1016 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug 1 



pened several times when seeds have been 

 overlooked or had gotten among the rubbish. 

 Where excavations are being made, the 

 seeds of certain weeds are known to germi- 

 nate after a long period of years; but all the 

 stories about the seeds of grain thousands of 

 years old, etc., are, without question, hum- 

 bugs. Perhaps some one who is familiar 

 with the recent investigations in regard to 

 how long other seeds may hold their germi- 

 nating powers can tell us a little more about 

 it. I am well aware that clovers often 

 spring up in unexpected places; but I am 

 quite sure that careful investigation will 

 generally tell where the seed came from. 



CAN ANYBODY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH 

 MAKE IT RAIN OR STOP RAINING? 



So many people have asked my opinion in 

 regard to rain-makers, first and last, espe- 

 cially the recent rain- maker of California, I 

 have concluded to submit the following, 

 which I clip from the United States Month- 

 ly Weather Review of a recent date: 



A FAKE RAIN-MAKER. 



. Mr. Otto J. Klotz, the Chief Astronomer of the Do- 

 minion of Canada, and a very active friend of honest 

 meteorology, kindly sends the following extract from 

 Tfie Neivs, of Toronto, March , 1906. We know of no 

 better way to protect the public than to expose the per- 

 nicious activity of the fake rain-makers, the hail-pre- 

 venters, and the planetary forecasters: 



Ottaiva, March 3. — In the appropriation ordinance 

 passed last autumn by the Yukon Council appears a vote 

 of $5000 for the purpose of " encouraging meteorological 

 experiments on the Dome"— the peak which dominates 

 the vicinity of Dawson—"' in the summer of 1906." This 

 innocent item covers one of the quaintest pieces of ad- 

 ministration ever perpetrated by a Canadian legislative 

 body. 



The rainfall is an important consideration in the Yu- 

 kon, as the miners need water for their operations, and 

 a wet summer is as advantageous as a dry one is the re- 

 verse. So far as observations extending over a very 

 few years can serve as an indication, wet and dry sum- 

 mers roughly alternate. The summer of 1905 was mark- 

 ed by a drought, so that the balance of probabilities is 

 in favor of a rainy summer this year. 



Southern California for some time has been the home 

 of a rain-maker, one Hatfield, whose method of opera- 

 tion seems to be the liberation of certain chemicals, 

 which are supposed to induce showers. Mr. Hatfield 

 has advertised his methods and his alleged successes 

 with some enterprise, and the administration of the Yu- 

 kon has becomean admirer of his. The " meteorological 

 experiments ' ' are to be conducted by him, and the $5000 

 is for him. 



STANDS TO WIN ANYWAY. 



Private persons have subscribed $5000, and the Yukon 

 Council supplies another $5000. Mr. Hatfield is to spend 

 the summer in the country, and his expenses, estimated 

 at $2000, are to bo defrayed in any event. If it rains, he 

 is to get the other $8000. Thus Mr. Hatfield occupies an 

 advantageous position in the bargain. He will get $2000 

 expense money in any event, and he will get $8000 more 

 (1) if he " makes " the rain, or (2) if the rain happens 

 to come independently of his liberation of chemicals. 

 Moreover, as already noted, in any event the chances 

 favor rain this summer. 



Next, who is Mr. Hatfield? The standing of the Unit- 

 ed States Weather Bureau at Washington can not be 

 doubted. A request for information, addressed to the 

 Bureau, elicited the following reply: 



"Mr. Hatfield attained considerable notoriety in the 

 United States last fall as a pretended rain-maker, oper- 

 ating in Southern California. The judgment of the 

 Weather Bureau as to this pretension may be found in 

 the accompanying extract contained in the closing par- 

 agraph of a letter written by the Chief of the Bureau, 

 October 20. 1905. in reply to a request for information 

 relative to Mr. Hatfield: 



'"It is, therefore, apparent that the rainfall which 



was i upposed to have been caused by the liberation of a 

 few chemicals of infinitesimal power was simply the re- 

 sult of general atmospheric conditions that prevailed 

 over a large area. It is hoped that the people of Kan- 

 sas and of other regions in the subarid West will not be 

 misled in this matter, and give undue importance to ex- 

 periments that doubtless have no value. The processes 

 which operate to produce rain over large areas are of 

 such magnitude that the effects upon them of the puny 

 efforts of man are inappreciable." 



