Marches Well at 95

1900

The oldest veteran who marched in the G. A. R. parade at Chicago recently was William Taylor of the Fourteenth Wisconsin infantry. He marched over the entire route without facing any ill effects from the exercise. He is 95 years old and a veteran of three wars, having, taking part in the war with the Blackfoot Indians, the Mexican war and the civil war. He is a member of the La Crosse post and is as lively as some of the young boys of 60.


Bees and Peaches

One of the most peculiar suits at law ever brought before any court is soon to be tried in Van Buren county, Michigan, between two neighbors and old friends. One of the men, H. D. Burrell of South Haven, keeps about sixty colonies of bees. The other is a peach grower. A few months ago the latter complained of the former's bees destroying the early Crawford peaches, claming that the bees came into his orchard in large numbers, bit holes in the fruit and rendered it unmarketable for which he demanded $200. Prof. J M. Rankin of the agricultural college and the entomologist of the Agricultural department at Washington will be called as expert witnesses by the defense in a suit for damages.


Galveston Relief

Little has been said, and probably as little thought, of the beneficent work done by the railroads in aiding and promoting the measures set on foot for the relief of stricken Galveston. Thousands of refugees from that city received free transportation to any part of the country, and immense quantities of supplies were rushed forward without charge. This ready response to the cry of human needs characterized all the great railway systems of the country, the express, telegraph and telephone companies. The cash value of the services thus rendered is as impossible to estimate as the amount of human suffering and misery they helped to alleviate.

Some Good About All Races

1900

"The Bright Side of Humanity," a new book by Dr. Edward Leigh Pell, is said to be the first serious attempt that has ever been made to present the characteristic noble traits of all races. In the preparation of his book Dr. Pell examined one thousand works of travel and although all of them set forth with considerable detail the vices and disagreeable traits of the people which they profess to describe, only two hundred dwelt at any length on their virtues. To supply the compensatory high lights in these dark pictures was a happy thought and must have been a pleasant task.


A Little of Everything

A Chicago tobacconist hands every cigarette purchaser a neighboring undertaker's card.

In the Black forest district of Germany are 1,400 master clockmakers and 6,000 workmen.

A church bell has an empty head and a long tongue, but it is discreet enough not to speak until tolled.

The sultan has forbidden the Turkish war department to use balloons or carrier-pigeons for army purposes.

A French naturalist asserts that nightingales devour the drones of a beehive, and never attack the workers.

A mint is to be established in Canada for the coinage of gold. Heretofore the coining of the metallic currency has been done in England.

An official map of Vesuvius on a scale of one in ten thousand has just been issued, being the first since 1876. A new plan in relief of the cone has also been made.

Bright Future for Beekeeping is Seen

1920

Enlarged American Consumption of Honey to Continue

If American beekeepers are able to meet increasing demand, the enlarged American consumption of honey will continue, says the annual report of the chief of the bureau of entomology, United States department of agriculture.

During the war our exports of honey to the allied countries increased at least ten times, and the domestic use also went much higher. The increased export demand has continued since the end of hostilities, and the bureau sees reason to expect that this market will continue to be an important factor in American beekeeping.

Local sales of honey near the points of production have increased more rapidly than sales in the larger markets, but this can readily be remedied, according to the report, by the further development of the business of bottling honey.

The tendency to collect the bees of the country in the hands of commercial beekeepers is viewed as a wholesome sign for the development of the industry. Prevalence of two destructive brood diseases, and especially the necessity of careful study of beekeeping problems in order to obtain maximum crops, make it almost impossible for the person having only a few colonies to give the care essential for good beekeeping. Only the man who makes beekeeping his chief work may expect to get proper returns, says the bureau.

The Hummingbird — Bird or Bee?

1907

Two quaint observations about humming birds are published in "Early Long Island," by Martha Flint, both quoted from letters of the seventeenth century, written from the new country of America. Says one:

"The Humbird is one of the wonders of the country, being no bigger than a Hornet, yet having all the Demensions of a Bird as bill, wings with quills, spider-like legges, small claws. For Colour she is as glorious as the Raine bow."

Adrian Van der Donck, one of the Hollanders of Nieuw Nederlandt in 1642 writes of a —

"Curious small bird concerning which there are disputations whether it is a bird or a bee. It seeks its nourishment from flowers like the bee and is everywhere seen regaling itself on the flowers. In flying they make a humming noise like the bee. It is only seen in Nieuw Nederlandt in the season of flowers. They are very tender and cannot be kept alive, but we press them between paper and send them as presents to our friends."

