Part 57
The eggs do not develop directly into adult bees, as might be inferred from what has just been said; but after three days there hatches from the egg a small white worm-like larva. For several days the larvæ are fed by the workers, and the amount of food consumed is truly remarkable. The larva grows rapidly until it fills the entire cell in which it lives. The workers then cover the cell with a cap of wax, and at the same time the larva inside spins a delicate cocoon under the cap.
[Illustration: HOW THE EGG OF THE QUEEN BEE LOOKS
EGG OF QUEEN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.]
[Illustration: HOW HONEY DEVELOPS IN A COMB
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMB HONEY.]
What Are Drone Bees Good for?
The worker brood can at once be distinguished from the drone brood by the fact that the workers place a flat cap over worker brood and a high arched cap over drone brood; and this is often a great help to the bee-keeper in enabling him to determine at once what kind of brood any hive contains. Twenty-one days from the time the egg is laid the young worker-bee emerges from its cell, having gone through some wonderful transformations during the time it was sealed up, this stage being known as the pupa stage. For drones the time is twenty-four days.
[Illustration: HOW A SWARM WILL SOMETIMES OCCUPY A SMALL TREE AND BEND IT OVER BY ITS WEIGHT.]
About the time the drones begin to appear, the inmates of the hive begin to prepare for swarming, which, to any one watching the habits of bees, is one of the most interesting things which takes place in the colony. Several young worker larvæ are chosen as the material for queen-rearing, generally located near the margin of the comb. The workers now begin to feed these chosen larvæ an extra amount of food and at the same time the sides of the cells containing them are remodeled and enlarged by the destruction of surrounding cells. The queen (or royal) cell is nearly horizontal at the top, like the other cells of the comb, and projects beyond them; but then the workers construct another portion to the cell into which the queen larva moves. This is an acorn-shaped cell placed vertically on the comb, about as large as three ordinary cells. As the cell is being built, the queen larva continues to grow until the time comes for her to be sealed up and enter her pupa state. Although it takes the worker twenty-one days to complete its development, the queen passes through all the stages and reaches a considerably larger size in but sixteen days.
[Illustration: THE DAILY GROWTH OF LARVÆ.]
[Illustration: DRONE-COMB.
WORKER-COMB.]
[Illustration: HOW THE HONEY COMB IS MADE
A STUDY IN CELL-MAKING.
Note that the cells are made independent of each other, and that it is the refuse wax, like droppings of mortar in brick-laying, that seems to tumble into the interstices to fill up.]
In the swarming season, at about the time the new queens are ready to leave their cells, the old queen leaves the hive and takes with her part of the workers, this being known as swarming.
[Illustration: CLIPPING THE QUEEN BEE’S WINGS
HOW TO BUMP THE BEES OFF A COMB.]
[Illustration: MANNER OF USING GERMAN BEE-BRUSH]
[Illustration: M. G. Dervishian’s method of catching queens, for caging or clipping their wings, by means of a jeweler’s tweezers.]
[Illustration: “THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS IN THE EATING.”]
[Illustration: WHAT AN APIARY LOOKS LIKE
AN APIARY IN SUMMER.
This photo shows the windbreak of evergreens surrounding the yard. The house-apiary is shown in the background, the upper story of which is used as a workshop. A trellis of grapevines is placed in front of each hive. In summer there is ample shade, and in the fall and early spring the leaves are shed, leaving plenty of sun to strike the hives when it is most needed.]
[Illustration: HOW THE HONEY MAN HANDLES THE BEES
A SWARM ENTERING A HIVE.]
[Illustration: A LIVE BEE-HAT.]
[Illustration: A FRAME OF BEES, SHOWING ONE WAY OF HOLDING AN UNSPACED FRAME.]
How Do Bees Build the Honey Comb?
In the hands of a bee-keeper the departing swarm will be put into another hive provided he wishes to increase the number of his colonies; but in a state of nature the swarm will find an old hollow tree or some similar place in which to establish itself. The bees, before leaving their old hive, fill themselves with honey until the abdomen is greatly distended, and for this reason it is not necessary for them to collect nectar for a day or two, for they have other work to do. Some of the bees begin to clean out the new quarters and get it fit for occupancy; but most of them begin the construction of new combs. To do this they suspend themselves in curtains from the top of the hive, and remain motionless for some time. The wax used in building comb is secreted by the workers in eight small pockets on the lower side of the abdomen while they thus hang in curtains. Finally, after enough wax has been formed, they begin to build. The small flakes of wax are passed forward to the mouth, there mixed with a salivary secretion to make the wax pliable, and then are placed on the top of the hive by the first comb-builders. Other workers then come and place their small burdens of wax on those first deposited, and this continues until the combs are finished. There is more to comb-building than the mere sticking on of wax plates, however, and nothing in all bee instincts is more wonderful than the beautiful plan on which they build the comb. The cells are hexagonal in shape, so that each cell in the center of the comb is surrounded by six others. Nor is this the only remarkable thing in their architecture, for each comb is composed of a double row of cells, the base of each cell being formed of three parts, each one of which is likewise a part of a separate cell of the other side of the comb. By this method the bees obtain the greatest possible capacity for their cells, with the least expenditure of wax. The accuracy of the cells of the comb has in all ages been an object of admiration of naturalists and bee-keepers.
