ROOT'S AUTOMATIC REVERSIBLE HONEY-EXTRACTOR. We have got it at last. What? An automatic reversible honey-extractor that will reverse the pockets while in motion by simply pressing on a lever. The extractors are no larger than the Cowans, and reverse without bang or slam, providing the directions are followed. They are equipped with street-car band-brake, noiseless gearing, gearing on top of the reel out of the honey, and out of the way of putting in and removing the combs. We have the four-frame size all ready for delivery. Six-frame, eight-frame, and two-frame sizes will be ready shortly. Price will be only $2.00 above the regular price for two, four, six, and eight frame Cowan extractors respectively.

This is the invention of Mr. Frank Marbach, the foreman of our machine-shop, and is so far ahead of anything else that has ever been devised that we think it will crowd everything else out of the market in the near future.

Special Notices by A. I. Root.

AUTOMOBILES AND THEIR FUTURE.

The Baltimore Manufacturers' Record is credited with the following statement: "During the last twelve months our automobile output exceeded in value all the locomotives built in America by $20,000,000, and the industry is scarcely out of its infancy." And yet the Philadelphia Farm Journal continues to urge farmers to fight its advance and progress.

OUR CEREALS IN AMERICA.

The above is the title of a most valuable new book published by the O. Judd Co., by Prof. Thomas F. Hunt, of Cornell University, New York. It is a volume of 500 pages, with over 100 new and original illustrations. The greater part of the book is devoted to wheat, as a matter of course. A large part of the remainder of the book is devoted to corn; but oats, barley, rice, and sorghum (Kafir corn) are also treated. The most interesting chapter to bee-keepers is probably the short one on buckwheat. The only reference covering buckwheat for honey is the following: "It is highly prized for bees, buckwheat honey having a recognized place in the market." The whole chapter on buckwheat contains only eleven pages. The price of the book is $1.75 by mail, or we can supply it from this office.

TUBERCULOSIS IN THE UNITED STATES. McClure's Magazine for January contains a most able article on the above disease that I wish might be read by every man, woman, and child in the United Statesand in the whole world for that matter. The disease is not only preventable, but curable if taken before it is too late; and the whole secret, as with typhoid fever and a long list of other diseases, is in the line of sanitary cleanliness. The patient does not need to go to another part of the world. The whole matter centers in the homes we live in, especially our sleeping-rooms. Either sleep outdoors or with your windows open to such an extent that it is almost equivalent to being outdoors. And above all do not spit on the floors and sidewalks. Consumption is not contagious if the above points are heeded.

By the way, there is another article in that same magazine on lynching in America that everybody ought to read. Perhaps I should apologize somewhat for my severe censure on McClure's Magazine a few weeks ago, and perhaps a little indirectly on our good pastor for quoting from the above magazine in his sermon. Instead of banishing the magazines from the home that contain things objectionable, a little protest from a good many people might enable us to hold fast to the good and banish the evil. By the latter I mean stories that seem to encourage intemperance, profanity, etc. Clure's Magazine has given us some of the best up-to

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date articles on health and sanitation, including respect for the enforcement of law, that have ever been given to the world.

"HOW TO MAKE DOLLARS OUT OF WIND."

I very much enjoy looking over circulars from manufacturers of different things, especially farm machinery. I like to hear what an energetic, up-to-date man has to say in defense of the wares he makes or sells. When I saw the above heading on a circular I supposed it meant they had a windmill for sale. Not so: It is a fanningmill. And then they go on to tell the importance of planting not only clean seed, free from weed seeds and everything else, but the importance of planting the largest and best grains. This last is a wonderful item in getting big crops. I have no doubt it will pay the farmer well to hand-pick all the grains he plants or sows-that is, if there is no better way. Our experiment stations have again and again demonstrated that the crop can be largely increased by planting only the largest and best seeds; and in the matter of getting rid of weed seeds, T. B. Terry tells us of spending stormy days with hired help in picking over his seed wheat. Of course, he did every thing with the fanning-mill that he could first. Then he hand-picked it to be sure he did not introduce on his premises any new and pernicious weeds; and Terry is not only a model farmer, but he makes money in his farming. Get the fanning-mill first, and one of the best up-to-date machines; then if you want to beat everybody else on a crop, spend the stormy days of winter and the long evenings in sorting out the best seeds to plant. This is taking it for granted that you do not leave the other things undone, such as underdraining, getting out stumps, leveling your land, turning under green crops, etc.

MY FLYING-MACHINE STORY.

For 32 years I have been ransacking the world--that is, so far as I could consistently-watching periodicals of almost every sort, and leaving no stone unturned to furnish information of interest and value to the readers of GLEANINGS. I have especially tried to have our own journal up to date in scientific matters; and until the past summer I have made haste to present at once to our readers every bit of information I could get hold of. In short, I have had no secrets whatever that I have withheld. But for the first time in my life, during the past summer I have been under a promise of secrecy. When the Wright brothers kindly permitted me to be present while they were making preliminary experiments they especially desired I should keep to myself, at least for the time being, what I saw. I recognized the justice of it, and of course assented. But it was a very hard task for me to keep my tongue-or pen-still when I knew the great outside world knew so little (or nothing) of what was going on. Scarcely a dozen people in this whole universe knew what I knew, but I could not tell it. I have thrown out some hints, you may remember, of what was going on. But one of the brothers suggested "the best way to keep a secret is to avoid letting anybody know you have a secret to keep." We are told it is hard for women to keep a secret, and I think I must be to some extent feminine in my make-up. Well, just before Christmas my heart was made glad by a letter informing me that, as the experiments for 1904 were probably ended, I might tell the world what I knew about the flying-machine, and therefore I have been made happy. Yes, to-day, Dec 26, I am not only enjoying a happy Christmas but I feel just like saying "A merry and a happy Christmas to you all." I hope you will enjoy my story about the flying-machine-as much as I enjoyed being out in that big field with the Wright brothers many times during the past summer and fall, watching that wonderful creation of the hand and brain of those two men, while it "learned to fly," very much as a young bird just out of the nest learns by practice to use its wings. A picture of the flying-machine up in the air will appear in our next issue, nothing preventing. We could not get it ready for this one.