Animals as Criminals

1896

Instances in Which They Were Tried in Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts

During the middle ages, and even as late as the time of Shakespeare, animals were considered legally responsible for their acts. They were tried for various offenses, and if found guilty were convicted and punished. Mules were occasionally deprived of their ears for wrongdoing, and this altered the appearance of the animals, whether it improved their morals or not. There was another punishment inflicted on mules which suggests that there was method in the madness of the authorities. A mule which was particularly wicked was made forfeit to the crown, and the king had a corral of asses which could not be equaled for depravity in the world.

Occasionally the animals were tried before an ecclesiastical tribunal. Swarms of flies, bees, leeches and other insect pests were often condemned to vacate within a certain time under penalty of "malediction." As a rule certain sections of the country were set aside to which the condemned animals might retire and live in peace and quiet.

A horde of flies that bothered the residents of Mavence, France, were tried once, and escaped punishment because of their small size and extreme youth. Rats one time began eating the barley of France and were tried in court. They were defended by an eminent lawyer named Chasseneux, and he actually won the suit and the rats escaped punishment. In Naples an ass was tried — by a jury of his peers, no doubt — and sentenced to die at the stake. The sentence was carried out, and that ass never committed murder again. About the year 1700 the practice died out, and some time after the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was organized, and since then domestic animals have been better treated.

Monroe Man's Honey Barrel Discovered

New York, 1911

Bees Make 250 Pounds in Receptacle in His Cellar

Monroe, Feb. 2, (Special) — John R. Hayes, who owns a house on the main street of this village with the conservatory of E. H. Welling, the meat marketman, in the rear came across an unexpected find in the cellar of his home yesterday. Mr. Hayes found a barrel of honey there of which he had been totally unaware that he was the owner.

Mr. Hayes kept a discarded cider barrel in the cellar uncorked, the bunghole being on one side, in the middle. Before it held the cider, the barrel had been filled with whiskey. It has been empty since the early part of last summer. Since the cold weather set in Mr. Hayes has been keeping a fire burning in the cellar furnace and, on going down to heap on some more coal yesterday, was surprised to see bees in a semi-comatose state crawling around on the floor. This led him to investigate the contents of the barrel. He was surprised to find that he could scarcely move it, — it was so heavy.

With an axe he broke in a slat on one end. That slat did not move more than an inch, something offering resistance from the inside. On removing the slat he was surprised to find that the one end of the barrel was entirely filled with honey. He took out a number of combs, for use at his table, and two pounds to the office of the local newspaper for the use of the editor and his family. The honey is said to be excellent although slightly darker than the usual and flavoring a little of cider.

To your correspondent yesterday, Mr. Hayes said with evident glee that he was assured of a supply of honey for an indefinite time. He said he would leave the barrel where it was and that the bees would undoubtedly continue to increase the stock of honey there next summer. Meantime Mr. Hayes can replenish his table from the one end of the barrel replacing the slat after taking out each supply. He says he has no idea where the bees came from unless it be from the skips of Robert Ashman, a neighbor, who keeps bees. Mr. Hayes believes that there are altogether about 250 pounds of honey in the barrel. He is to have a local apiarist, Edward Rake, examine the bees as he thinks they are of an unusual or excellent breed — probably Italian.

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, NY, Feb. 3, 1911, p. 10.

Bees Make Home in His House, OK with Him

1917

Store Honey Unmolested For Three Years In Doctor's Residence.

St. Louis.—A swarm of bees has lived and made honey for three years in the brick wall at the home of Dr. Allen Wilson, Wagoner place. Dr. Wilson has never interfered with the bees, and they have never harmed him, nor has he ever eaten any of the honey.

The bees' improvised hive is a cavity in the wall about halfway to the top of the two story house on the kitchen side. The entrance is a small hole apparently left by the bricklayer when placing the bricks around the anchor of an iron wall brace.

Dr. Wilson said be had investigated and found that the cavity now extends into the wall about a foot, apparently having been hollowed out by the bees themselves. The swarm is not a very large one, and Dr. Wilson thinks it has not produced more honey than it needed. He does not expect to try to move the bees.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Aug. 23, 1917, p. 1.

