VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, DECEMBER 18, 1909.
NO. 51
■Written  for  the  Indiana   Fanai.r:
OVH   MT-BEARIXG   TKKES.
By Mrs. M. E. S. Charles.
Among our nut-bearing trees the
hickories, are, p«Thaps the best known.
They are strictly North American trees;
none now grow in any other part of the
world. There are fourteen known species; one Mexican, while the other 13
grow east of the Rock Mountains. Our
own state boasts of six species, of which
the shagbark or shellbark is most noted
because of its nuts and its peculiar
bark.
The wood of most species is tough,
strong and flexible—especially valuable
for farm implements, tool handles etc.
There is no other kind of fuel that excels dry hickory for heat and brilliancy
of flame. No other of our trees bear
such valuable nuts. No finer shade
trees are to be found. But because of
the value of the wood for implements
and fuel, the finest trees of the forests
have been sacrificed, and as a consequence the crop of wild nuts is decreasing while the demand is increasing.
Nurserymen are now experimenting
to (lnd the t; st method of propagating
the  trees  and  improving the  varieties,
The nut-bearing flowers of the hickory are yellowish green, like the young
leaves surrounding them. At the center of each is a single pistil, forking into two plumy heads. The pollen-bearing flowers are chains of scales, drooping below the leaves, each scale bearing
many little stamen heads on Its lower
surface. When the stamens open they
shed a quantity of pollen, so light and
dry that It can be carried far away by
the winds. The pollen-shedding flowers of all kinds of trees are generally
more numerous on the upper branches,
while the flowers that contain pistils,
and need pollen, are apt to grow more
abundantly on lower boughs. The
slightest breeze sets the pollen flying
from the long, green fringe-like flow-
. is and it settles down upon the pistillate flowers borne upon the tips of the
branches.
Well developed trunks of the shag-
bark are tall, straight as a spar, but
sumewhat disfigured by long flapping
strips of bark, fastened at the top, but
with the sides and edges loose and curling, like the weather-worn shingles on
an old roof. These vertical sheets of
shiiggy bark give this tree its common name. From the close-knit cov-
<ring of the topmost twig down to the
ground the gradual evolution of this
luirk is a fascinating study.
The Creeks and Algonquin tribes of
Indians made a drink from the pound-
••tl nuts, shells and all. and called it
"powcohickora". Recent botanists
have adopted the latter part of the Indian name, with a slight change (hic-
oria, as the name of the genus, which
seems very fitting.
We scarcely think of the pecan as a
hickory, yet it is the largest of our
hickories. It is a native of the southern and southwestern counties of the
state and grows to perfection in the
rich, moist soils of river bottoms. The
wood of the pecan is hard, brittle, of a
light reddish brown and ls the least
valuable of all the hickories, except
for fuel, and for its nuts which are collected  and  sold  in  all  the  markets of
the north. A correspondent of the In-
ilianapolis News recently wrote a glowing description of the pecan industry
in some of the southern counties of Indiana. What the pecan is to the river
valley people, the shellbark, shagbark
and mockernut hickories might, with a
little forethought atid care, become to
the people living on the uplands farther north.
The black walnut is a grand tree
growing in river bottoms and on hillsides west, from western Massachusetts
to Minnesota, and southward to
Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Texas.
THE PROPER  CARE OE  HONEY.
Edltora Indiana Farmer:
Honey is a healthful, concentrated,
easily assimilated food, offered to man
by nautre, all prepared, extracted drop
by drop from myriads of flowers. Our
ancestors made it their favorite food.
They knew no other sweet. But honey
is not only a good food but a good medicine, curing, without drugs, disorders
of the stomach, chest, and of the voice,
such as gastritis, bronchitis, colds, asthma, and grip. The formic acid with
which it is impregnated by the bees
makes   it   an   antiseptic,   purifying   the
Indian Runner ducks, on the farm   of J. J. Wingert, Montgomery Co.
The trunk is tall and straight. The
branches are stout and spreading,
forming a round-topped tree when
agrown in the opep.
The flowers of the walnut are much
like those of the hickory except that
the pistillate flowers, instead of being
yellowish green, are of a rich red. The
pistils as in the case of the hickory, divide into two plumy heads.