As soon as there are some cells constructed, and even before the cells are entirely completed, the queen begins to lay eggs, and the workers begin to collect the stores of honey and pollen. They also collect in considerable quantity a waxy substance from various trees, commonly called propolis, with which they seal the inside of the hive, closing up all openings except the one which serves as the entrance.
[Illustration: HOW THE HONEY BEE DEFENDS HIMSELF
EFFECT OF A STING NEAR THE EYE.]
The cells which are used for the storage of honey generally slant upward slightly to help keep the honey from running out. Queen-cells are made only when a new queen is to be reared.
Can a Bee Sting?
It is true that bees cannot bite and kick like horses, nor can they hook like cattle; but most people, after having had an experience with bee-stings for the first time, are inclined to think they would rather be bitten, kicked, and hooked, all together, than risk a repetition of that keen and exquisite anguish which one feels as he receives the full contents of the poison-bag.
What Happens When a Bee Stings?
After the bee has penetrated the flesh on your hand, and worked the sting so deeply into the flesh as to be satisfied, it begins to find that it is a prisoner, and to consider means of escape. It usually gets smashed at about this stage of proceedings, unless it succeeds in tearing the sting--poison-bag and all--from the body; however, if allowed to do the work quietly it seldom does this, knowing that such a proceeding seriously maims it for life, if it does not kill it. After pulling at the sting to see that it will not come out, it seems to consider the matter a little, and then commences to walk around it, in a circle, just as if it were a screw it was going to turn out of a board. If you will be patient and let it alone, it will get it out by this very process, and fly off unharmed. I need not tell you that it takes some heroism to submit patiently to all this maneuvering. The temptation is almost ungovernable, while experiencing the intense pain, to say, while you give it a clip, “There, you little beggar, take that, and learn better manners in future.”
Well, how does every bee know that it can extricate its sting by walking around it? Some would say it is instinct. Well, I guess it is; but it seems to me, after all, that it “sort o’ remembers” how its ancestors have behaved in similar predicaments for ages and ages past.
Odor of the Bee-sting Poison.
After one bee has stung you, if you remain where you were stung, the smell of the poison, or something else, will be pretty sure to get more stings for you, unless you are very careful. It has been suggested that this is owing to the smell of the poison, and that the use of smoke will neutralize this scent. This probably is so.
What Should I Do If I Am Stung by a Bee?
The blade of a knife, if one is handy, may be slid under the poison-bag, and the sting lifted out, without pressing a particle more of the poison into the wound. When a knife-blade is not handy, push the sting out with the thumb or finger nail in much the same way. It is quite desirable that the sting should be taken out as quickly as possible, for if the barbs once get a hold in the flesh, the muscular contractions will rapidly work the sting deeper and deeper. Sometimes the sting separates, and a part of it (one of the splinters, so to speak) is left in the wound; it has been suggested that we should be very careful to remove every one of these tiny points; but after trying many times to see what the effect would be, I have concluded that they do but little harm, and that the main thing is, to remove the part containing the poison-bag before it has emptied itself completely into the wound.
Why Are Some Races White, and Others Black, Yellow and Brown?
What you eat determines your color, according to Bergfield, a German investigator. Not necessarily that you yourself could effect any change in color, but your ancestors for thousands of years have unconsciously been influenced by the food they have eaten and the drinks they have drunk.
For instance, the original men were black, says Bergfield. Their chief diet was of vegetables and fruits, he explains, and these same food contains manganates that are not unlike iron. Dark browns and blacks result from this combination. It is a scientific fact that negroes who drink milk and eat meat are never as dark as those who eat vegetables.
Again, Mongols are yellow because they have descended from races that were fruit-eating, and who, making their way into the deepest nooks and widest plains of Asia, developed into shepherds and lived largely on milk. Of course it is now known that milk contains a certain percentage of chlorine, and has a decidedly bleaching effect. In the case of Caucasians, they are said to have become white by adding salt to their foods, which common salt is a strong chloride, and powerful in bleaching the skin.
