1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



869 



apples are good and wholesome, and I believe they 

 seldom fail to bring a satisfactory price. If somebody 

 in all the apple localities would make it his business 

 to gather them up and dry out just enough of the wa- 

 ter, they can be saved from waste and kept in good 

 condition. This bulletin of 38 pages, full of nice pic- 

 tures, tells all about the whole business: and, like all 

 other farmers' bulletins, the information is given by 

 somebody who has no apparatus to sell and no ax to 

 grind except to help the fruit-growers of our land. 

 Just tell the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C, that you want this bulletin and you will get it. 



THE SPENCER .SEEDLES.S APPLE — MORE ABOUT IT. 



One of our subscribers has mailed us a half-tone 

 print of the seedless apple, showing it is not only seed- 

 less but that it has no core nor any sign of one. He 

 also writes that he has some apples in a jar of alcohol, 

 cut in two, showing no core whatever. I forwarded 

 this letter and circular to the Rarcd New - Yorker, and 

 the editor explains the matter as follows: 



Dear Mr. Enot :~l have one of their jars containing samples 

 of the apples here In the office. It appears that they take these 

 apples and cut out about half an inch or more of the I'cnter — 

 thus, of course, entirely removing- whatever core tlicre might 

 be; then they put the two ends into alcohol, and tlien, of 

 course, they don't show any particular core whatever. The 

 same thing could be done with a Baldwin or Northern Spy by 

 cutting out a portion of the center of the seeds, and thus show 

 a practically coreless apple. This, is the way, as 1 understand 

 it. that these samples are prepared, and this scheme has been 

 exposed a numberof times already at fruitgrowers' meetings. 

 The whole thing is a great humbug, and it seems impossible 

 to make it clear to the people how great a humbug it is. 



New York. June i. H. W. CoLLiNiiWOOD. Ed. 



There, friends, what do you think of a man or com- 

 pany that resorts to such methods to sell their apple- 

 trees at $2.00 each? 



PERNICIOUS BOOKS AND MAGAZINES. 



We clip the following from the Home Herald for 

 June 12: 



There are more than seventy books, which, on the score of 

 their contents, can not be carried in the United States mail. 

 Tolstoi's ■' Kreutzer Sonata" and all of Zola's works are 

 among them. An attempt is now being made b.v the W. V. T. 

 U. to eliminate from the mails " books in whicli the hero, 

 heroine, or any character presented as worthy of admiration 

 is pictured as an habitual user of liquors and cigarettes with- 

 out condemnation of such habits. 



Now, if there is any thing I can do to help the W. C. 

 T. U. in the above undertaking I am ready to act. 

 Furthermore, I want to put in a plea to eliminate from 

 the mails all magazines that uphold the use of cigar- 

 ettes and the habitual use of liquors in their stories 

 as something for boys and girls to aspire to — that is, 

 giving place to stories that mention these things, as 

 the W. C. T. U. expresses it, " without condemnation 

 of such habits." 



THE WRIGHT BROTHERS AND THEIR AIR-SHIPS. 



All the information we have at present is contained 

 in the following, which we clip from the WomarVs 

 Kational Daily. The statements may be true, or 

 they may be only a newspaper item: 



P.VRis. June ?>.— Wilbur Wright, the American inventor, who 

 is visiting here, refuses to talk about his aeroplane. He says 

 he is merely visiting Europe for pleasure. He will have an 

 opportunity to see Santos Duraont's air-ship, No. 16, which is 

 ready for its trials. 



Bkrlin. June 6.— The Wright Brothers, of America, are here 

 making arrangements for the construction of a numberof air- 

 ships for the German government. 



Since the t wo above extracts were put in type a sub- 

 scriber sends us a newspaper clipping which is evi- 

 dently taken from the Baltimore Xtws of June 8: 



WKIGHTS SELL .\IR-Sim'. 



(Paris Cable Dispatch in New York Times.) 

 Baltimore. June X.— The Wright Brothers, whose negotia- 

 tions for the sale of their airship to the German government 

 were announced exclusively in the cables of the New York 

 Times, left I'aris to-.hiy f.>r Berlin to c. include aiTaugcnients 



for tlie construction .d' a nunilier of alr-slii|is. It is uuderst 1 



that they will lie l)aid Silll.OdO for each machine c'c.nstructeil by 

 them. While in Paris they purchased several light motors 

 of 24 and 40 horsepower. 



THE INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS ONCE MORE. 



Just as we go to press, June 13, two of these ducks, 

 two' weeks old to-day, weigh twelve ounces each. 

