the steam hose or tube, but I have never 

 found it awkward in the least. In a very 

 few minutes one becomes accustomed to it. 



Mathis, Texas. 



[There can be no question but that on 

 some honeys the steam-knife is greatly su- 

 perior to the cold knife or one dipped inter- 

 mittently in hot water. The steam-knife 

 keeps hot every minute of the time, and, as 

 Mr. Caraway says, it warms the honey and 

 makes it unnecessary for one to keep scrap- 

 ing it on something to remove the excess of 

 cappings. — Ed.] 



■—•-^ 



BEE-KEEPING A RECREATIVE PURSUIT FOR A 

 PROFESSIONAL MAN. 



BY REV. J. M. LEWIS. 



fruit-trees, of which almost every garden 

 has at least a few, and will attract' more at- 

 tention than a rare plant or exquisite flower. 

 North Westport, Mass. 



I Monder every suburbanite who has a 

 garden does not have at least one colony of 

 bees. They seem to me to be safe to keep, 

 and perfectly harmless if treated with kind- 

 ness and due consideration. 



I have several colonies which are within 

 ten feet of the house, and about thirty feet 

 from the road where teams and automobiles 

 are passing almost continually, and they 

 have been there for more than five years, 

 and have troubled no one. 



I am sending some photographs of an 

 ornamental hive which stands in the center 

 of my flower-garden, the home of a fine col- 

 ony of golden Italians. Scores of i)eople — 

 men, women, and children, have visited my 

 garden this season, and not a person has re- 

 ceived a sting. I have repeatedly opened 

 the hive and removed the frames with the 

 bees clustered on the combs to show my 

 friends what can be done with bees. 



I never use any protection in working 

 among my bees, and but very little smoke; 

 and sometimes I do not use the smoker at all. 



The ornamental hive shown in the pic- 

 tures is a fine advertisement, as it attracts 

 the attention of people passing by. It is a 

 douVjle-wall hive. The inside is a standard 

 ten-frame hive, and takes two supers. The 

 brood-chamber has glass sides and back, 

 and gl iss in the top cover, which I use 

 when no supers are on. The foundation on 

 which it stands is made of stones of differ- 

 ent formations gathered from near and far, 

 laid in Portland cement. 



There are many ways in which an orna- 

 mental hive can be made, and yet be prac- 

 tical and an ornament, as well as a benefit 

 to a flower or vegetable garden and to the 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET OF FLOWERS. 

 A Brief Sketch of the Work of Sprengel and Mueller. 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL. 



The human race has long assumed (being 

 the only organism at liberty to take itself 

 at its own valuation) that it occupies a po- 

 sition of fictitious importance in the uni- 

 verse. It was a current maxim in the Mid- 

 dle Ages that man was the measure of all 

 things. The world and its inhabitants, so 

 ran this pleasant myth, was created a few 

 thousand years ago solely to provide him 

 with a congenial place of abode; and, be- 

 cause of his paramount importance, was 

 placed in the center of the heavens. Not a 

 little ingenious (and to-day amusing) spec- 

 ulation, was expended in an effort to explain 

 how natural cataclasms and noxious ani- 

 mals and plants were disguised blessings; 

 but that such was the fact, no doubt was 

 permitted to exist. From these modest pre- 

 tensions we have been receding for some 

 centuries with much hesitation and reluc- 

 tance. Perhaps the close of another hun- 

 dred years will see them abandoned alto- 

 gether, and humanity willing to admit that 

 it is a part of nature, not outside and above 

 her. 



So long as these teachings prevailed it 

 was very naturally a popular notion that 

 the bright colors of flowers were of no im- 

 portance except as they gave human i)leas- 

 ure. Much sui^erfluous pity was wasted on 

 those blossoms which, to use the words of 

 the poet Gray, blushed unseen and wasted 

 their sweetness on the desert air. Only a 

 few years ago a similar sentiment was ex- 

 pressed by the editor of one of our ]50imlar 

 magazines: "There was apparently no 

 particular reason why the earth, at the time 

 of x\dam, should have been literally strewn 

 with blossoms. They were of no particular 

 use; there was only one man to see them." 



This same idea is again repeated in Em- 

 erson's beautiful lines — 



THE RHODORA. 



In Ma.v. when sea-wind.s pierced our .solitudes 

 I found the fresh rhodora in the woods. 

 Spreading Its leafless blooms in a damp nook 

 To plea.se the desert and the sluggish biook; 

 The purple petals, fallen in the pool. 

 Made the black waiers with their beaut.v gay: 

 Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool. 

 And court the flower that cheapens his array. 

 Rhodora ! if the sages ask thee why 

 This charm is wasted on the marsh and sky. 

 Dear, tell them that, if eyes were made for seeing, 

 Then beauty is its own excuse for being. 



It would seem never to have occurred to 

 poet, editor, or philosopher that the beauti- 

 ful hues of flowers might be useful to the 

 plants producing them. 



It was a German jiastor, Christian Con- 

 rad Sprengel, at the close of the 18th cen- 

 tury, who first pointed out the true signifi- 



