770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



ON THE WHEEL. 



When we were boys learning to swim, we 

 used to wade away from the shore as far as we 

 could out into the deep water, and then swim 

 for the bank. You see, that was a great deal 

 safer than starting from the shore and swim- 

 ming out beyond ourdepth: and I have thought 

 for some time that I should like to make a trip 

 on the wheel in something the same way — go 

 away a hundred miles or more on the cars, and 

 then try wheeling it home. A good many 

 horses go better, you know, when they get their 

 heads turned loward home; and 1 did not know 

 but my wheel might be somewhat inclined the 

 same way. Accordingly, on thel2rh of Septem- 

 ber I found myself in the city of Xenia, Greene 

 Co., O. Before starting home, my nephew pro- 

 posed to take me around to see the people and 

 Soints of interest. One of our subscribers, Mr. 

 [iram Budge, is starting in bees and small 

 fruits. Their ground is a gravelly loam, just 

 right for gardening, and the gravelly sub- 

 soil gives an almost perfect natural under- 

 drainage. This was very plainly understood 

 by an excavation on their premises, where they 

 had been taking out building-sand. Three or 

 four feet below the surface was a stratum of 

 porous gravel — so porous that the water from 

 the heaviest rains is out of sight almost as fast 

 as it falls. Down still deeper there is a sub- 

 terranean flow of water. This he found by 

 sinking wells; and it was further evident by 

 going over to a hillside, perhaps half a mile 

 away, where this underground vein of water 

 came out in the form of a magnificent spring of 

 beautiful soft water, in sufficient quantity to 

 water a small town; and delicious watercress 

 was scattered all along down the hillside where 

 the spring water flowed. Our friend told us 

 that it was sold in market to some extent in 

 the spring of the year; but I found it most ex- 

 cellent, and just right for use, so it seemed to 

 me, even in the fall. 



HOW THEY MAKE ROPES. 



Xenia is celebrated for its rope-manufactories, 

 or rope-walks, as I believe they are called. 

 The raw material comes in large bales. It 

 looks like coarse tow or flax. My companion 

 said it was either hemp, sisal, or jute, he could 

 not say which; and as we were in a hurry we 

 did not find out. Some of the readers of this 

 can tell us more about it, perhaps. I was much 

 interested in this process of straightening out 

 this tangled-up fiber so as to make a smooth, 

 even, soft, endless line or tape. The operation 

 is something like combing out thesnartein a 

 schoolboy's hair. The fiber, when it goes into 

 the machine, seems to be all snarled and twisted 

 up, and it has to be combed out. The teeth, 

 which are firmly fastened in a leather belt, are 

 like long slender spines of tempered and polish- 

 ed steel. In fact, they look like long delicate 

 thorns, such as we see on some varieties of 

 thorn-trees. First a belt, moving comparative- 

 ly slow, takes up a lot of this fiber. Then the 

 same kind of belt, moving at a higher rate of 

 speed, pulls the fiber from the first bflt. Its 

 more rapid motion has the eff'ect of pulling out 

 the tangle, or, in other words, drawing each 

 strand of the fibers out straight, ready to be 

 made into a rope. This operation is repeated, 

 each spine-covered belt moving faster and fast- 

 er until the big soft rope, the size of your arm, 

 gets gradually attenuated down to the size of 



your little finger; or, for binder's twine, it comes 

 down still smaller, it seems a little strange 

 that the final work of these machines should be 

 to make this soft untwisted rope or cord so per- 

 fectly even and regular in size, and with the 

 fibers so straight and true that one can hardly 

 believe that each individual thread does not 

 run from one end of the rope to the other. 

 After this rope of fibers is straightened through, 

 then the twisting and braiding machines get 

 hold of it; and, oh my! how they did just make 

 the work fly as they piled up the coils of beau- 

 tiful rope! In this way every thing is made, 

 from the size of common binder's twine to the 

 great ropes used in the oil-fields to handle drills 

 weighing tons, and which are let away down 

 into the earth a quarter of a mile or more. 



VISIT TO A CANNING-FACTORY IN XENIA, O. 



We next visited the tomato-canning factory. 

 The weather was exceedingly warm, and the 

 tomatoes had been ripening tremendously. Be- 

 fore we got near the factory we found the 

 streets filled with teams loaded down and piled 

 up with bushel boxes filled with tomatoes. At 

 Xenia they do not take any particular pains to 

 shut out visitors. In fact, they are so crowded 

 with business, to take care of the tomatoes 

 before they spoil, that they have pushed their 

 works almost out into the open air. Let me try 

 to follow the process all through. 



As the farmers come in with their loads, a 

 boy with checks in his hand gives each new 

 comer his appropriate number, that he may 

 unload and go home in his proper turn, so as to 

 have no rivalry or crowding past each other. 

 Sometimes these teamsters have to stay in the 

 streets all night, waiting their turn, especially 

 when the wi-ather happens to rush the toma- 

 toes. Well, the next load is called for, and the 

 boxes are lifted out of the wagon, and weighed, 

 the owner receiving some sort of check for his 

 product. Close by the platform where they are 

 lifted from the wagon is a huge perforated 

 boiler. Into it the tomatoes are tumbled, with- 

 out any washing or sorting either, so far as I 

 could discover. In fact, the whole establish- 

 ment was rushing things at such a rate that 

 there was hardly time for any thing of the sort. 

 By means of appropriate steam -pipes the 

 wagonload of tomatoes was brought up to the 

 boiling-point, or pretty near it, in a twinkling; 

 then by means of appropriate machinery the 

 perforated boiler was lifted from the water, 

 and its steaming contents turned into a large 

 tray or vat. Inside of a great ii^losure, more 

 than a hundred women were at work peeling 

 tomatoes. They get three cents a bucketful for 

 this operation; and the wagonload was passed 

 into the buckets, held up to receive the scalded 

 fruit, just about as fast as they were unloaded 

 from the wagons outside. Each one carried 

 her bucketful to her own appropriate stand or 

 tn'ile; and as she peeled them the inside was 

 diopped into another similar bucket. These 

 women and girls get to be very expert. With 

 almost one cut of a knife the peel is remov- 

 ed and the tough part around the stem cut 

 off. In fact, they work so rapidly that a good 

 many times there must be a good deal of the 

 tomato wasted. The peelings are dumped into 

 great wheelbarrows. These go out along a 

 platform, and are dumped into a sort of pit, or 

 pond, excavated in the soil. As this stuff soon 

 ferments, a quantity of lime is sprinkled on it 

 as the material accumulates. I do not know 

 what the city of Xenia thinks of this way of 

 managing; but unless this material is carried 

 off and plowed into the ground, I should be 

 afraid of the consequences. It seems to me this 

 refuse must be worth something to feed to pigs, 

 provided one could gather up pigs enough to 

 take care of it all. I believe Cummins draws 