 Somewhere I read that this strain of ducks might, 

 under favorable circumstances, double their weight 

 in a single week Well, ours almost trebled their 

 weight the first week after being hatched, and have 

 exactly trebled it during the second week. 



RADIUM STILL, RADIATES. 

 Mr. Rnnt :—Yin\\ is your railium— still shooting stars! You 



have not mentioned It for a long time. 

 Fredericktown Mo.. May 1'.;. 



Jas. Bachler. 



Friend B., after receiving your card I took my speci- 

 men of radium into a darkened closet, and I found it 

 still pouring forth its streams of shooting stars. It 

 makes one think of the burning bush that Moses turn- 

 ed aside to see — burning but not consumed. I have 

 been watching the scientitic journals, but there does 

 not seem to be much progress made in furnishing radi- 

 um at a lower price or in utilizing it for any thing 

 more than a scientific curiosity. But it is certainly 

 one of the wonders of the age— a wonder that is out- 

 side of and beyond any thing heretofore discovered in 

 this world of ours — a veritable perpetual motion that 

 continues day after day, week after week, month after 

 month, and year after year to v>our forth energy and 

 light without diminution and without being consum- 

 ed. It was a calamity to the world and a calamity 

 that we ought to be ashamed of, that the man who 

 had so much to do with giving the world this wonder- 

 ful thing, radium, should have been allowed to lose 

 his life by a piece of ignorant stupidity. Prof. Curie 

 was driven over and killed by an ignorant cartman. 

 One of his friends who knew him best said he feared 

 some such calamity would occur, because he often be- 

 came so absorbed in his scientific meditations that he 

 was oblivious to every thing going on around him. 

 This sad event may have had something to do with 

 the fact that we have no recent developments in re- 

 gard to radium and radio-activity. 



SUDDEN DEATH OF AN IMPORTANT MEMBER OF OUR 

 OFFICE FORCE. 



Just now our factory, especially the office part of it, 

 has been made very sad by the sudden and unexpect- 

 ed death of Mrs. H. B. Harrington, Mrs. Root's only 

 sister. The older readers of Gleanings are more or 

 less familiar with the name of "Neighbor H.," the 

 man who married the deceased about 35 years ago. 



For more than 25 years this youngest sister of Mrs. 

 Root has been more or less intimately connected with 

 the Home of the Honey-bees and this journal. When 

 our business assumed such proportions that I could 

 no longer open our letters, we began to look about for 

 a trusty and faithful clerk to fill that important office. 

 In our business, as in almost any other, disputes oc- 

 casionally come up as to the contents of a letter. This 

 happened oftener years ago than just now. Occasion- 

 ally in settling difficulties of this kind a customer will 

 say, "Mr. Root, if you opened all the letters yourself 

 I should be perfectly certain that there was no fault 

 at your end of the line," etc. But when I replied to all 

 such complaints that the mails were all opened by 

 Mrs. Root's own liister, 1 believe all such patrons were 

 satisfied; and certainly any one who knew her, even 

 for a little while, would be satisfied that no one would 

 suffer from carelessness on her part or any thing else. 

 She opened the mails as usual on June 3d: but on the 

 10th, with friends all about her, she ceased breathing 

 as quietly as a babe going to sleep. 



Her name was Mary: but her particular friends had 

 shortened it to "Mate:" and the children very soon 

 made it "Aunt Mate;" and for years past, just the 

 name "Aunt Mate" has suggested something bright, 

 cheery, hopeful, and animating. May God bless her 

 memory; and, in fact, he has already abundantly 

 blessed' the good, pure, upright life she led. Even 

 though she has been taken away so suddenly, the 

 memory of that good life remains. " Their worksdo 

 follow them." 



" kind WORDS." 



It has been for a good many years our custom to 

 publish every now and then some kind words in re- 

 gard to Gleanings from our old friends. Now, to be 

 fair to our readers I suppose we should in like manner 

 publish criticisms when they come, although, to con- 

 fess the truth, they do not come very often. Here is 

 one from a brother who evidently objects to the space 

 occupied by the Home Papers, and he certainly is en- 

 titled to a hearing like the others. 



Gentlemen.— ^ome time ago I sent you il.OO for 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, thinking of course that 

 it was a bee-p-aper, not the report of some Methodist 

 prayer-meetiug. Any further than that I will not be 

 responsible. Discontinue it or it will be left at the 

 postofflce. J. C. Jorgenskn. 



Grand Haven, Mich., May 28. 



