Substantially the patent as issued in 

 full ; 3d. Winter rigged. Views Nos. 1 

 and 2 will be best understood by the de- 

 scription in July number of the Jour- 

 nal, page 307. The photograph will 

 be placed in the Journal album for 

 the inspection of the curious. 



Okra— Gumbo. 



A correspondent in the North wishes 

 a description of Okra or Gumbo, which 

 is mentioned in Cook's Manual on page 

 232, as a honey producer. Okra is a 

 vegetable that is slow in finding its way 

 to the garden and the table in the 

 Northern States, while in Southern 

 families it is in very general use. The 

 plant is much like a huge hollyhock, 

 with yellow flowers, and upon these the 

 bees may be found working in great 

 numbers. 



The flowers are succeeded by angled 

 pods, six inches or more long, and over 

 an inch thick. These pods, when so 

 tender that they will break, are very 

 mucilaginous and give off, when cooked, 

 a large amount of gummy matter. If 

 they begin to mature, they become 

 woody, tilled with hard round seeds, and 

 quite unlike anything edible. Though 

 in the catalogues, the plant is called 

 " Okra or Gumbo, 1 ' the name Gumbo 

 properly belongs to the dish prepared 

 from the pods, rather than to the plant 

 itself, as the Southern cooks make 

 Gumbo without the use of Okra, but 

 substitute the pith and young leaves of 

 sassafras, one of the native violets and 



perhaps other plants. The best Gumbo 

 is made with chicken, though veal and 

 other meats are sometimes used, and is 

 merely a stew made thick by the use of 

 an abundance of Okra pods. Gumbo 

 soup is any soup to which sufficient 

 Okra is added to give it the desired 

 thickness. The young and tender pods 

 boiled and dressed with melted butter 

 are liked by many, but they are rather 

 too gummy for those who have not be- 

 come accustomed to them. A dish 

 made of the Okra pods and tomatoes 

 stewed together is also prepared. 



Prospects for the Future. 



We are in receipt of numerous let- 

 ters making inquiries as to the out- 

 look of the honey harvest, prospective 

 prices, etc. The California honey crop 

 will be almost or quite a total failure, 

 and advices from that State indicate 

 but a small supply for the general mar- 

 ket, mostly made up from the remain- 

 der of last year's surplus. In the New 

 England and Eastern States the total 

 crop will not be more than, if quite an 

 average yield ; in New York and Mich- 

 igan about an average crop ; Illinois T 

 Indiana, Ohio, Iowa,Wisconsin, Minne- 

 sota, Kansas and Missouri, about 20 

 per cent, above the average ; Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and other 

 Southern States generally, about 30 to 

 40 per cent, short. These estimates are 

 based on the average per colony win- 

 tered through ; and, of course, taking 

 the disastrous losses in winter and 

 spring, it reduces the general yield for 

 the whole country to less than 50 per 

 cent, of that of last season, and taken 

 with the surplus on hand, it still leaves 

 the supply far below an average. 



Although we are not of those who. 

 generally advise " holding off " for bet- 

 ter prices, yet in this instance we would 

 say to those who have nice honey in de- 

 sirable shape, to " make haste slowly" 

 in throwing their product upon the mar- 

 ket. Give the bee-gum and the box- 

 hive men a chance to dispose of their 

 second-rate stuff, as generally it is in 

 poor shape and will not keep to advant- 



