380 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



land for growing grain at present prices. I sometimes not only hundreds, but it seemed like 



thought of the artesian wells of South Dakota, a thousand on a single hill. I wondered where 



of the fond hopes of the farmers there, and felt the enormous amount of fertility could come 



a little blue about it myself. Well, where I sit from. Friend Morse explained it by showing 



writing this morning they raise miles and miles me roots of the plant that had been plowed out, 



of beautiful grain of <ill kinds, and they (tlwaijs almost as big as a eommon stove. Late in the 



irrigate it. How little does one part of the world 

 know of what the other part are doing! 



A NOVEL METHOD OF TAKING HONEY. 



Mr. R. S. Thomas, of Winchester, gave, 

 among other valuable facts, the following: 



Not far away is a Mr. James Rawson. who 

 has several hundred colonies, and he takes 

 away alj the honey by means of what he calls 

 a sun extractor. As fast as the bees get the up- 

 per stories well filled, the whole contents is 

 dumped into the machine; and. under the in- 

 tense heat, wax. honey, and all runs out and is 

 caught in proper receptacles. The extractor is 

 12 feet long, and wide enough to take common 

 window-sash. The bottom slopes, like a trough, 

 so as to run out the honey and wax. A false 

 bottom, covered with wire cloth, holds the hon- 

 ey near the sash. Over the wire cloth is coarse 

 burlap; this strains both honey and wax. With 

 this rude apparatus Mr. Rawson took one year 

 23 tons of honey and $?,0n worth of wax. He 

 admits he does not get as much honey as when 

 the combs are emptied and put back; but he 

 claims the value of the wax. with the saving of 

 labor, makes up the diffen>.nce. The honey is 

 made a shade dai'ker, and usually bring-; a low- 

 er price: but wh(>n it is I'un out pretty quickly 

 from soft new combs, the coloi' is pretty fair. 

 The honey is run, while hot. into square tin 

 cans, and ilie whole product of the apiary is got 



season this great root sends up sprouts that 

 grow and bear fruit, as only a plant with such 

 a root can grow. "Storage battery" again. 

 It would seem that nature is not only ahead of 

 us in almost every invention we make, but this 

 orange seems to be a veritable storage battery 

 indeed. It locks up. as it were, in that great, 

 heavy, clumsy root, that is a terror to the gar- 

 dener and fruit-grower, an amount of material 

 for future use that enables the plan t to make this 

 astonishing growth. Are you watching for the 

 moral? Why, train the plant to grow some- 

 thing useful or something good for food, and 

 what a treasure it would be I lam impressed 

 that the thing is possible by seeing some Hong 

 Kong cabbage in a Chinese garden. The veget- 

 able seems to be a sort of hybrid or mongrel 

 somewhere between a cabbage, lettuce, and ed- 

 ible topped beet. The inside leaves are crisp, 

 white, and nice to eat, even raw. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



JUUIBARB, OR PIE-PLANT. 



Of late I have been "getting acquainted" 



^._ _ __ . . ^ with tlie aliove plant; and it seems to me that 



ready for the market with very littlelabor. The it has hardly had' the attention that it should 



heat'of the extractor clears the frames of every 

 thing, so thev are like new ones, except a thin 

 coat of wax that looks like varnish. To save 

 time, both of bees and operator, a new set of 

 frames is put at once into the super, and the 

 bees commence at once to till it up as they used 

 to fill boxes in olden time. I believe our friend 

 proposes to continue this method during the 

 coming year. Should he have a good yield of 

 light sage honey, and his crop bring a cent or 



have. At seasons of the year when fruit is dif- 

 ficult to obtain, and high-priced, pie-plant is 

 cei'tainly a boon to mankind. If you do not 

 believe in pies, have your wife make some nice 

 bread, and use the rhubarb as sauce with your 

 bread and butter. If you want it before it 

 comes outdoors, a very little heat will do the 

 business, as it is one of the easiest plants to 

 force or push that I know of. In the cellar 

 under our machine-shop is a drip-valve, as we 



two less per pouiid than his neighbors who use call it, that takes the condensed water from the 



the extractor, he may lose some of his enthusi- steam-engine above down to the cellar bottom, 



asm. If I am correct, he depends mainly on The water then runs into the cellar drain 



smoke to get the bees out of the supers; but through a small-sized tile. Of course, when 



very likely a good many of them never get out. just coming from the engine the water is a lit- 



but go into the sun extractor with the wax and itle warm. Well, one of our boys said he knew 



honey. he could raise pie-plant over this small tile in 



While visiting W. J. Haslam I examined sam- the cellar bottom; and, sure enough, right in 



pies of the foul brood they have in the vicinity, the depth of winter he had the most beautiful 



My impression is, that it is a different and a rose-colored stems of rhubarb I ever saw. They 



milder form of the disease than what we have were long, and delicately tinted, because they 



the East. For instance. I am assured by grew in the dark, and were about as delicious 



several reliable men that it has, in quite a 

 number of cases, disappeared of itself. I also 

 found a hive, prettv fairly filled with good 

 healthv brood in all stages, and perfect bees 

 hatching out in considerable number, where 



as an V thing people often put into pies. Over 

 the exhaust steam outdoors that I have told 

 you about. I'hubarb starts with wonderful lux- 

 uriance. It is true, the frost has "cooked "it 



^ ... __ once or twice during our recent frosty spring; 



old sunken cells were to be found at the outside but the plant showed its goot? wiZf, anyhow, 

 edges of the combs. These cells when punc- Well, I have been wondering what has been 

 tured contained the ropy matter, and seemed to done in the way of new varieties. In fact, I 

 have the familiar smell. Mr. H. had iieen am just preparing to have a trial ground of 

 watching this colonv over a year, and it had rhubarb, testing every thing in the catalogues, 

 given a good yield of honey; and this spring lipf'ore doing so, however, I thought best to 

 there were certainly no diseased cells right write to our good friend Green, of the Ohio 

 amo7ig the new brood. This is a puzzle to me. Experiment Station, and see what they had 

 May be some of the friends can tell us more already done in that line. Below is his reply: 

 about it. 



In our apiary (when we had foul 

 brood), when it once got into a hive the numlier 

 of diseased cells never grev less. 



All over California we find a plant growing 

 wild, called " mock orange." It looks like the 

 same thing we sometimes grow in the East, just 

 for playthings for the children. Well, I was 

 astounded here at the enormous crops it bore— 



?ady 

 Mr. Rant: 



-In reply to yours of the 29th I would 

 .say that my experience with rhubarto has been 

 rather limited. Two years ago we sowed the seed 

 of four varieties— Victoria, Linnteus, Carlton Club, 

 and Eg-yptiaii Queen. Of tlie first two Isinds we got 

 a fair stand; but of the others, hardly enough for 

 a fair test of their growth out of doors. The Vic- 

 toria seems to be the strongest, but tlie Linnieus 



