936 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



want to put a back pressure on the engine. 

 Lay these tile a couple of feet under ground. 

 They had better be on an incline, the lowest 

 point being right near the engine. This gives 

 a draft of hot air. At the end of the tile there 

 can be some sort of cheap chimney or stack, 

 although this is not absolutely necessary. Now, 

 run your iron pipe or pipes along through this 

 tile so as to receive the latent heat from the 

 condensed steam; then take this hot water into 

 your greenhouse, dwelling-house, or anywhere 

 else you choose, and regulate the heat by gov- 

 erning the amount of water that escapes. I 

 presume likely the same hot water might be used 

 over and over again after heating the plants or 

 dwellings by hot water; and this would be 

 quite a saving over taking cold water from the 

 hydrant and letting it go to waste while still 

 hot. By the way, does anybody know of a 

 firm that makes an apparatus for heating 

 buildings hy hot water by utilizing the heat 

 from exhaust steam? You will notice that the 

 apparatus I have described is a very cheap one 

 — that is, when made as ours is made. 



THAT XEW GREENHOUSE. 



So many questions have been asked in resard 

 to this that we are preparing some engravings 

 for it in the next issue. This morning, Dec. 13, 

 I noticed a large squash-plant coming up in 

 one of the beds right over one of the six-inch 

 drain -tiles. This tile is at least two feet below 

 the surface of the bed where this vine came up; 

 and the glass aijove the bed is not more than 

 two feet distant from the plant; yet a tempera- 

 ture of 1,5 above zero did not affect tender plants 

 in the least. Perhaps I should repeat, that all 

 our experiments with exhaust steam, under 

 ground, are with a ten H. P. engine. During 

 the daytime it rarely does as much as five H. 

 P.; but after the electric lights are put on in 

 the factory it runs up to fully ten H. P., and 

 then the greenhouse and cold-frames get a good 

 warming-up that takes them safely through 

 the night. 



THE VALUE OF A BAROMETER. 



Our new greenhouse, as you will remember, 

 is covered with sashes — 4.5 in all. Well, while 

 we were building it we got them all in place 

 one afternoon. None of them were fastened, 

 however. In fact, we had not as yet got ready 

 to arrange the fastenings so that they could be 

 stripped off in the spring, as I have mentioned. 

 There was not a breath of air stirring, and 

 every thing seemed to indicate that there would 

 be no danger in leaving them over night, any 

 way. But I ran over and looked at the barom- 

 eter. To my astonishment, it was away down. 

 Yes, the fall in only a few hours had been such 

 as to indicate a tremendous storm of some sort. 

 I hurried back, got some long strips of wood, 

 and 1 presume some of the men thought I was 

 rather vehement about having those strips 

 wired over the sash so securely. Next morn- 

 ing, when I first met one of the foremen his 

 remark was, "Well. I declare. Mr. Root, I am 

 agreeably astonished to see your greenhouse all 

 safe and sound. When I heard that fearful 

 blow last night I felt sure those loose sashes 

 would be blown all over the neighborhood." 

 And so they would have been had it not been 

 for the barometer's timely warning. I have 

 had a little exptirience with wind taking loose 

 sashes, and it has taught me to watch the 

 barometer when we stop work at night, under 

 such circumstances. Its timely warning saved 

 me a good many dollars. 



ONION- SETS IN THE OPEN GROUND .\I,L WINTER. 



I never fail to have onions winter all right. 

 In the first place T set them deep: then if they 

 freeze up I take my double wheel-hoe and put 



on the turning-plows, straddle the row, and 

 throw the dirt to the onions: then in the spring, 

 if I wish them to mature and make large on- 

 ions, put on the curved hoes and -throw the 

 dirt airoy. H. C. CAR.MiriiAEL. 



Morristown, Tenn. 



And God saw that tlie wickedness of man was great in the 

 earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of lus heart 

 %vas only evil eontlnually.— GEN. 6: 5. 



Quite by accident this is a good deal of a Cal- 

 ifornia number. 



Dec. 8, 1892, we sent to the India famine suf- 

 ferers $7.65 more, which had been contributed 

 by readers of Gleanings. 



Prof. Cook has just sent in another article 

 on the sugar-honey matter, in reply to the ar- 

 ticle of Charles Dadant and others: but it came 

 too late for this issue, and will therefore appear 

 in our next — Jan. 1. 



Every thing in California depends upon the 

 amount of rainfall at this season of the year. 

 Reports show that copious rains are beginning 

 to come, and California bee-keepers are wearing 

 a broad smile. Given enough rain, and the 

 honey-crop is assured. 



We have not mude any very great promises 

 as to what we were going to do in the way of 

 getting out a holiday number; nevertheless, we 

 have been trying to get up something a little 

 extra, and will let the pages of this journal 

 speak for themselves. We have been obliged to 

 add eight extra pages in order to get in the 

 extra matter. 



We are pleased to announce that George E. 

 Hilton, of Fremont, Mich., was elected to the 

 State Legislature by a large majority, running 

 about a hundred ahead of his ticket. We don't 

 know any thing about his politics, and. indeed, 

 it were better that we do not, because we as 

 bee-keepei's all over the country can make our 

 congratulations more hearty in the hope that 

 he is on our side. 



We have given our readers our usual full and 

 copious index. That for the engravings is par- 

 ticularly full, and shows that Gleanings is 

 just what it claims to be— an illustrated peri- 

 odical. The peculiarity of the index to corres- 

 jxjndents is. that it is smaller than those of 

 former years. This shows that we now have 

 fewer and better contributors — those whom our 

 subscribers mention the most in their letters, 

 and whose writings they seem most to enjoy. 



The last mail from Australia shows that 

 nearly all the queens we sent to that country in 

 the early fall arrived in good condition, and 

 that, too, despite our fears to the contrary on 

 account of the cholera quarantine regulations 

 and oflicial oificiousness from the foreign postal 

 authorities. On account of our success we have 

 several orders on hand to send more queens by 

 next mail. It is now too late, on account of the 

 cold, to send any until next spring — say about 

 May 15th. (Queens to Australia go via San 

 Francisco, and the trip over the mountains at 

 this time of the vear chills them to death. Our 