[Illustration: A HIDE HOUSE]
The Story in a Piece of Leather[9]
[9] Pictures by courtesy of Endicott, Johnson & Co.
Where Does Leather Come From?
Leather is made by treating the hides of various animals such as the calf, cow and horse. These are the principal animals from which we obtain hides for making leather to make shoes. Before the hides are fit for making shoes, they must be taken to a tannery where they are prepared and tanned.
In viewing a tannery, we enter first the enormous hide house. It is long, damp and dark. Here the hides are collected from all over the world and stored, awaiting their turn for tanning. We follow a small car of these hides into the beamhouse. We see the hides loaded into a vat. They are soaked, resoaked, softened and split into sides. This operation, while simple, holds your attention longer perhaps than any of the others. Several hides after being softened are thrown over a sort of saw-horse, the lot number is stamped on the hide in such a manner that it appears on each side after being split. With an unusually long bladed knife the workman quickly cuts down through the center and the hides which are now called sides, fall to the floor. They are next hooked together and pass on through vat after vat of lime solution which loosens the hair and superfluous flesh. At the end of this long chain of vats, we see the sides awaiting their turn at the first unhairing machine, where all the hair is removed and then to the fleshing machine, where the flesh is taken off and the sides are again loaded in a car and pass on to the tanyard.
[Illustration: HOW THE HIDES ARE TREATED
THE TAN YARD
We resume our travels, following a car of sides from the beamhouse to the sole leather tanyard. There are about 40 operations in the tanning of sole leather, requiring about 100 days to produce first quality leather. In the tanyard, we see more than 500 vats, each holding 300 sides, weighing about 23 pounds apiece. Each vat contains about 3000 gallons of liquor at an approximate cost of $100 a vat. Here we see the sides slipped over sticks and placed in vats six feet deep, where they receive the tanning, the real tanning process which preserves the fibers giving the leather its life and long wearing qualities.
From the tanyard we go to the big wringers where the liquor is wrung out, the hides are milled, dried and loaded on cars for the drying loft, where they are allowed to dry or season preparatory to rolling. This long building is sectioned off every 50 feet into chambers, where the hides are hung in the same manner as in the vats. The temperature of each room is changed from the outside temperature to a heat of 115 degrees, at which temperature the hides are dried and are ready for rolling.]
[Illustration: In the rolling room, we see an operation requiring skill and quickness of eye. The rollers pass to and fro over the side, which is now hard and stiff, with a pressure of 300 tons. This rolling or finishing gives it a high polish and we see a beautiful side of sole leather, weighing from 18 to 25 pounds.]
[Illustration: HOW UPPER SHOE LEATHER IS TANNED
In the upper leather tannery we see the various operations preparatory to the actual operation of tanning the hide, about the same as in the sole leather tannery, with this difference: Upper leather in this tannery is generally chrome tanned, a process requiring 30 days and instead of vats sunken in the ground we see huge rolling drums revolving at a rapid rate. This process is the most up-to-date method and absolutely insures the wearing qualities of the leather. This leather is very tough, yet is just as soft and pliable as glove leather and as comfortable to the feet. It does not harden with age, nor does it stiffen after being wet.]
[Illustration: UNHAIRING MACHINE
One of the most interesting sight while going through the tanneries is the process of disposing of waste materials, such as hair, fleshings and the sediments from the lime and sulphur vats.
The hair is separated into white, brown and black colors, each color taking its turn through the huge mill or gin where the hair is dried and afterwards baled. The brown and black are sold to plasterers. Those who purchase the white often mix it with wool and use it for making many useful articles.
The fleshings and trimmings are sold to manufacturers of glue.]
[Illustration: The Ancient Sandal Maker as pictured on the wall of the ruined temples at Thebes, Egypt.]
The Story in a Pair of Shoes[10]
[10] Pictures by Courtesy of United Shoe Machinery Co.
Who Made the First Shoes?
~WHERE SHOES COME FROM~
The making of shoes is one of the oldest arts of which there is any human knowledge. Long before primitive man devised any method of recording his exploits or thoughts, he contrived--through necessity--a method of protecting his feet from the rough way or hot sands over which he was obliged to travel in his search for food and shelter.
That foot covering antedates clothing or ornaments is shown from the fact that the primitive savage to-day, devoid of clothing or ornament, is almost invariably found with a crude form of foot protection and there is scarcely a tribe or nation without it’s traditions of the shoe--its mysterious power for good or evil.
What Was the First Foot Covering Like?