In another letter on the subject, to be found in the is- 

 sue of the Monthly Weather Review for April, 1905, 

 Mr. Willis L. Moore, the Chief of the United States 

 Weather Bureau, corrected some statements put for- 

 ward on Mr. Hatfield's behalf. "Your dispatch," he 

 wrote, " stated that the heaviest rain fell in the region 

 of the rain- maker, and that the rainfall had not been 

 large in any of the other regions of the subarid West. 

 This statement is erroneous, as during the same period 

 general and excessive rains occurred throughout Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico. It is known that when baromet- 

 ic pressures for a month are low in the Southwest, the 

 period is one of frequent and heavy rains in that region, 

 and this barometric condition prevailed over New Mex- 

 ico, Arizona, and Southern California during the three- 

 month period under consideration." 



It is rather disagreeable to reflect that at the very 

 time that these warnings were being issued against Mr. 

 Hatfield, the administration of the Yukon was proving 

 so easy a mark for his efforts. What makes this the 

 more striking is that the Yukon Council is not a partic- 

 ularly democratic institution. It is a strongly official 

 body, perhaps a majority of its members being selected 

 from Ottawa — presumably on account of their intelli- 

 gance, general information, and administrative fitness. 



NAVIGATING THE AIR. 



On page 832 I spoke about a young man 

 who started to make a balloon ascension on 

 Sunday. Well, I do not know whether he 

 gave up making Sunday flights or not; but 

 the following clipping from the New 

 Voice, of Chicago, indicates that he is hav- 

 ing better luck in making his ascents on 

 week days: 



Members of the present Congress naturally are inter- 

 ested in ways and means of getting off the earth. 



Public business was practically suspended last Wed- 

 nesday for several hours while Lincoln Beachy was giv- 

 ing a wonderful exhibition of aerial navigation in the 

 suburbs above Washington. 



The experiments are said to have been the most suc- 

 cessful ever performed, particularly in the features of 

 control and dirigibility. 



The airship, rude in construction, responded accurate- 

 ly to the will of the boy aeronaut. He compelled it to 

 circle Washington monument and the great dome of the 

 capitol, descended and made a landing when and where 

 he pleased, and demonstrated to the satisfaction of the 

 thousands who witnessed the exhibition that many of 

 the rudiments of aerial navigation have been solved. 



Santos- Dumont and others who have become famous 

 because of succe; sful flights in air-ships never accom- 

 plished what young Beachy did. In an airship sixty- 

 two feet long and sixteen feet in diameter, suspended 

 from a gas-bag with a capacity of 10,000 cubic feet, 

 made of 750 yards of Japanese silk, with a two-bladed 

 propeller in front and a large rudder, the daring aero- 

 naut made a flight of nearly twenty miles without seri- 

 ous accident. 



Employed to make ascensions at a suburban resort, 

 young Beachy, in an airship patterned after that used 

 by Roy Knabenshue, whom he had been assisting, de- 

 cided to demonstrate its practicability by a flight around 

 Washington, visiting the principal points of interest. 

 From a point five miles down in Virginia, Beachy safely 

 crossed the Potomac and headed for the Washington 

 monument. 



The framework of the airship, which looked like bam- 

 boo fishing- poles, consists of two parallel rods running 

 lengthwise upon which he stands, and a third placed 

 above upon which he sits. 



A couple of small braces broke before he reached the 

 monument, and Beachy decided to make repairs. With- 

 out any difliculty he brought the airship to earth by the 

 use of a rope, and easily repaired the broken parts. 

 Again he ascended. When fully 300 feet above the 

 ground he circled the Washington monument, and, go- 



