The Beloit Daily Call from Beloit, Kansas • Page 3

FOR AMATEUR EXPERIMENTS REARING COOP QUEENS- Different Methods In Use Hard to Improve on the Natural Method Coming from Swarming Impulse. ii i him to his quarters. Hs was at onrj recognized and put uudur guard. The next morning a court-martial convened. He was brought before the court.

I was on regimental guard that day, aud of course took him before the coiut. (My orders wero to shoot to kill if he attempted to escape.) He apparently made no defense. The court found him guilty and he was sentenced to be shot, and sentence was approved. He did not appear to realize his position; was rather indifferent, only he asked me what I thought about it. 1 could only tell him I thought it would go hard with him (I was sure he would get the extreme penalty).

What followed I will remember as long as I live. Shortly after noon I was again guarding him, when MaJ. Chenington, of Gen. Crook's staff, came to notiry him what his sentence was. He said: "Young man, it is my painful duty to tell you the result of your trial; prepare yourself for the worst.

You have but a short time to live. You are to be shot at five o'clock to-day." He seemed as WORLD'S DEADLIEST RIFLE. The New Magazine Gun of United States Army Superior to Any Other Gun in Existence. A new magazine Infantry rifle, which experts declare to be superior to any other type in existence, has been, constructed and adopted by the ordnance department of the United State3 army. Nearly 100,000 of the new weapons have already been made In the government arsenals, and the entire infantry service will soon be equipped with them.

The most notable difference apparent at first glance between the old and the new arm is the afct that the barrel of the latter is entirely covered with wood. This innovation was the 'MM i Pa. THE NEW RIFLE. result of suggestions made the ordnance officers by the enlisted men of tthe army. The new gun is several Inches longer than the old.

The magazine has a capacity of five cartridges, and can be filled with ease and quickness. When fully assembled, the gun weighs a little more than eight pounds, and according to the ordnance experts, is exceptionally well balanced, insuring ease of discharge, and facilitating accuracy of aim. Technical eview. WHAT MAKES SKY BLUE? Theories Advanced by Scientists as to Its Reflection of Light and Its Color. The sky has long been a puzzle to physicists.

There are two mysteries to explain about it its reflection of light and its color. The old view was that the blue of the sky was due simply to atmospheric oxygen. Oxygen has a faint blue tint, and the Idea was that several miles of the gas, even when diluted as it is in the air, would have a bright blue color. But this did not account for the intense illumination of sky, and of recent years Tyndall's "dust theory," or some modification of it, has been generally accepted. This regards the blue color as an optical effect, like the color of very thin smoke, due to excessively fine particles floating in the air, which would also account for the large proportion of reflected light from the sky.

Recent calculations by Prof. Spring, of Liege, Belgium, however, Indicate that the dust In the air is not sufficient In amount, nor finely enough divided, to support this explanation, and he rejects it for this and other reasons. He has gone back to the old blue-oxygen theory, and accounts for the general illumination of the sky on the Hypothesis, first advanced by Hagen-bach, that intermingled layers of dif-leient density in the atmosphere give It the power of reflecting light. Sue- Dead Leaves Turned Into Soil, That the process of decay by which (he rich forest mold is formed from I alien leaves is brought about by the vegetable action of certain fungi has been demonstrated recently by C. u.

Koning, a Dutch botanist. He has studied especially the action of two species. One begins its work even before the leaves have fallen, appearing on them when they are still attached to the trees. It then grows actively, hastening the process of decay, and by so doing produces the well-known odor of fresh earth, which has been attributed by various Investigators to other substances. When cold weather comes on, however, this fungus ceases Its work, which is taken up by another species that flourishes only In the soil Itself and never attacks the living leaf.

It is probable that other fungi cooperate with these in soil formation, and that various species of bacteria also play their part. Success. How High Can Whales SpoutP Recent photographs of spouting whales give a means of measuring with some accuracy the height to which the water is thrown. This appears to be much less than it has obten been supposed to be. Dr.

G. M. Allen shows that even the great sulphur-bottom whale, on the average, spouts to a height of only 14 feet, although occasionally the height may he as much as 20 feet I Li nil .9 111 I ij I i Home-Made Wireless Signaling Transmitter That Will Be Instructive, In a recent. Issue of the Scientific American an account was given of two homemade wireless telegraph receivers; in connection with these it may prove Interesting to your readers who qre desirous of making their own experimental apparatus, to describe an exceedingly simple form of wireless transmitter, says A. Frederick Collins.

