Even the Hornets Have 

 Ideas Sometimes 



Popular Science Monthly 

 New 



\V 



EIGHT luiiulrfd miles up the Amazon 

 RixtT, ill South America, 



I hornets 

 liih is unique 



A^ 



nest was found recenll\ 

 in the annals of 

 wasp architecture. 

 It is constructed of 

 clay, put together 

 not in tiers after 

 the custom of 

 wasps, but in a 

 solid mass, the 

 weight of which 

 ma\- be judged from 

 the accompanying 

 photograph in 

 which the nest is 

 shown suspended 

 on a stick and re- 

 quiring both hands 

 of the exhibitor. 



The rounded wall is unusually thick 

 and a question arises as to how the tiny 

 builder came to the conclusion that the 

 best way to keep his house cool in that 

 torrid temperature was to put as much 

 solid cement between its interior and 

 the sun as he could get. He evidently 

 figured, also, that his body would require 

 less space if he slid into his home length- 

 wise than if he flew straight in, in the 

 usual way. He tried it out. an\wa\-, 

 making his doorwa}' just a long, narrow 

 slit through which his slender body could 

 pass easily enough but which would be 

 burglar-proof to almost an\- kind of 

 marauder daring to attempt in\asion. 



The Sun Has Baked This Wasp's Nest 

 Until It Is as Hard and Almost as 

 Heavy as if It Were Made of Stone 



of the machine. 



Rolling, Harrowing and Seeding 

 With One Machine 



\ internal citiiibuslion engine takes 

 the place of horses in driving the 

 combined roller and harrow invented by 

 an Indiana man. 

 With the machine 

 a field of growing 

 grain can be rolled 

 without uprooting 

 it by the travel of 

 horses' feet. One 

 or more harrows 

 can be combined 

 with the rolling im- 

 plement, or may be 

 omitted from it. 

 according to the 

 work to be done. 

 A seeding attach- 

 ment is provided 

 at the forsvard end 

 Clo\erseed. for example, 

 may be sowed broadcast by the seeding 

 attachment, the seed rolled into the soil, 

 and then harrowed to prexent the surface 

 from becoming encrusted. Or the opera- 

 tion of the machine may be varied for 

 other seeds, soils, and conditions. 



The direction of the tra\el of the im- 

 plement may be reversed and the soil 

 harrowed, rolled and the seed sown upon 

 the rolled surface. The machine does 

 the work of four horses 

 and two men at a cost of 

 one and one half cents 

 an acre. Clover and 

 grasses can be 

 saved by roll- 

 i n g t h e ni 

 down with the 

 m a c h i n e 

 \\- h i 1 e the 

 ground is still 

 much too soft 

 for horses to 

 walk on. 



The Combined Roller and Harrow Which Does the Work of Four Horses and Two Men 

 at a Cost of One and One Half Cents an Acre, to Say Nothing of the Time Saved 



