VOL. LX.
INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY ll, 1905.
NO. 6
The Honey Bae.
Editors loolsns Farmer:
Iu a colony of liees during the work-
in K season we find three kinds. Tlie
spleen, the workers nml the drones. The
<iueen is the mother bee; that is, she lays
the eggs from whicli hatch all tho bees
raised in the hive. This ends her duties. The olrl Folklore ideas of the
kins liee governing the hire is not upheld
by facts. The movements of a colony
seem to be spontaneous, governed by conditions and instinct and not by command.
The drones nre the male bees and tlieir
only mission in life as far as known is
to fertilize the queen.
The  workers    are undeveloped   females
whose duty it is to build the combs, store
the honey and pollen, rear the yonng, and
in short to do all     the
work    of the    colony,
and also to defend it,
as they nloire    do all
the      stinging.       Tho
drones    are  stingless.
and  the queen    never
uses her sting  in  defense.
The queen a ml
workers are produced
from the samo eggs.
The}' hatch iu threo
days. If a queen ia
to lie raised a larva
not more than- three
days   old   is   selected
remains until it is fully developed when
it emerges a full-grown worker. For a
day orr two this light colored youngster
crawls nround over the combs, sipping
honey and in the way ot everybody. It
is amusing to see the older bees showing
her around in a patronizing good-natures!
way, for all the world like the busy workman in n factory, hustling a big awkward
apprentice about.
The lirst mission in life for this youngster is to feed and caro for tlie young
larva, as her stomach nnd organisms fit
her for that duty. We next find her
making comb and then comes field work,
after a  week  or so.
Aliout the time the young bees take
their first Hight, you can see them "playing" in front of the hire, of an afternoon
or evening, hundreds of them flying back-
the best bargain lie can for his township,
town or city, and the teachers will look
out fo  rthemselvcs.
S. 15. l'JS, Farber, makes the township
liable for contracts made by the trustees,
without consent of advisory lioards. Now
1 would like to hare Senator FaHlrer
tell me what the adrisory law was
enacted for, if it was not for the purpose
of preventing trustees from making contracts and running townships in debt, ansl
leaving the tax payer to pay the liill. I
nm also opposed to any law increasing the
pay of trustees, or any other ollicer, during their term of otllce. II. IV S.
Aurora.
Cyclone Insurance.
Rdltora Indiana Farmer:
The  Farmers'  Mutual  Insurance  Union
velopmeirt      of      the
ovaries  or egg  sacs.
The      drones      are     	
hatched in cells slightly larger than the ordinary worker cells, and the caps are more
convex. A queen will lire several years usually, but she is generally
not profitable to keep after two or three
seasons. Workers live only a few
wtels during the busy season, as tlieir
wings wear away and they fall helpless.
They live longer when not at work, in
fact lire orer the winter, and raise a
brood of young in the spring when they
rapidly die off.
.\ queen emerges from the cell in
about 1(! days from the time the egg is
laid, a worker in 21 days, and a <*r*,-
iii 24. When the eggs are deixisited in
the cells by the queen, her interest in
them is apparently ended. The young
workers take them in charge, and it is
very interesting to note tho progress of
the young from the time they are hatched, which occurs in about three days, till
they   emerge   full   grown.
I will give a short summary of the eell
life of the worker, and this summer you
should   verify   it   for   yourselves. This
is the fascinating feature of beekeeping;
to see ami know for yourself just what
goes on  in the hive.
The first two clays after the egg is laid
the bees do not do anything with them
npparently, although they look them over
occasionally. You  ean   see  the  young
nurse tiees walking around over the cells
peeping into them and occasionally sticking their heads down into them as if to
see if all is right: but about tlie third day
a little drop of white liquid food is deposited around the egg. and soon the egg
changes to a tiny worm. This is called
the larva, and it grows very rapidly, and
A Israin Yard in Home of Farmer on the Colville  lteservation.   State  of Washingtn
ward and upward before the entrance like
a troop of youngsters just out of school,
sights imaginable, especially if they are
yellow Italians glistening iu the sun.
at its annual meeting in 1004 voted to request the present legislature now in session to pass a law giving fanners the right
and authority to organize a Farmers'
Slate Mutual Cyclone Insurance Company, ns the law we now have, grouping
live counties together for the purpose of
mutual protection against cyclones, is inadequate and trot practical, for the following reasons: First there never would
be near all the farmers in the five counties insured against cyclones; second,
should a cyclone pass through any county
in the group it would break the company
of the new bills killed in committee thauj'Up, because they had better carry their
to have so many new ones passed, e. g., jown risk against wind storms than to have
II. 1$. J20, approves:! March 9, 1001, where to pay such high assessments; but on the
it is provided that unskilled lalror shall other hand as there are hardly ever more
not be payed less than 20 cents an hour, than three or four bad cyclones passing
Any contractor who shall violate this law through the state in any one year, if we
can be punished by a fine of $10 and im-,had a state mutual and all local fanners'
prisonment for 30 days. insurance companies doing business in the
Also II. B. 270, approved March 12, ] state write cyclone insurance in the State
1901, fixing a minimum wage of teachers company, we would lie so strong and our
and fixing a  fine of .$100 for any school   assessment wonld be so light that we could
Repeal Some of the Old Lawd.
