Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-20

I
piled as between lighthouses and ships
to warn the latter away from danger
| Gus rocks and shoals also could be ap-
piled as between different ships to
collisions in foggy weather. The ships,
| being equipped with both direction
| finders and sending apparatus, could
easily keep informed of the where
| abouts of each other.
The details of the proposed system
| are being worked out through further
| laboratory experiments at the bureau
| of standards, and it is believed that
| before long field operations will be
| started by equipping light station
| on ships from one of the governments
seagoing services to test out the value
of the radio warnings.
| With the growth Of trade marks and
the degrees of quality which they in
dictate, bull ders have
New Lumber long been able to spec
ify just what brand of
otahoAlos. cement. lime. steel. roof
ing and other supplies they desire.
When it came to structural timbers.
however, specification by description
was the best that could be done. For
years the forest products laboratory
of the United States forest service has
advocated the branding of structural
timbers in order that quality may be-
come known. Recently one of the
largest lumber mills In the country
needed the laboratory's advice and
adopted the suggested plan. and Is now
stamping its trade mark on every large
tim Der 1t sends out
The forest service is confident that
other large mills will follow suit and
that the practice will become general.
insuring a Standardization of product
such as has long been crying need
in the lumber industry.
Another activity Of the forest products
Laboratory that may have a far-reach-
of the country, as we'll as on the price
of foods, is it's experimentation with
the relatively inexpensive cottonwood
as substitute for the more costly
for making butter boxes. Because cot
tonwood gives off a peculiar and pene-
trating odor when being worked. and
because butter absorbs favors and
been assumed by packers of butter
that cottonwood could never be used
for their purposes. Uncle Sans ex-
perimenters in his many Laboratories
have. however. something Of the will
ingness of the man in the street ito
try anything once" so test boxes were
recently made from the odorous wood,
packed with butter according to the
usual practice and set away for a week.
At the end of that period five pro-
fessional butter graders agreed that
the prints wrapped in waxed paper and
those inclosed in paper cartons before
they were placed in the boxes showed
absolutely no trace of a foreign flavor,
absorbed only q slight taste, and that
on the surface only. 1t is considered
that the discovery Of the new source
of material for food boxes that has
ments is particularly timely. since
spruce, a popular source of the ma
terlal heretofore. is becoming more
and more nearly exhausted through the
manufacture into news print paper.
Most farmers and suburban residents
know how to take care of live stock,
from poultry to cattle. the
Culture Department of Agriculture
Of Bees. has found: but. strangely
the tiniest of domesticated creatures
that contribute products for human
| umption-bees-negle because Of
ignorance is usually the rule. Realiz-
ing the great losses from neglect, the
department has recently become espe-
cially interested in work for the little
domesticated insects and is pointing
out to beekeepers their needs, espe-
cially during the long flowerless win
ters
The Investigators of tho department
found. for instance. that fully 10 per
cent of the colonies of bees in the
country are lost each winter from
starvation, cold and similar causes
One of the principal reasons for trou-
BILE is that the owners of colonies are
not willing to allow their tiny labor
| ers to retain a sufficient supply of the
honey they have gathered to feed them
even on a low ration, or in lieu of this
to supply sugar strip.
Another trouble is that the owners
fail to make any provision for solv-
ing the temperature problem, assum-
ing that the bees can manage to get
through the winters cold without trou-
BILE. AS matter of fact, the govern
| ment's bee specialists point out the
| hives containing the insects should be
packed carefully for the winter by
being placed in a larger case. the space
between being filled with sawdust, dry
| leaves. cork chips or other insulating
| material
The danger in not insulating the
| hives, according to the Agricultural
Department, is not that the bees will
freeze but that they will die of ex-
| cessive heat When the outside tom
perature falls below certain point
the insects gather in a mass, while BY
muscular activity the individuals in
the center generate heat. II the cold out
side is excessive the surface bees crowd
in so closely that those in the Interior
, Of the mass are smothered or over
heated, and either die outright or ara
SO weakened that they are unable to
| assist in the early spring operations
of the colony.
The 10 per cent winter loss, the gov
! eminent experts say, can be reduced
to less than l per cent IL beekeepers
will merely exercise reasonable care
| in looking after the welfare of their
small workers. What it would mean in
money if this advice were taken is
| readily seen from the fact that the
bees Of the country are valued at more
than $1O,000,000, and that their ANIMAL
product. honey and wax, are worth
half Of this amount.
KEYNOTE SPEECH