1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



559 



nails. He agreed that that would be an excel- 

 lent idea. When I told him he needed some 

 large-headed tacks he said he did go up to the 

 factory, and we hadn't any on the premises. 

 This was down in the field. I jumped on the 

 wheel, and was soon in the counter store, 

 asking for large-headed carpet-tacks. 



" Haven't any." 



We are closing out our department store a 

 good deal as we are closing out the garden 

 business. Then I went up to one of our 

 rooms, and asked for tacks. They, too, de- 

 clared they had nothing but some very small 

 tinned tacks. But I was getting in earnest by 

 that time. Said I, "But you certainly have 

 something in this establishment to fasten 

 'Canvas or like material to wood better than 

 these slender small-headed wire nails." 



"Oh, yes! we have some double-pointed 

 tacks." 



Then he showed me a kegful right under 

 his hand. I grabbed a handful, and was down 

 in the field by the side of the binder man, " in 

 ajiff}-." I tumbled them on to the canvas 

 where he had been putting in his little nails. 



" W^ell, I declare ! Now you have hit it to 

 a dot." 



Then he proceeded to put the double-pointed 

 tacks, or staples, along the leather strip right 

 over where he had been putting the wire nails. 

 After he got through he admitted that they 

 would stand the strain of that tremendous 

 crop of wheat tumbled about toward all points 

 of the compass ; and after we had got the 

 apron in place I called his attention to the 

 fact that the double-pointed tacks I brought 

 him were exactly the thing the manufacturers 

 used when they made the apron in the first 

 place. With their help we finished the wheat 

 harvest in pretty fair shape, but it took us 

 nearly all the forenoon of the Fourth of July. 

 The machine was engaged, so there was no 

 other day in which he could complete the 

 work for me. Now let me point a moral right 

 here : 



While people oftentimes talk too much 

 (that is, certain people do; but, mind you, I 

 am not now thinking of ivo»ien at all — at 

 least I am trying not to think of them), there 

 is a good deal of sorrow and trouble in this 

 world because people do not talk enough. My 

 good friend did not talk enough or emphati- 

 cally enough when he ordered the new apron. 

 Then when he went after the tacks, and they 

 told him they had none, he did not explain to 

 them that he wanted them to hold heavy can- 

 vas very securely to strips of wood. And, by 

 the way, when you go to a hardware store for 

 something, it is an excellent plan to explain 

 to the clerk or proprietor just what you want 

 to do. If he knows what you have in mind 

 he can often fit you out with something that 

 will do just what you want done, very much 

 better than you dreimed of doing it. There 

 are great improvements along all the lines of 

 hardware ; and lots of people do not even 

 know of the handy short cuts that are to be 

 had for an almost insignificant amount of 

 money. Study up thoroughly the work of 

 the day. Look out for breaks that are likely 

 to occur, and have things on hand, as far as 



possible, to anticipate emergencies. It is a 

 rather expensive piece of business, I assure 

 you, to have a machine break down in harvest 

 time, when a lot of expensive men have to sit 

 down in the shade and await repairs. 



I noticed in the Ohio Farmer that W. I. 

 Chamberlain has had some trouble from wheat 

 falling down. He suargests using chemical 

 fertilizers instead of stable manure to obviate 

 this very thing. But I tell you I am some- 

 what in doubt as to whether chemicals will 

 give the crop of luxuriant grain that comes 

 from stable manure and thorough underdrain- 

 ing. By the way, I had a piece of ground on 

 •the creek bottom where chick weed got in. It 

 probably came in with the manure. I tried 

 growing potatoes with clean culture to get out 

 the chickweed ; but the chickweed would 

 grow so fast I began to get a little alarmed. 

 This heavy crop of wheat, however, so com- 

 pletely snowed under the chickweed that at 

 present writing there* is not a spear of it in 

 sight. It may come later but I am determin- 

 ed to get rid of it, even if I have to work as 

 hard as I did with the Canada thistles. The 

 man who drives the team, and who put in the 

 wheat, suggests that I grow wheat again on 

 the same ground, without any more fertilizer. 

 By the way, it is rare fun to harvest wheat 

 with modern machinery when it stands up 

 straight. We had perhaps an acre that was 

 put in after late potatoes This stood up per- 

 fectly. I think the machine would easily cut 

 an acre an hour, with three horses. Every 

 bundle was neatly bound, and there was 

 scarcely a head of wheat wasted; but where it 

 was tumbled down so, and we had such a mess 

 of it, the ground was literally covered with 

 plump heads of grain, and much of it is down 

 between the stubble, so 1 presume it can never 

 be saved. 



ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION. 



A Peep into the Philosophy of Dynamos and Elec- 

 tric Motors. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



In mechanics there are two principal meth- 

 ods of transmitting power; namely, by belting 

 and by gearing. Belting is in more common 

 use because there is less friction and less rat- 

 tling and clanking. But belts almost always 

 slip, more or less, and in slipping there is 

 always a loss of power. Gearing never slips 

 unless it is so exceedingly defective and out 

 of shape that one cog slips by another; hence 

 the expression, " slipping a cog." Gearing is 

 always used for clock and watch work, because 

 in measuring time we must have positive and 

 absolute transmission. The chain-and-sprock- 

 et wheels, such as are used in bicycles, are a 

 sort of compromise between belts and gear 

 wheels. Their transmission is positive, and 

 of late the chain and sprocket are used con- 

 siderably in slow- working machinery. For 

 rapid work — buzz-saws and the like — the 

 chain is not in much favor. If it should 

 break it would be more likely to kill people 

 than the belt, and, if I am correct, the friction 