Bee-Culture Hobby Is Bulwark Against Evil Fortune of Paralytic

1917

McGREGOR, Iowa.— (Special.)—John Clark of North McGregor, Iowa, is a paralytic and yet earns a living for his wife, little children and himself. Until a year ago when stricken by apoplexy he was a plasterer. He was skilled at the trade, had plenty of work and made good money. Meanwhile he had a hobby. It was bees. He can't remember when he wasn't interested in bees and wouldn't rather be fussing with them than doing anything else. After marriage his wife became interested, too.

They bought a small piece of land on the outskirts of town where lots of sweet clover and basswood grows. Reserving part of the land for the bee hives, Mr. Clark set most of the rest of it to fruit. Apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, raspberry, blackberry, currant and gooseberry bushes were planted. The fruit blossoms would provide nectar for the bees and the bees would pollenize the blossoms, he figured.

The fruit farm was nicely started, the bees were busy in half a hundred stands and the husband and wife had the plans drawn for a pretty bungalow at "Sunnyside Apiary," as they had named their little farm. Then Mr. Clark was stricken with apoplexy and the problem of obtaining money for food, clothing, doctor bills and fuel drove away the dream of the bungalow among the apple blossoms and the honey bees.

When the basswood blooms the first two weeks in July, if there is no wind and the weather is fair the bees in Sunnyside Apiary will store twenty-five pounds per colony in ten days. The honey they make is so good that the proprietor has no trouble at all in marketing it. In fact, buyers this year came to the house for almost all of the crop.

"Do you like the work?" the invalid was asked and his face lighted as he answered:

"It's the most interesting business anybody can have. You never get tired of bees. There is always something new turning up."

The wife answered:

"I love to work with them. Do you know, I have about decided beekeeping an ideal job for women. Success in it depends upon looking after the little things and I believe women naturally do that better than men."

It was then Mr. Clark gave thanks for his hobby. His wife said:

"If you will direct me from your bed, I'll do the work and we'll see if we can't make our bees earn a living for the family."

That was a year ago. November 15 this year they had sold 3,600 pounds of extracted honey and had 500 pounds of comb honey stored in the cellar.

Compete for His Honey

Others are keeping bees in the country nearby, but with nothing like as good results. Mr. Clark attributes his success to good management and to their location near an abundance of sweet clover and basswood. Everybody knows the finest honey is "basswood honey" and nobody knows it as well as the bees.

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 22, 1917, page 10.

Toads Valued in France

1925

Toads, the rotund garden variety, have a market value in France. The French gardeners claim that this warty-skinned amphibian devours its weight in injurious plant insects every 24 hours, and is encouraged to live in their gardens. Killing one of these insect hunters in France is considered the height of folly.


Bleaching Beeswax

Beeswax may be bleached by running in thin ribbons through a machine and allowing it to remain in the sunlight. Some beeswax bleaches more readily than others. It will take several weeks to bleach it.


Formation of Grand Bank

The Grand bank of Newfoundland is supposed to be composed of deposits of solid matter brought from the Arctic seas by icebergs, which gradually melt by contact with the warm water of the Gulf stream.


Ranks High in Literature

The Heimskringla has been called "the most important prose work in old Norse literature." It is a history of Norse kings. Some were mythical, others real. The author was an Icelander, Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241).


Mexican Frijol

The word frijol in Spanish connotes almost any variety of cultivated beans, but in Mexico it is applied almost exclusively to the brown or spotted varieties known in English-speaking countries as kidney beans.


Bee's Average Life Six Weeks

A bee hatched in early summer does not live to eat the honey it gathers, as its average life through the busy season is not more than six weeks. Only those born in late autumn live till the spring.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1925.

EIGHTY-FIVE TONS OF HONEY BETWEEN FLOORS

STORM LAKE, Ia., Nov. 9 -- Special: The discovery of bees in the room of a hotel guest at the Bradford resulted in a search which revealed upon tearing open the flooring, a hive of bees and eighty-five tons of honey.

Mrs. P. M. Mitchell was badly stung by the bees. An electrician left a brick out on the exterior of the building two years ago and the bees made their entrance, crossing an entire wing.

-- Des Moines Register, Nov. 10, 1917

Comment: Now there's a story I'd like to know more about. 85 tons of honey? How much space would that fill? That's enormous. What'd they do with the honey? How did they manage to clean it out? Wow!