In sending wireless signals the essential factor Is a disruptive discharge or spark, and this should take place between the ends of two wires, one of CHARGING I.ID OF EI.KCTROl'HORUS. which projects vertically upward In the air. and the other Is connected with the earth; or if the signals are to be sent over a short distance, say 15 or 20 feet in a room, the latter wire may be connected to a bit of tin or copper plate and merely allowed to rest on the floor. The simplest way to obtain an electric spark is by means of an apparatus called an electrophorua, an instrument for generating static electricity by induction. This little device Is usually made of a flat disk of resin on which rests a metal disk having an Insulating handle of glass or vulcanite.

Our illustrations show clearly the tin or brass plate anil resinous disks; and although the former is placed on the latter, their surfaces touch each other In only a few places, since the air forms a thin insulating film which practically separates them. To construct an elect rophorus. it is only necessary to fill a shallow tin pan a pie-tin answers admirably with a mixture of resin, Venice turpentine and shellac in equal parts. When these sub-tances ate heated to the melting point, they should be carefully done so as to PRODUCING SPARK IN THE ANTENNA. prevent the formation of air bubbles.

It the turpentine is not readily obtainable, it may be dispensed with. Care must be taken in either case that the mixture does not take fire. When the mass has cooled It will become hard and brittle, and It will then be ready for use. This constitutes the sole of the device. A lid may be made by obtaining from the tinners a disk of tin cut half an inch smaller all around than the resin sole.

A stick of sealing wax forms a good handle. The lid may be made of a disk of wood covered with tinfoil, and a handle may be made by attaching to the center of the wood a heavy piece of wire covered with rubber tubing. Either of the former makes a satisfactory lid. Used as a wireless telegraph transmitter, the aerial or suspended wire should be at tached to the metal plate of the lid in such a manner that when the plate is charged, the wire will not touch the sole. The wire leading to the earth or metal plate on the floor should have Its upper end attached to a table, wall, or any convenient place, so that the charged lid carrying the aerial wire may be held clo6ely to it, when a spark will pass be-tveen the edge of the tin disk and the end of the lower wire, as shown in one of our views.

There will then be set up in it and the aerial wire a series of strong electric oscillations, the energy of which will be damped out in the form of electric waves. In order to charge the metal plate, the resin disk must first be excited by whisking or rubbing it with a piece of hot flannel or a silk pad. After the resin Is well rubbed, the tin lid is placed upon it for a few seconds, and the finger occasionally touching it as shown. Now, on lifting the lid, if the knuckle or wire leading to the earth or floor Is presented to it, a spark will pass, showing that the plate was charged. If a receiver, such as either of hose referred to, is set up at a little distance, even though the walls of a room or two intervene between it and theelectrophorus transmitter, the instant the spark passes a characteristic click is heard in the telephone receiver.

In order to repeat the process, the lid will need to be recharged, and this will require merely the placing of Hon the resin sole and removing it again, although the plate will have to be freshly excited occasionally if energetic sparks are to be produced. It will.be readily-seen that the elcctrophorus Is in fee simple a miniature electric machine. Racial Characteristics. As Illustrating a difference In characteristics It Is officially noted that twice as many people lu Scotland as in Ireland choose to go to prison for wJuor offenses rather than pay a fine. In Ireland they pay the flue, "There is considerable difference of opinion among queen rearers as to which are the best methods of rearing queens out of season," says writer in the Progressive Beekeeper.

"In using the term out of season, I mean causing bees to rear queen when they are not naturally inclined to do so. "I think it is pretty generally admitted that wo cannot, rear queens) that are superior to those reared under the natural swarming provided, of course that such queens are the daughters of superior mother queens, and in most cases queens reared under abnormal conditions nra likely to be somewhat inferior to the first named. Queens reared to super sede an old queen that is failing I con sider equal to and possibly in soma cases superior to queens reared under the swarming Impulse. Such quefrns are reared with the greatest of cure and duo deliberation, and we may therefore expect them to be of tha. very best.

