552 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUIINaL. 



question was, what to do with it. I 

 piled It up lu the porch until the floor 

 liegaii to bend under the weight, and 

 I found it would all be down in a 

 mash. I then piled it up in the cham- 

 ber over our bed-room until we feared 

 it would breali down in the night and 

 kill us ; and "down on us came our 

 neighbors, a couple of dozen strong, 

 and lent their kindest service to help 

 the thing along ;" and they bought 

 fifty cents, one dollar, two dollars, 

 three dollars, four dollars, and some 

 even five dollars worth, and all paid 

 in silver — and tlien what to do with 

 that ! Jf I put it in the bank it might 

 break ; if I carried it in my pockets it 

 would soon wear them out ; and, 

 besides, there was danger of burglars 

 breaking in at night and stealing it, 

 and I tried to keep awake to watch it, 

 but my system being full of that bee- 

 poison, it made me so nervous that I 

 could not keep awake even to read 

 the Bee Journal after 9 o'clock. 



So in the agony of my spirit I cried, 

 "Away with your new-fangled no- 

 tions ! Let me return to the practice 

 of my fathers, when we used to hoe 

 corn until the old tin horn blew, and 

 then we all rushed to the house, and 

 we boys beat on tin pans until we got 

 the bees to alight somewhere, pro- 

 vided they did not go off to -the tim- 

 ber; and father hunted up a board 

 and made a box, not forgetting to put 

 in the cross-sticks to keep the comb 

 from breaking down. Then the table 

 was brought out, a sheet spread on it, 

 and after the hive was washed out 

 with salt and water, and rubbed on 

 the inside with bee-balm, the bees 

 were put into it, and they staid just 

 as contentedly as bees do with all 

 your gim cracks. Then in the fall 

 when we wanted honey we killed the 

 bees with brimstone. But, alas, the 

 bees have abolished the ' brimstone ' 

 theory altogether, have spoiled Sun- 

 day, and soon all the old landmarks 

 will be gone, and like Hofed in his 

 dream, we will be groping around in 

 a world of chance." 



P. S.— I do not consider the above 

 lamentation worthy of publication, 

 but if the editor tliinks best he could 

 send it to that man Andre of New 

 York, to help him out with his lamen- 

 tations, given on page 453. 



MarshalItown,OIowa, Aug, 23, 18S6. 



For the Amencan Bee JotimaL 



Plenrisy-Root as a Honey-Plant 



.lAMES HEDDON, 



While the subject of honey-plants 

 is being discussed, I wish to add my 

 mite by describing a plant tliat grows 

 wild here, and also in some other 

 localities, I think. It is called pleu- 

 risy-root {Asclepias tuberosa), and is 

 the plant 1 described in Gleanings 

 some time ago. Still another year's 

 observation of this rapidly increasing 

 honey-plant makes me think that it is 

 not excelled by any other known to 

 bee-keepers. 



If there is any plant that will pay 

 for giving the full control of land, 1 

 think it is this. I believe that all of 



my students that have watched it 

 during the last three years, will con- 

 cur in this belief. I would rather 

 have one acre of it than at least three 

 acres of Melilotus alba. I discovered 

 the first specimen of it four years ago, 

 and was attracted toward it by seeing 

 it " covered with bees," a sight that 

 always may be seen when it is in 

 bloom, and cold, or excessive raining 

 does not prevent. Its rapid increase 

 durhig the past four summers, from 

 an isolated plant here and there to 

 thousands of them at this time, and 

 no more robbing after basswood, is as 

 wonderful as gratifying. I account 

 for this marvelous increase mainly 

 from the favorable habits of the plant, 

 and to some extent from the perfect 

 fertilization secured by the bees of 

 my apiary. All know that Darwin 

 tells us that " the more flowers, the 

 more bees ; the more bees the more 

 seeds ; the more seeds the more 

 flowers." This is not only a well 

 established fact, but one for which 

 we may be glad. 



The plant is a perennial, the root 

 living on till it dies of old age. The 

 top dies yearly, but always re-appears 

 in due time. It blooms quite variedly, 

 the first appearing about the middle 

 of the basswood bloom, and the last 

 leaving about the middle of August. 

 It is at its height, just in the right 

 time to fill the break that occurs be- 

 tween basswood and the August 

 flowers in this latitude. 



