1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE'CULTURE. 



855 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS 



A CAKD OF THANKS. 



Friend Root: — Many tlianks to you for your 

 kind publication of Cullinau's letter, p. 7()2; also 

 please accept thanks for your highly conipli- 

 mentory footnotes; and. indeed, the gratitude 

 the bee-keepei's have shown toward nie foi- my 

 services in the last .'iTtli (ieneral Assembly have 

 been to the extent that I fear is undeserving; 

 for yon know that, had I not met with many 

 warm friends in the cause, my eifoits would 

 have been futile: and my heart swells with 

 pride when I reflect that the solid representa- 

 tive men of the State stood side by side with me 

 to elevate the apiarian iiidusti'y of the State 

 abov^e its present level, and make it one of the 

 important industries of the State and of the 

 country. It now remains to be seen whethei' or 

 not the representative bee-keepers will come 

 to the rescue and make our lirst publication 

 one of such im|)0)-tance as will insui'e the con- 

 tinued indulgence of our legislatures, and the 

 inci'eased prosi)ei-ity of our pursuit. Any sug- 

 gestions from you or your many readei's would 

 be most happily received. J. M. HAMBAuciii. 



Springfield. 111., Oct. 16. 



SMUTS IN WHEAT. 



Prof. A. J. Coo/t;— In this section of this State 

 we tind a good deal of smut in our wheat. At 

 a farmers' meeting the question came up. What 

 causes smut? Will this smutty wheat grow 

 smut again? As you are so kind as to answer 

 others, please answer this in Gleanings. 



Scotts. Mo., Sept. 11. J. F. Long. 



It is not exactly sate for one to advise or in- 

 struct out of his own line of study: but I can 

 safely answer the questions asked by Mr. Long, 

 in part at least. 



Smuts in wheat, oi' in any plants, cereals, or 

 otherwise, ai'e really simplest plants or fungi. 

 They grow from seeds called spores, just as' 

 higher plants do. These spores are very 

 minute, and so often escape attention; and the 

 non-scientitic man thinks the fungi must come 

 spontaneously. The scientist, on the other 

 liand, knows that all life comes from gei-ms. 

 seeds or eggs. Thus these smuts do not spring 

 forth spontaneously any more than lireweed 

 comes in similar manner on the site of the burn- 

 ing bi-ush-pile. In both cases the seeds preced- 

 ed the plants, which by germination and devel- 

 opment they produced. 



Like higher plants, fungi must have the pre- 

 existent seeds, and the suitable conditions, or 

 they will not spring forth. This year, wheat 

 smut seems to have met both these conditions, 

 as it is quite prevalent all over the country.) 



There ai'e two kinds of wheat smut, as I tin - 

 derstand it. One receives the spores from the 

 seed. In this case soaking the seed in blue 

 vitriol kills the spores, and tends to prevent the 

 smut in the succeeding crop. Because we have 

 smut in our wheat this year makes it more 

 probable that we shall have it next year, as the 

 spores are now present. But it does not follow 

 that we shall. The spores may be killed or we 

 may have unfavorable cortditions of weather 

 next year, and so no smut, or very little, will 

 be prodnccHl. 



The common pufiliall is a fungus, and the 

 fuinelike (emanations as we ))ress one consist 

 w holly of the myriad spores. Think of the crop 

 if each spore developed I The. earth would be 

 carpeted wi I h them. But not one in a billion 

 grows, and so putfballs ai'e of rai'e occui'rence. 



It is to be hoped that, next year, the condi- 

 tions for wheat-smut development will be ab- 

 sent; but in the meantime It will pay to do our 

 part by trying to destroy all the spoi'es in the 

 seed before we sow it. With no spores there 

 can be no smut, even with the most favorable 

 season for smut-growth. A. J. Look. 



Ag"l College, Mich. 



A f'AHD OF THANKS FROM ED. BKRTRAND, ED- 

 ITOR OF THE REVUE INTERNATIONALE. 



Dear Friend Root: — I wish to thank you very 

 heartily for the engraving of my i)hotograph 

 which you sent me by friend Dadant. as well as 

 for the publication of my biography in Glean- 

 ings. It is an honor, and -a testimony of kind 

 fellow-feeling which I fully appreciate. I also 

 wish to congratulate you on thi^ beautiful exe- 

 cution of your repi'oductions liy |)h()totype. 

 Friend Cowan wrote to me: " (JLE.\xiX(is has a 

 capital portrait of you." and he undei-stands it. 

 as he publishes engravings also. The fact is. 

 you have an establishment wonderfully planned 

 and complete. It is now fourte(Mi j'ears since I 

 ti)-st read Gle.\nings and saw your work, so 

 useful, progri'ss and increase year by year. I 

 congratulate with all my heart on your success, 

 and on the services which you have rendered 

 and will still render, I trust, for a long time to 

 come, to apiculture. 



Believe me, dear friend Root. 



Yours faithfully, 



Ed. IJehtkand. 



Nyon, Switzerland, Oct. 8, 1891. 



[We were very glad to do honor to the most 

 distinguished and piogressive bee-keeper, as we 

 believe, in France or Switzerland. Such cordial 

 fellowship of feeling is api)reciated on our part. 

 The phototype, or half-tone portrait, as we call 

 it. can not help being true to life. We Ameri- 

 cans, you know, have a just pride in the execu- 

 tion of this class of work.] 



tarred paper; dop:s it affect the flavor 



OF HONKY? how IT AFFECTED APPLES. 



I am inclined to take sides with Mr. Bruce in 

 his statement on page 707, as to the cause of 

 the "terrible flavor" of his honey, and for the 

 following reason: 



Two years ago I had a few barrels of fine 

 Baldwin apples: and, wishing to keep them 

 out of doors as long as possible in the fall, I 

 rolled them on some posts and covered them 

 with tarred paper. As the weather became 

 cold I put them into the cellar, and soon after 

 sold the lot to one party. In a few days he 

 called on me and said there was some trouble 

 with the apples — they smelled and tasted bad- 

 ly. I went to look at them: and the moment I 

 put my nose into the barrel I said (to myself) 

 "Tarred paper I" and after cutting into several 

 and tasting of them I was even more convinced 

 of the cause of the trouble. Of course, I re- 

 placed the ap])les with some picked and put 

 into barrels at the same time, but which iiad 

 not been covered, out of doors. Now, the pa- 

 per was laid on the barrels, and this out in the 

 air. Would it not seem as if it would affect 

 honey if put into a clo.se hive, and where the 

 heat would more or less aft'ect it? 



Edmund K. Belcher. 



Randolph. Mass., Sept. ::.'l. 



[Friend B.. 1 am greatly surprised. We have 

 used tarred ])ap('r in the bottom of chalT hives 

 for twelve or fifteen years, but never before had 

 a complaint. We have also used tarred paper 

 for fruit-rooms, and for almost every other pur- 

 pos(>. I do rememlier that, when our fruit-room 

 was (luite new. there wcwe a fe\<- complaints to 