There are probably one or two exceptions to the last named and that is when such queens are reared very early in the spring or late In the autumn when the colony Is not in the best condition for rearing queens. "All queens not reared under one or the other of the above named conditions are to a certain extent reared under abnormal conditions, and it is such queens that are more likely In some instances to prove inferior. 1 think some queen rearers contend that to remove the queen from a prosperous colony and allow them to rear queens at will does not produce good queens, but in my humble opinion such queens are as good or better than those reared under many of the more abnormal conditions as now used by many professional queen rearers, provided, of course, that al? the conditions, Btich as the honey flow, the season and other things, are equal In every respect. "I would advise the novice who wishes to rear his own queens to adopt the latter method In preference to most of the more complicated methods now in use; that is when he cannot secure natural swarming cells or cells, reared under the superseding impulse that are reared from the egg of choice queens. "Certainly all of the above named cells are more troublesome to handle than cells built singly, but In the long run it will be the least work and the safest plan for the novice.

"In many of the abnormal methods of producing queens, the larvae are) stinted at a time when they should be fed profusely, and If we examine the cell after the queen has emerged we will find that all of the food has been consumed, Indicating that the larvae had barely enough and probably not enough royal jelly for their full development. It is such queens that we have good reason to believe will rVove Inferior." HOME-MADE UNCAPPING BOX What One Beekeeper Has Found Convenient in Working with His Hives. I inclose a rough sketch of my un-capping-box, says Harley Smith, ot Monroe, N. Y. The box Is made of seven-eighths Inch pine, 20 inches wide, and 30 inches long, by 20x2 Inches deep.

It is lined with galvanized iron, and has a strip of pine on one side to wipe the knife off. The 11 ill PLAN OF THE UNCAPPING BOX. screen you see standing at the end goes in the inside, so that the caps can't drop on the bottom of the box. You see it la just the right height so. you don't have to bend over while at work.

The above works better than anything else that I have seen. In California this is a very common form of uncapping-box, remarks the editor of Gleanings in Bee Culture. If the uncapper Is at any time ahead of the man with the extractor It will hold the extra combs and Btill allow the former to keep right on. Klther you or our artist failed to show the cross-board on which the combs art uncapped. It would be better to set the combs in the box cornerwise so that they could be picked more easily.

Don'ts of the Apiarist Don't neglect to keep your capping knife sharp. Don't use more than seven combs In an extracting super (elght-frams hive). Keep in view the close of the season to leave all colonies in the best condition possible for winter. Avoid queenless colonics by renins, that all get queens. A queenless stock may be united with a small second swarm to good advantage.

Hirt? THE DYING SOLDIER. We rested on the battlrlleld, The busy dny was o'er; Ilnsht'il was the nngry clash of arms, The cunnun's frisluful roar. -And twilight settlod o'or the scene Of cnrriaRe and of stride "TwiiR pitiful to kmo. upon The fearful loss of life. Beneath a tont of eedn houghs, liy suft nifclit brvezcf funned, tOne of our brnvo iny dying now A youth from Maryland.

llljrht well we loved the fcnrless boy. When dangers roumf us pressed, Through many an awful conflict Ho had nobly stool the test. Now, one by one. our eomrndes all Hud gathered 'round his bed; And when each -one hud clasped his hand, He smiled, and then he said: "Hoys, you will send a letter, When 1 shall be no more, To friends in dear old Maryland, On blue l'aluxetit's shore. "You tell my father that I fell When victory was won Jon't ten he old man hastily The tidings of his son.

captain, you will tell him drew no coward's breath; His last cry on the battlefield Was 'Victory, or "'To my dear old mother gently tell The news when I am dead; And place her letters on my breast, I lor Uible ut my head. J'Now, boys, I want you to repeat A prayer ho sent to me; When I was but a little child I learned it at her knee." With tearful eyes we nil obeyed The dying boy's request; Aiut when we rose up from our kneea His spirit was ut rent. "We placed the letters on hts breast, The Hiblo at his head The. battleflag of the Sunny South Waved o'er the rebel dead. Nannie McClur.g, in American Tribune.

EXECUTION OF A DESERTER A Rebel Prisoner Who Became a Bounty Jumper and Was Recognized. During the winter of '62 and '63, the Twenty-third Ohio was quartered at Charleston, W. and the Twelfth Ohio (of which I was a member), writes a correspondent of the National Tribune, at Fayette, W. Va. Some rebel deserters came into Charleston and were confined In guardhouse for a time.

They were offered release providing they would enlist In our army. They did this, a portion, if not all, enlisting in the Twenty-third. One young man immediately deserted, taking with him some members of the Twenty-third, and, I believe, borrowing some money of the boys. Pursuit was made, but they failed to catch them, and nothing more was heard of them for more than a year. On the return from Hunter's raid to Lynchburg, in July, '64, the three years men were mustered out, and the remainder of the Twelfth and Twenty-third were consolidated under the name -of the Twenty-third, the members of the Twelfth forming three companies of the HIS FACED HIS DOOM LIKE A MAN.

