BEES.--Honey is made from many substances. Not only do the flowers give
up their nectar to the honey bees, but various other sources of sweets
are visited by bees with profit. Clover honey is one of the most common
kind, although it is all white clover honey, for the honey bee has too
short a tongue to reach into the long tubes of the red clover which the
bumble-bees are so fond of. Sweet-clover yields nectar which makes good
honey. A dark variety of honey comes from the flowers of buckwheat, and
the basswood tree which the German poets sing about, calling it by the
name of linden, bears such a wealth of flowers which the honey bees
like that it is swarmed day after day by so many bees that the tree
seems to hum with pleasure. You can often hear the bees in a basswood
tree before the tree itself is in view in the forest. Orange trees are
also favorites with the honey-makers.
Broken fruits are often sucked by bees to get material for honey, and
cider left in a dish where they can get at it will be visited by them.
A mixture of almost any sweet liquid will attract honey bees, and they
are so careless of its exact nature that they have been known to store
up and make into honey substances that are not good for human beings
to eat. One of the favorite forms of adulteration among those who keep
bees for profit is to place glucose and water where they can get at it.
They will readily fill their combs with this cheap material and seem
to do very much more work in the course of a season by having placed
within easy reach a mass of material that they do not have to work for.
Margaret Warner Morley, in her charming little book, "The Bee People,"
which has just come from the press of A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago,
tells how bees frequently make honey from "honey dew." This is a sweet
and sticky substance that is found upon the upper side of all sorts of
leaves in some localities and has caused a great deal of wonder as to
where it comes from. The writer tells of the mountain children she saw
in the Carolinas plucking these leaves and licking the honey-dew from
them, enjoying their treat much as city children enjoy what they get at
the candy store. She says the honey-dew is made by the little insects
called ants' cows or aphides. The sweet liquid is thrown out from their
bodies, and ants are so fond of it that some of them have been said to
keep "cows" and take great care of them in order to enjoy the sweet
they get from their bodies.
The aphides eat the juice of the leaves they rest on and change it into
honey-dew. Resting on the under side of a leaf and feasting royally,
they become so full that the honey-dew spurts from their bodies and
showers the upper sides of the leaves below. Sometimes the insects are
so thick upon the leaves of a magnolia tree that a shower of sweets
comes down upon its lower leaves and the grass below. Trees and bushes
shine with the dew, and when dust settles upon the sticky surfaces it
is decidedly disagreeable.
Pliny, the first great naturalist, said he thought honey-dew was "the
perspiration of the sky, the saliva of the stars, or the moisture
deposited by the atmosphere while purging itself, corrupted by its
admixture with the mists of the earth." Bees gather it and make it up
into honey. Squirrels are fond of it, and gather the leaves one at a
time, hold them up in their paws, and lick them with apparent relish.
There are so many truly wonderful things about bees which this talented
writer has collected and told in simple language that her book is
one of the most valuable of recent contributions to the libraries of
those who enjoy the wonders of nature. Although written evidently for
children it is of absorbing interest to adults, and furnishes a fund of
material for conversation and observation which will make it very much
in demand among teachers and parents.
The growth of the bee, the drones, the workers, and the queens, with
all the details of their structure as revealed by the microscope, the
making of their curious homes, their odd customs and habits, their
strange enemies, and a thousand other interesting features, make the
subject one of great interest, and we cannot sufficiently honor the
memory of the blind naturalist, Huber, who found out more things about
bees after he lost his sight than all the world ever knew of them
before his time.
BAD GERMS.--In our bodies is constantly going on a great fight between
germs of various sorts, if we are to believe those who know most on
the subject. Microbes are all about within us, some of them apparently
striving to do us good and others trying to kill us. In a few cases men
of science have been able to find one kind of germ that will destroy
another that is hurtful to the human system. By cultivating many sorts
of germs together and separately they have come to know a great deal
about what microbes like and what they cannot bear. The so-called
poisons of diphtheria and typhoid fever have been recognized as having
certain forms and characteristics, and a way of killing them off at
wholesale has been found, and so we are not so much afraid of these
diseases as we were before these discoveries were made. The germs of
cholera and yellow fever are now well enough known to be controlled by
sanitary measures, and the doctors are hot on the track of the bacillus
of consumption. What relief the world will have when these germs are
killed before they have had time to do their deadly work!
A DESERT LIGHT.--In Arizona there is an important well which stands
in the desert where its presence would not readily be known, but for
the fact that a light now swings from a tall cotton-wood pole so as
to light travelers who are within several miles of it in the night.
Before the lantern used to be hung there many people died when they
might have reached its waters if they had only known how near and in
which direction the well really was. Some have died horrible deaths of
thirst when only a short distance from its refreshing waters. In order
to pass that point travelers have to carry large loads of water to
quench their thirst until they reach this well. The number of gallons a
company has means either life or death to all. Some time ago a German
boy staggered up to the tanks shortly after dark. He had lain down
expecting to die with thirst in despair of getting to water, when he
saw the light of the cabin of the keeper of the well. So Joe Drew keeps
his lantern up at night that others may see the signal from afar and
come without delay to the waters.
MINER'S LUCK.--One of the most profitable mines in South America is the
Penny mine in Bolivia. Penny was a run-away Scotchman from a man-o'-war
who had nothing and hoped for nothing but to keep away from service on
the sea. He did odd jobs about the country for awhile and was brought
low with fever. He was faithfully nursed through the disease by a
native woman who could not speak a word of English. Out of gratitude
he married her and treated her well. She rewarded him by taking him
into the mountains and showing him an old Spanish mine that had been
hidden for years. He began working it and became a millionaire. With a
fellow-workman by the name of Mackenzie he brought the mine into a good
state of productiveness, and then left for the old country. Mackenzie
was made superintendent of his mine, and Mackenzie's son went with Mr.
and Mrs. Penny to Scotland. He arrayed his Indian wife in the most
costly attire, and made his visit to Scotland memorable by his many
acts of generosity. He adopted a nephew and insisted that both young
men should take his name and become his heirs. He suddenly died and
left his wealth all to his wife, with directions that the two sons
should be amply provided for. Complications followed, and the Indian
mother died under suspicious circumstances, while the boys contended
for possession of the mines. With all the good fortune and excellent
intentions of the father the two boys proved to be bad Pennies.
They sold out their interests for $500,000 each and are now killing
themselves with drink.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Other correction: De-Quincy changed to De Quincey (page 133). |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved between paragraphs |
| and some illustrations have been moved closer to the text that |
| references them. |
| |
| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |
| _like this_. |
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| The Contents table was added by the transcriber. |
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