The nutriment which nature provides for baby walnuts and hickories, is
stored in the seed leaves. "While the
pollen is flying from the boughs the
forming nut has four communicating
chambers in which one embryo plant
lives all alone. As the seed leaves are
packed with oils and starches for the
sustenance of the young tree , they
swell, and stretch, and soon occupy the
entire four-roomed apartment." When
they have attained their growth they
are lobed and folded so as to fill every
cranny of the nutshell in which they
lie. This is the reason that the kernels
show such irregular surfaces when taken from the shells.
The family's botanic name, Juglans,
is derived from Jovis glans—Jove's
nut. Roman writers applied this name
to the European walnut on account of
the excellence of its nuts. Jove's acorn
was the walnut of commerce, for, curiously enough, it was this nut, not the
fruit of the oak, which the Romans
called an acorn.
disorderer mouth and breath. Rheumatism is practically unknown among
those who eat much honey.
Very few people know how to keep
honey. The average housewife will usually put honey in the cellar or into the
refrigerators for safe keeping, about
the two worst places possible. Honey
is kept very differently from fruit.
Honey is thoroly ripe when taken from
the hive and will therefore not ferment
unless it is placed in a cool, moist place.
Honey has a .great affinity for moisture,
and if comb honey is stored in
a damp atmosphere it will absorb the moisture through the
slightly porous cappings, and become
thin and watery. The bulk of the
honey will be so increased that it will
burst the cells and ooze out. The honey
may become so thinned that fermentation will set in. Cold is also detrimental to comb honey, causing it to candy
in the cells. It seems strange to me
that nearly every one will take it for
granted that honey should be stored
some place as cold as can well be
found. If they would stop to think a
moment, they would know that the
place where the bees keep it is warm,
and the bees are models for keeping
honey. The warmer honey can be kept
the better, till a degree of 100, Fahr.,
is reached.
When nectar is gathered it is thin
and watery.    The heat of the hive, aid
ed by the manipulations of the bees,
gradually reduces the nectar to thick,
"ripe" honey. When the honey is ripe
the bees seal it over. That is their
finishing touch which proclaims that
it is ready for market or use. While
there is an excess of water in the
honey the bees will not seal it over.
They will leave it to evaporate. This
process of evaporation is the ripening
process. As it goes on, the honey gets
thicker and heavier, until it has reached the proper density. Then, as already remarked, the bees certify to its
ripeness by sealing it over.
After honey is thoroughly ripened in
the hive and is then removed, its future
palatableness depends entirely upon the
the care that it receives. Too many
look at honey as a simple sweet, like
sugar-cane forgetting that its flavor
and aroma, are its chief attraction.
Honey when flrst taken from the hives,
has very distinctly the flavor of the
flowers from which it was gathered.
Each variety of blossoms gives a distinctive flavor. By testing of honey,
an expert can very readily tell from
what class of blossoms it was gathered.
The flrst requisite for caring for
comb honey, after taking it from the
hives, is a good, warm room in which
to store it The object of this is to
have the honey growing better and better, instead of poorer. When honey is
taken from the hive, that in the unsealed cells is often so thin that if the
sections are held so that the mouths of
the cells are down, it will run out, but
by leaving it in a warm room for three
weeks or a month, it can be handled as
you please, and not a drop can be shaken out. Fully capped honey is not as
likely to become watery and sour as is
that which is unsealed, and as unsealed
honey in any part of the section makes
that section more or less unsalable, it
is always best, if possible, to leave all
sections on the hive until they are fully sealed. Honey should not only be
kept in a dry, warm room, but there
should be enough ventilation in and
about the room to carry off all moisture
which evaporates from the honey; and
the larger the pile of honey stored in
any room the greater should be the
ventilation. It is not well to store comb
honey directly on the floor, for where
so stored the air cannot go under the
bottom of the pile, and thru lack of circulation of air under the bottom, honey
will become watery in the most dry and
well-ventilated  room.
Thoroly ripened extracted honey
should be at once put into bottles, cans
or barrels and sealed up tight. It will
of course soon candy, or crystallize,
but the flavor will be retained indefinitely, and the honey can be liquefied
whenever it is needed for use. Care
must be exercised in melting the honey,
that the flavor is not injured by the application of too great heat. Of course
the honey will not be burned if it is not
heated hotter than boiling water, but
the application of so great heat as
this rapidly drives off the flavor.
Keeping the package closed and applying a very gentle heat—never above
150 degrees is the better way.
Meadow View Apiary.
Leonia, N. J.
A bottle of milk, containing a two-
inch minnow, was recently delivered by
a Pittsfield, Mass., milkman to one of
his customers.