Twenty-third, and having their own officers, and MaJ. Corey, of the Twelfth became major of the We were sent around to Martlnsburg, W. where on July 24 Gen. Crook made a stand against Gen. Early, who had some 25,000 or 30,000 men.

Crook had from 8,000 to 10,000 men. Of course, Crook had to fall back that night, after quite a loss of men, Including the brave 'Col. Mulligan, crossing the Potomac river at Shepherdstown. We finally went into camp on the Monocacy river, near Frederick City, where we lay several days to recruit up. While there a batch of recruits and substitutes numbering something like 100 came from Ohio and joined us, and were distributed among the companies of the Twenty- ithird.

Among this batch was the young man referred to above, who, it seems, after leaving the Twenty-third at Charleston, went back to the rebel army, and with others was captured at Crook's battle of Cloyd Mountain, W. May 9, 1864, and were all sent to.Camp Chase. Soon after he, with others, were released to go as substitutes, Induced by the big bounties offered by counties and muni cipalities in Ohio. This boy asked to be assigned to the Twelfth (or It may have been the Twelfth Ohio cavalry The Twelfth having ceased to exist, he was by a singular fate assigned to the very company he had deserted from, He protested against thiB, giving as a reason he wanted to stay with a comrade who had been in prison with him. Col.

i Comly told him he could make no RUST AND DURUM WHEAT. What Tests Have Proved as to the Resistance Power of Different Varieties. Durum wheats resist rust very much more than the common varie ties, and this ought to be a fact of considerable importance favorable to their use. However, this quality has not been emphasized as much as it might be, for the reason that durum varieties are particularly adapted to the drier regions where rust does not often occur. It Is now seen from the results of the crop season of 11104 that rather severe rust attacks are likely even in the driest portions of the grain region, and that in about one year out of ten this quality of rust resistance becomes of the greatest Importance.

At the South Dakota agricultural experiment station during 1904 the varieties that resisted the rust so far as to give the maximum yields mentioned were all of the durum group. A very Interesting feature of the experiments as to rust resistance, which have been carried on by this department for ten years In cooperation with state experiment stations, is that the variety Iumlllo, which showed the most complete resistance the past season, is the same one that has been more resistant than any other In all of the experiments for the last three years or more. During the previous years the rust was not sufficiently severe to make much difference whether any of these varieties were resistant or not, but nevertheless it was still an Interesting fact that this one variety was always marked MO in the scale of rust resistance, while no other variety reached that grade, or. if so, at least only rarely. Now this fact becomes much more significant and of the greatest economical importance after a season of extreme injury through rust.

For awhile the 'ace was overlooked that this Is a uUnun variety, it being referred to always as belonging in the common group. In the accompanying illustration Is shown the grain of this va- S0 COMPARISON OK RUST RESISTANCE OF FOUR DIFFERENT WHEATS. A Iumlllo durum. No. 173fi; Saragolla durum.

No. 222S; Cihlrka Spring, No. 1017; A pedigree Blue Stem. riety for the crop of 1904 in comparison with that of three other varieties. In the order from A to which is also the order of the degree of injury from rust, the varieties represented are as follows: No.

1736, Iumlllo; No. 2228, Sara-golla; No. 1517, Ghirka Spring, t.nd a pedigree Blue Stem. The yields of these varielle.i per acre were, respectively: Iumiho. 16 2-3 bushels; Saragolla, 12 2-3 bushels; Ulilrka Spring, 6 5-8 bushels, and the pedigree Blue Stem 5 5-6 bushels.

The first two are durum wheats and the last two ordinary wheats. From all results so far obtained throughout the country, it appears that the variety Velvet Don stands next to Iumlllo in rust resistance, and therefore takes second rank in this respect. This is shown in an accurate manner by experiments at the buu-experlment station at Edgeley, N. carried on in cooperation with the North Dakota agricultural experiment station. Six varieties of durum wheat and two common wheats grown at this station stand in the following order in rust resistance, the yields per acre and weights per bushel also being given: Velvet Don (durum) 35.2 bushels, weight 67 pounds per hushei.

Air.uulka (durum) 31. bushels, weight rounds per bUBhet. (durum) 30.8 bushels, weight pounds pe bushel. l'ereroilka (durum) bushels, weight 60 pounds per bushai. Kubar.ka (durum) 81.5 bushels, weight 48 pounds per bushel.