Among other valuable qualities 

 possessed by this plant, are the fol- 

 lowing : 



1. It has no thorns, and cannot be- 

 come ail obnoxious weed. 



2. Its honey is of ihe finest quality, 

 both in color and flavor. 



3. The plant is extremely hardy, 

 readily asserting supremacy among 

 weeds and grasses, and even in a 

 matted sod it grows luxuriantly. 



4. It bears extremes of wet or dry 

 weather better than any plant I have 

 ever seen ; not only looking bright, 

 but continually yielding honey 

 through these extremes. Bees work 

 on it in the rain.and in our past exces- 

 sive drouth it never stopped its 

 secretion. 



5. Each seed has a balloon, which 

 insures a broader dissemination of 

 the plants in all waste places. By 

 means of the draft made by railroad 

 trainS; our land along the railroad 

 track IS strewn with it. 



Bees never neglect this plant for 

 basswood or any other blossoms, but 

 are always found upon it in numbers 

 that must certainly overstock it in 

 this locality. In two instances my 

 students have found plants in isolated 

 places that had been overlooked by 

 the bees— once in basswood time, and 

 this morning during the buckwheat 

 bloom, and iu each case the drops of 

 white nectar are exuding from the 

 nectaries. 



I have several times examined bass- 

 wood blossoms when they were yield- 

 ing bountifully, and could never see 

 the nectar in the blossoms to the ex- 

 tent that I find jt in the pleurisy-root. 



So far as I can yet discover, this 

 plant has but one objection, as I do 

 not find any specimens of it on our 



rich prairie soils. It seems to delight 

 in poor soil, and no old, sandy, worn- 

 out field is too poor for it. To just 

 what latitude it properly belongs, and 

 what is the best time and manner to 

 sow the seed I do not yet know. 

 Whether it will succeed well on heavy 

 soils is a matter for trial. 



I send a specimen, and as I put it 

 in with this article, little drops of 

 honey are sparkling in every blossom ; 

 but where that honey will be when it 

 reaches the Bee Journal ofiice, the 

 editor can tell us. 



Dowagiac,9 Mich. 



[The " sparkling honey drops "' were 

 iu the blossom when it came to us, 

 looking like so many tiny diamonds. 

 Sometime or other bee keepers will 

 " come up " to the idea we have so 

 often advanced, concerning their duty 

 to plant for bee-pasturage, and when 

 that time comes, pleurisy-root will, 

 no doubt, be one of the favorites. — 

 Ed.] 



jfor the American Bee JourDaL. 



Solar Wax-Extractor. 



.IAS. M NEILL. 



1 can fully endorse Mr. Demaree's 

 opinion of the solar wax-extractor, as 

 given on page 501. I have used one 

 for the past two seasons, and no im- 

 plement about the apiary has afforded 

 me greater satisfaction. Before I had 

 one I used sugar-barrels in which to 

 store the cappings till I had time to- 

 melt them over a tire ; but drain them 

 as well as I might, they would drip, 

 and drip, and continue to drip with 

 the persistency of the Dutchman's 

 setting hen, till my ingenuity and 

 tin-pans would be exhausted iu my 

 efforts to preserve my honey-house 

 floor from pools of honey. But the 

 solar wax-extractor has changed all 

 this ; the cappings of one day's ex- 

 tracting being converted on the next, 

 into a cake of nice yellow wax of % 

 their bulk. 



The amount of honey which goes 

 off with the wax is generally two or 

 three times its bulk. The heat of the 

 extractor scorched this honey, and 

 made it unsalable, until it occurred to 

 me to try the plan of placing a per- 

 forated tin-pan above the tray, which 

 I had formerly used. This was made 

 the same size as the tray, with short 

 legs soldered on to give space for the 

 honey and wax to flow. By this ar- 

 rangement the honey is out of the heat 

 of the sun before it is damaged, and 

 I also think that the quality of the 

 wax is improved for the same reason. 

 Much less refuse, also, is swept into 

 the receptacle with the stream of 

 wax. The perforations must be large 

 enough, about o-Ki of an inch, or they 

 will become clogged with the refuse. 



I blocked my extractor up at one 

 end the first season to give the tray 

 the proper pitch, and to have the 

 glass at the proper angle with the sun. 

 I also found it necessary to shift it 

 around as the sun advanced, to get 



