1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



247 



WHY BEES WORK IN THE DARK. 

 A lifetime might be spent in investigating the 

 mysteries hidden in a bee-hive, and still half of the 

 secrets would be undiscovered. The formation of 

 the cell has long been a celebrated problem for the 

 mathematician, whilst the changes which the hon- 

 ey undergoes offer at least an equal interest to the 

 chemist. Every one knows wha«t honey fresh from 

 the comb is like. It is a clear yellow syrup, with- 

 out a trace of solid sugar in it. Upon straining, 

 however, it gradually assumes a crystalline appear- 

 ance — it candies, as the saying is, and ultimately 

 becomes a solid lump of sugar. It has not been 

 suspected that this change was clue to a photo- 

 graphic action ; that the same agent which alters 

 the molecular arrangement of the iodine of silver 

 on the excited collodion plate, and determines the 

 formation of camphor and iodine crystals in a bot- 

 tle causes the syrupy honey to assume a crystal- 

 line form. This, however, is the case. M. Schei- 

 bler has enclosed honey in stoppered flasks, some 

 of which he has kept in perfect darkness, whilst 

 others have been exposed to the light. The inva- 

 riable results have been that the sunned portion 

 rapidly crystallizes, whilst that kept in the dark 

 has remained perfectly liquid. We now see why 

 bees are so careful to work in perfect darkness, 

 and why they are so careful to obscure the glass 

 windows which are sometimes placed in their hives, 

 the existence of their young depends on the li- 

 quidity of the saccharine food presented to them, 

 and if light were allowed access to this, the syrup 

 would gradally acquire a more or less solid consis- 

 tency ; it would seal up the cells, and in all prob- 

 ability prove fatal to the inmates of the hive. — 

 "Chronicle of Optics," in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Science. 



OLD-FASHIONED COMFORTS. 



Our ancestors were a frugal, self-denying peo- 

 ple, inured to hardships from the cradle ; they 

 were content to be almost without the luxuries of 

 life, but they enjoyed some of its comforts, to 

 which many of us are strangers (old-fashioned 

 comforts, we may say) ; and among these the old 

 fire-place, as it used to be termed, held no mean 

 rank. How vividly the picture of one of those 

 spacious kitchens of the olden time comes to our 

 mind, with its plain furniture and sanded floor, 

 innocent of paint, but as white as the neatest of 

 housewives could make it! In one corner stood 

 the clock, its very face wearing an aspect of good 

 cheer, and seeming to smile benignantly upon a 

 miniature moon over its head, which, tradition 

 said, had, at a remote period, followed the rising 

 and setting of its great prototype in the heavens, 

 though its days of active service were long ago 

 over. 



But the crowning glory of that kitchen was not 

 its white sanded floor; nor the high desk with its 

 pigeon holes and secret drawers, which no ven- 

 turesome youngster ever dared to invade ; nor yet 

 the old clock ticking so musically in the corner ; 

 but it was the old fashioned fire-place, with its 

 blazing embers, huge back-logs, and iron fire-dogs, 

 that shed glory over the whole room, gilded the 

 - plain and homely furniture with its light, and ren- 

 dered the place a type of true New England in 

 "ye olden times." 



Never were there such apples as those which 

 swung around and around upon strings before the I 



bright fire of a winter's evening, never such baked 

 potatoes as those buried deep in the ashes upon 

 the hearth, never such cornstalks as those which 

 caught golden hue from the blazing embers, or 

 turkey like those turned upon a spit, filling the 

 room with savory odors so suggestive of a dainty 

 repast. 



Before the fire was the wooden settle, and here 

 the children were wont to sit in the long evening, 

 telling stories, cracking nuts, conning their les- 

 sons for the morrow, or listening in' silence to the 

 words of wisdom that fell from the lips of their 

 superiors, and anon gazing in silence into the 

 bright fire, and conjuring up all sorts of grotesque 

 fanciful images from among the burning coals. 

 No fabled genii, with their magic lamps of en- 

 chantment, couI"d build such gorgeous palaces, or 

 create such gems as the child could discern amid 

 the blazing embers of the old fashioned fire-place. 



And we must not neglect the chimney corner, 

 where sat our grandfather in his accustomed seat, 

 his hair silvered with the snows of many winters 

 — a venerable man, to whom old age had come 

 "frostly but kindly," and whose last days were like 

 those of an Indian summer, serene and beautiful, 

 even till the stars appeared in heaven. 



How pure was the air in those days ! The huge 

 fire-place, with its brisk draught, carried off the 

 impurities of the atmosphere, and left the air pure, 

 life-giving and healthful. Now, we crouch around 

 hot cooking-stoves, and think it strange that we 

 feel so stupid and drowsy of an evening ; or we 

 huddle about air-tight stoves, and wonder that 

 the air seems burned and impure ; or we sit down 

 in chilly rooms heated by a furnace, and marvel 

 that with all our costly furniture, soft carpets, 

 bright mirrors and damask curtains, they are 

 cheerless places — so unlike our ideas of a New 

 England home. 



Alas ! that with all the so-called improvements 

 of our advanced civilization, the fire should be per- 

 mitted to go out forever in our old fashioned fire- 

 places, thus burying in the ashes of the past so 

 many means of health, home comfort, good cheer 

 and happiness. — Scientific American. 



THE FORTTJLACAS. 



In looking over the horticultural publications of 

 the dav, there is so much said of new varieties of 

 plants and flowers, often with high sounding 

 names, that we greet with especial pleasure any 

 notice of an old friend. In the June number of 

 Hovey's magazine we find the following compli- 

 mentary notice, by the editor, of portulacas in 

 general and of a late improvement of this old fa- 

 vorite, in particular : 



The portulaca, though one of the most common, 

 is still one of the most showy and beautiful annu- 

 als, admirably adapted to our climate, growing 

 freely and flowering abundantly under conditions 

 of soil and treatment where many other flowers 

 would scarcely make any display ; the old orange 

 and scarlet, when planted out in large patches, vie 

 in brilliancy and decorative effect with the show- 

 iest verbenas. 



For a long time there were but two or three 

 shades of red and orange, but with the skill of 

 cultivators they have been crossed and fertilized 

 till we have nearly a dozen different sorts, some 



