7::o 



GLEANINGS IN BKE CULTURE. 



Sept, 



Ibink of aud leave out the sweet things— you have 

 plenty of honey, you know?" 



Then a thought flashed all over me, "I'll do it! 

 Bring on your thrashers, and I'll sweeten everj' 

 thing with honey." 



We live four miles from towi;; and in this jam-up 

 hurrying, no man, woman, nor child could be spared 

 to go after sugar; and if we had them at all for 

 weeks, we must have them now. I had several Ma- 

 son jars full of honey that was left on the plates 

 after we had eaten the comb honey off; and with 

 this honey I made grape pics— green-grape pies; 

 put in a layer of grapes, and half a layer more; 

 sprinkle in a small handful of flour, then four table- 

 spoonfuls of strained honey; put on top crust, and 

 bake; also Dutch pies. Put a handful of Hour in 

 the bottom crust, and even it around; lay thin 

 slices of good ripe apple closely over the bottom ; 

 put in a lump of butter as large as a hickory-nut; 

 three table-spoonfuls of honey; grate a Httle nut- 

 meg on top, and fill up with hoiling water; it has no 

 top crust. This is the famous Dutch pie that the 

 belles of Illinois bake to hand out to their beaux on 

 Sunday night when they come home from buggy- 

 riding, only they make it with sugar instead of hon- 

 ey. I made some blackberry pies too, and sweeten- 

 ed them with honey; and wo made cakes, and 

 coDked apple sauce. As Josiah Allen's wife says, 

 "Every thing went off well"— victuals all eaten up 

 slick and clean, a compliment to the cook. But I 

 don't like to use honey for cooking-purposes. In 

 the first place, it is not cheaper than sugar; and in 

 the second place, it doesn't make things taste quite 

 right; and in the third place it is smeary. 



THRASHING-MACHINES AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT. 



Thirty years ago or so I used to help my father 

 thrash. He used a flail, and we children gathered 

 up and carried out the straw after the grain was 

 beaten out. AVe had a smooth mud-flooi'ed thrash- 

 ing-floor between the hay end and the horse end of 

 our barn, and there we toiled day after day. As I 

 sit here writing I see the steam-thrasher at work. 

 They began at eleven o'clock, and in one half-hour 

 more they will have thrashed twenty acres of 

 heavy oats. They can thrash 2000 bushels in a day 

 as easily as any thing. The little black engine, puff- 

 ing its black smoke all day long, does the work of 

 twelve horses, and it eats only coal and water. I 

 like to see a steam-thrasher at work. It just about 

 comes up t6 mj' idea of business. I like to see four 

 men on the rick when one used to be enough, and a 

 whole string of men on the straAvetack handing the 

 straw to each other. I like to see three teams hur- 

 rying away with side-boards on, level full; I like to 

 see the sooty engineer raking the tire and throwing 

 in coal; I like to pee the boys hurrying with the 

 water for the thirsty men, and all the rush and roar 

 of it. I think if I lived in Paris I should be a Com- 

 munist; if in Chicago or St. Louis, I'd be an An- 

 archist and shoot policemen. As it is, I take a wild 

 delight in having thrashers, harvesters, or any 

 thing to break this everlasting monotony. They 

 have finished thrashing now. Itis seven o'clock; 

 and since eleven this morning they have thrashed 

 1037 bushels of oats, machine measure. It will 

 weigh out eleven or twelve hundred. They could 

 have thrashed more, but they br.ikc a rod or spring 

 or something, and had to send a man four miles to 

 a blacksmith to get it mended. That took about an 

 hour and a half. ^f ah \i,a B CT AddOCK. 



Vermoat, lUIuois, 



My good friend Mrs. C, the reason why 

 honey will not answer as well f'oi- sweeten- 

 ing pies, and other things of a like nature, 

 is because there is too much fruit-juice al- 

 ready ; and while sugar would take up this 

 fruit-juice, honey siini)ly becomes diluted by 

 being added to it. Honey is not good to 

 l)ut on apple-pudding, for the same reason. 

 It tastes watery, and somewhat insipid, 

 while even brown sugar, with a little butter, 

 is delicious. You can remedy the matter 

 somewhat, by using candied honey from 

 which the liquid portion has been thorough- 

 ly drained. If honey is not cheaper than 

 sugar now, it bids fair to be very soon.— I 

 agree with you in liking to see business go- 

 ing on ; but I do not believe I should ever 

 want to see the monotony of life broken by 

 becoming an Atiardiist. — At our recent 

 State Fair I saw arrangements that do away 

 with the hard labor of the t<tackers, to a great 

 extent, and I presume that a few years more 

 will show far grcaicr improvements in this 

 branch of farm "industry. 



AN A B C'S OBSERVATIONS. 



WHAT KIND OF A BRUSH SHALL WE USE IN GET- 

 TING BEES OF THE COMBS? 



OTICINQ in a late Gleanings an article from 

 "Josepho," something about brushing vs. 

 shaking bees from tlie comb, I feel like add- 

 ing my experience, which may be useful to 

 some. I think "Josepho" must work with 

 black bees only; for while I have found them easily 

 shaken ofiF, I And it very difl5cult to shake Italians 

 from the combs; besides, sometimes I wish to get 

 bees from combs containing more or less unsealed 

 hipney, and the honey shakes out. I have used the 

 Davis and other similar brushes, and been provoked 

 by the bees attacking the brush, struggling frantic- 

 ally into the bristles, and calling for help until the 

 thing was full of angry bees, and the air too, for 

 that matter, for anger is contagious, especially in a 

 bee hive. I felt like throwing the thing away, and 

 did sometimes, when the bees mistook my hand for 

 the brush. 



One day, after I got a comb in hand I found I had 

 left the brush at the house; so I pulled some green 

 timothy straws and used them. I noticed at once 

 that the bees did not return to fight. Afterward I 

 made brushes by cutting the straw about 14 in. long, 

 about 20 of them, binding about 4 inches from one 

 end for a hand-hold. I laid them lengthwise on the 

 comb, brushing the bees quite as reacjily as with 

 any brush ; and after a month's use in the apiary 1 

 did not notice a single instance where the bees 

 seemed angered at the brush. I suppose, having 

 been accustomed to being brushed from flowers by 

 the waving blades of grass, they took it as a matter 

 of course. Now, I suggest that brushes be made 

 with long- splints of buckeye or rattan, stainecl 

 green, to resemble grass-blades, and see how the 

 bees seem disposed toward them. The grass itself 

 is not durable enough to be satisfactory. Now, Mr. 

 Editor, I think I see you scratching down at the end 

 of this, that old bce-kcepers knew all about this 

 long ago, and had discarded it, or that you had de- 

 cided that bees were color-blind, and that color 

 could make no difference. 



DO BEES distinguish COLORS? 



Speaking of color, bees, as well as every thing 