The first foot covering devised was undoubtedly a simple form of sandal--a rough bit of hide, wood or plaited grass held to the foot by means of thongs, generally brought up between the toes and tied about the ankle. This form of foot covering is depicted in records of the greatest antiquity: in the ruined temples at Thebes Egypt, the ancient sandal maker is shown at his task; the Assyrian bricks show the ancient warriors and people of that time wearing the simple sandal.
The dispersion of the human races and the wandering of tribes into colder climates brought the necessity for more thorough protection for the feet and body, and that this was accomplished was shown in the gradual increase in the number of straps or thongs which held the sandal in place and, in the colder climates, in the contrivance of a bag-like foot covering--traces of which are found even now in the Indian moccasin and the foot covering of the Eskimo. In all colder countries this type of footwear is still in evidence, the seam around the outline of the foot being a relic of the puckering string which held the bag-like covering to the foot.
[Illustration: Ancient sandal showing puckering string and thongs for holding it on foot.]
[Illustration: JAPANESE “ZORI”
A flat sandal with felt sole. Also showing “Tabi” or glove-like sock worn by Japanese.]
The sandal was developed and adorned by the Greeks, but it was not until the days of the Roman Empire that anything approaching the present form of shoes was designed. In this period a form of foot covering was developed--that was appropriated by the Emperor and worn by him only--which covered the entire foot with the exception of the toes.
[Illustration:
THE EVOLUTION OF THE SANDAL TO THE SHOE]
[Illustration: ANCIENT AND MODERN FORMS OF SANDALS
Japanese Astrida or Rough Weather Clog.]
[Illustration: Ancient Turkish Bath Slipper.]
[Illustration: The Crakrow or Poulaine showing clearly traces of the oriental origin of this design.]
[Illustration: Home made sandal of Siberian Peasant. Showing puckering string and key strap.]
[Illustration: JAPANESE WARY
A primitive form of foot covering very generally used by Japanese at the present time.]
[Illustration: Modern sandal issued by the Mexican Government for wear of soldiers.]
The Boot Developed from the Sandal.
It was but a step from this form of foot covering to the boot which covered not only the foot but the lower leg as well and which came widely into use afterwards in the form of the Jack-boot.
Up to the fourteenth century there had been little in the way of development of foot covering, but it is well established that in the year 1408 there were shoemakers’ guilds in Europe. Some of these were semi-religious in character, the members working in communities and sharing in the general product of their toil. Guilds of this period were very generally dedicated to either Saint Crispin or Saint Crispianus (the patron saint of shoemaking), and even to this day the birthday of Saint Crispin is celebrated in some of the English shoemaking guilds on October 25. The ceremonies attending the celebration in the olden days were of a very elaborate nature.
~THE SHOE WHICH THE CHURCH AND LAW FORBADE~
In the process of time the shoes began to lose the crude nature and design in which the Dark Ages had held them and developed a style the first of which was apparent in the gradual elongation of the toes, the custom said to have been introduced by Henry, Duke of Anjou, and these shoes were known as “Crakrows” or “Poulaines.” The style finally ran to such extremes that effort was made to stop it by the church and government, but with indifferent success until finally its end was accomplished by the imposing of summary fines and threat of excommunication by the church.
[Illustration: THE CRAKROW OR PEAKED SHOE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY]
Immediately the style went to the other extreme and the toes became very broad, as evidenced in the period of Elizabeth, and in some instances the shoes were as broad as six inches at the toe. They were made of velvet and were slashed to show the satin lining.
Who Made the First Shoes in America?
The first shoemaking in America is recorded when Thomas Baird arrived on the second voyage of the Mayflower in 1628. Baird was under contract with the Plymouth Company to make shoes for the colonists and brought with him divers hides, etc., for this purpose. It was recorded that in 1636 a planter in Virginia employed six shoemakers to make shoes for his slaves.
That in the early history of the country the art of making shoes had become of considerable importance is shown by the very summary laws passed by the different colonies regulating the industry. Particularly was this so in the Province of Pennsylvania which, in 1721, placed upon its statute book most drastic laws regarding the making of shoes and regulating the prices to be charged therefor.
Shoemaking in New England early received impetus from the arrival of one Phillip Kirtland, a Welshman, who came to Lynn, Mass., in 1636. He was an experienced shoemaker and taught his art to many of the colonists in his vicinity.
Shoemaking in this locality was further advanced by the arrival of John Adams Dagyr, who settled in Lynn in the year 1750. Dagyr was a celebrated shoemaker and was enabled, from his own means, to secure the best examples of work from abroad. He possessed the peculiar quality of being able to teach the art to those who came under his charge.
The fame of New England made shoes was due largely to the teachings of these men and the industry has continued to be one of the first in importance. In Massachusetts alone, according to the census of 1910, over 40 per cent of the entire value of shoes in the United States was produced.