Nicaragua (durum) 11.8 bushels, weight 12 pounds per bushel. ilayne'8 lllue Stem (common) 11.9 bush-Bis, Wright pounds per bushel. Ryslliig's Fife (common) 11.6 bushels, weight, 42 pounds pur bushel. Smoked Mutton Legs. Mutton legs can be cured and smoked Just as pork hams are, and are found to bo one of the very best kinds of meat when prepared in that way.

Those who usually object to mutton when fresh cannot find any reason for complaint in smoked mutton leg. tonished and dazed, and told who would testify to his Innocence; of course, some one who could not be gotten then. Maj. Cherrington told him he had had his trial, and he could do nothing for him In that direction, but if he wanted to see anyone lu the camp he would be brought to him. Asking him if he want ed to see a chaplain, he said he did.

At (hat timo the Twenty-third was with out one, but the chaplain of the Thir teenth, W. who was in camp adjoin ing, came. The prisoner talked with him, and he (the prisoner) gave1 him two new silver watches and about $'100 in greenbacks, together with the address of his mother (who 1 think lived In Mon roe or Greenbrier county), and the chap lain promised to see his mother if possible, or, failing to do this, to write and send her the money, the first op portunity. Now followed the execution; the marching out of the prisoner, escorted by the guard and execution party; a de tail from the Twenty-third commanded by Lieut. Brig.

Hill, ahead of the brass band playing a solemn funeral dirge; the troops formed in a hollow square; the prisoner seated on his coffin; the volley, and he fell forward on his face; the surgeon's examination, and his report in a few brief words. The guards were only a few paces from the central figure, and we saw that he faced his doom like a man and soldier. Thus ended one of war's tragedies. A GOOD NATURED COLONEL Kept His Temper When an Awkward Soldier Stepped on His Face in the Dark. Only the other day I met Col.

A. L. Fahnestock, of the Eighty-sixth Illi nois, in the city, purchasing his annual stock of dry goods. He told me that he found in the older wholesale houses only one salesman who was with the firms 50 years ago, and that reminded me of a story, says an old soldier in the Chicago Inter Ocean. After we charged the confederate works at Jonesboro and captured Gen.

Govan's brigade, we camped in line, and Col Fahnestock picketed his horse in rear of his regiment, selected a clean. grassy spot for his bed, rolled himself in his blunket, and slept the sleep of the tired soldier. Just before daylight the next morning one of the colonel's regiment was moved to get an early start in making coffee, and hiking for water in the dark, ran over the colonel, stepping squarely on the sleeping officer's head The shock to the colonel was like that of being hit by a shell. The pain was excruciating, and coming suddenly from a sound sleep the colonel gave voice to Imprecations and other things not down in the books. Recognizing the colonel and realizing what he had done In his haste and the poor fellow of the coffee bucket began an explanation and an apology.

Not a man In the line would have excused him, and the colonel seemed to be nursing his wrath. But as the high stepper stammered along he said; "Never mind, my boy. Accidents will happen in the best of regiments. Go ahead with your coffee-making, but remember you have a heavy foot and the next time you bring It down on a head select the head of a confederate." Not many officers would have accepted such a situation so good-naturedly. Jap's Kite Signal.

When Port Arthur fell the Japanese soldiers at the front along the Shakhe chose an ingenious way of announcing the victory to the Russian armies on the other side of the river. A big kite was sent up by the Japanese. On this was a picture representing Gen. Stoes-sel and Gen. Nogl Bhaking hands.

Underneath, written In the Russian language, was the legend: "Port Arthur has fallen. On the morning of the happy New Year we have the honor to announce this with hearty greetings." It was subsequently learned from prisoners that the kite fell into the hands of a Russian lieutenant at Liuchangtun. Affixed to the tall was a letter written In French. Says President Is Scarred. At a campftre of the department of United Spanish War Veterans Capt.

W. E. English, of Indianapolis, commander-in-chief of the national organization, declared that President Roosevelt had been marked for life by a fragment of a Spanish shell at the battle of La Guaslamas. He says It struck Col. Roosevelt in the arm and that ho was near by when the Injury was received.

Oldest Trench Officer. The senior officer on the retires, list of the French army has just celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. This veteran is MaJ. Desmarets, whose military experiences began as long ago as 1815, change just then, but to come to him later and he might transfer him. He Inflated, and the eotonel finally ordered I I.