Editors Iadlana Faroer*
In your issue of January 21st, I saw
notice of postal card legislation, asking
how many of your readers are willing to
squander a penny to tell the legislature
what laws they wish to have enacted.
Xow I think it would be lietter to have
some of the old  laws repealed   and  some
ollicer   who   shall   employ   one   for   any
kss.
Also II. B. 140, Martin, providing mini-
Hot afford to be without cyclone insurance, for which most of our farmers now
go to old line companies, rather than take
mum wages for teachers from $50 to ?90   risks itr local companies composed of five
a month. 1counties. We have a legislative committee
Now why not leave the contractor and   hut  I   have seen   no  bill   presented   along
laliorer free to make their own contracts   this   line;   but   hope   our   committee   will
as to the amount of wages, and if the law
has to set the price nf labor, why not
set the price of wheat at not less than
S1.50: potatoes $1 and com 75c per '.ush-
el, which said contractor and laborer has
to buy.
frame such a law as we desire and have
it introduced and I think we will get what
we want. J. II. Diddle.
The Vicar of  Burgess  Hill,    England,
,      , , , announces tliat when confetti is thrown on
Is  t i»  school   teacher  so   feeble-minded   th,  00(.asio„ of wcddings at his church an
that  the  State  has  to  step  in   and  take  n,j,,j,lOI, of ?1.25 will be made to the usual
, ,<,nro of  tllcm'  as  if  (lopS  for  ,,lp i"sanc | wedding  fee,   to  pay   for  the   trouble  of
is sealed over in about 10 days, where it,and idiots.      Let the school ollicer niakejcipj,,,;,,,. the paper a'wav.
Farming In Early Da] s.
Rdltora lodlsna Fanner: '
I'hilip  ShintalTcr,   one  of  the  early  settlers of (ireen county,  made the entry of
land of what is now a part of the farm
of Louis I. Shryer, three miles    south of
Worthington,     a       Farmer       subscriber,
where  he  raised   the  first  crop  of     corn
ou  the said  farm; and  as  Mr.  ShintafiVr
was nsit the owner of a  wagon iu which
to gather the crop, as was often the case
with many of the early farmers; his only
resort was to gather in a boat about four
lest   wide   by   twelve   feet   long,     holding
about  twenty   bushels,   and  drawn   by     a
joke of oxen, with a chain to one end of
the boat, when across the field the chain
;was  unhitched  and   hitched   to  the   other
end,   so  crossing     the   lielrl   until     loaded.
The  boat  was called  a   peroguc  and  was
used   by     ferry     men
for     ferry   boats     by
lushing two  boats together   side   by   side,
thus   making   a   very
good   substitute  for   ;l
ferry boat, and  for a
two horse wagon one
horse and two wheels
went in each boat, by
straddling    the      two
sides  of  the l>oat,   as
lashed   together.       So
history   has  it.       Mr.
Shintaffcr was a German, as the name implies, and was a prosperous fanner in more
ways  than   one.     His
hind    was all    prairie
and hail to be plowed,
en'  broken   as   it  was
then  termed,   with ox
teams  with  four      or
five  yoke of oxen   to
' one   plow,   and   oxen
were cheaper than horse, an deasier to
keep, as the feed on the prairies and wood
land too was sullicient for oxen almost
the entire year, while horse teams had
to have lietter fare.
Mr. Sliintaffer was an expert ox team
driver and at one time was the owner of
Its yoke of oxen; and his wife was the
mother of: 10 boys and five girls, all of
whom lived to be grown. Who says Mr.
Shintaffer didn't live up to the order given
to Noah and his sons when they moved
out of the Ark. In early times families
generally number by half dozens, and dozens, and scores occasionally When coon
skin caps, buckskin suits and red leather,
home made shoes for the men and boys,
and llax and wool furnished the clothes
for the women and girls, it wasn't so very
hard times after all. -\s the hogs and
cattle fattened in the woods and prairies,
and corn and wheat were cheap and we
had more to eat than many of us have
now, and that that made bone and muscle.
Tliere was no upper crust or upper tens
in- society then, but all met on a level and
exchanged greetings in a way that every
body enjoyed to the fullest extent. When
neighbor called on ueighlsir it was by rapping on the door and calling, "who keeps
houseV" If at home, the response was
housekeeiier; that meant come in, throw
your hat on the bed and take a 'cher"
dhair) "how's all the folks, Uncle John?
anil how are you .Vunt Sallie? Light your
pipes ami make yourselves at home. We
'hearn.' you had all boen sick.
Hut little style and manners was made
use of in early times as compared with the
present  times,  but the same good  feeling
and respect was apparent at all times.
Worthingtoir. jj.  B.