1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



179 



I have penned the above to elicit thought, and 

 to prompt observation. Our experiment sta- 

 tions should talie up the subject: it is a field for 

 the scientist. Scientihc observations should be 

 conducted at different points, and notes com- 

 pared. This is the only satisfactory way to de- 

 termine the cause of the so-called bee-paralysis. 



Augusta, c;a. 



PUTTING SECTIONS INTO T SUPERS. 



A GItPJAT I.MPKOVK.MENT OVEK THE OF.D WAY. 

 Bji Enimn WiJtioii. 



It is about the time when a good many bee- 

 keepers get ready for the year's crop, and a 

 ])retty good time to discuss ways and means. I 

 have spent a good deal of time, first and last, 

 in filling sections into T supers. I thought I 

 had become quite adept at it. As I put the 

 foundations into the sections. I piled the finish- 

 ed sections oui^. above the other on a board, un- 

 til I had put on as many as it would conven- 

 iently hold — about a hundred, I think. Then I 

 would set it to one side and commence on a 

 fresh boardful. until I had a good many hun- 

 dreds piled up in that way. Then I would have 

 to stop, and commence putting them into the 

 supers. I never enjoyed that part of the work 

 very much. Some way it always seemed like so 

 much lost time. Once in a while a boardful 

 would come to grief by being upset all in a 

 heap, and it would require some patience to 

 straighten things out again. 



When supering I would put the super on a 

 table of convenient height, put the T tins in 

 place, and. by taking two sections in each hand, 

 could fill one row across the super at a time. I 

 really didn't see how there could be very much 

 improvement on that plan of filling a T super. 



One day as I was putting in foundation Dr. 

 Miller stood watching me, and wanted to know 

 why I didn't put the sections directly into the 

 super instead of piling them on a board. I told 

 him T had tried it a good many times, but it 

 was very slow work. The T tins would not 

 stay in place; and even if they did, it took too 

 long to fit each section in place. I could set 

 them down on a board much more rapidly. He 

 replied, " I believe I can fix it so that you can 

 put them into the super just as rapidly as you 

 can set them on the board." 

 ClNow, I had a good deal of faith in Dr. Miller's 

 ability to make the work very much easier, for 

 he has a genius in that direction; but my faith 

 was not quite strong enough to imagine he 

 could fix any arrangement by which I could 

 place those sections into that T super as rapid- 

 ly as I could place them on a boaifd. But he 



did. If he did not quite revolutionize bee-keep- 

 ing, as the stock phrase has it, he certainly did, 

 in my estimation, revolutionize filling the T 

 super. 



He took a board as wide as the super, and a 

 little longer, and nailed a cleat as long as the 

 width of the board, an inch wide and 5g' thick, 

 on one end of the board, to push the super 

 against. Two inches from this cleat he nailed 

 a strip U}'4 inches long, ^^» inch thick, and I4 

 wide; 4I4 inches from this last strip, measuring 

 from center to center, he nailed another strip 

 the same size, and still another strip of the 

 same size 4J4 inches from the last. That made 

 three of these little strips. He nailed three 

 other strips 2}4 inches from these strips, mea- 

 suring from center to center, these last strips 

 being IP4 inches long by 34^ inch square. That 

 made the board complete. 



1 placed this board on a box 20 inches high, at 

 my right hand, one side of the board toward 

 me, with the cleat at the back end. Over this 

 board I placed this super, pushing it tight up 

 against the cleat. As fast as I filled the sec- 

 tions with foundation I set them in the super. I 

 first filled the row of six sections at the back 

 end. It was no harder to set them there than 

 it would be to set them on any flat surface, for 

 you understand that, as yet, there was no T tin 

 in the super. Now I put in the first T tin, slip- 

 ping it under the whole row of sections at a 

 clip, and do it more easily and quickly than I 

 could have done it had there been no sections 

 there. The sections being raised J4 inch gave 

 plenty of room to slip the T tin under. Now I 

 put in the second row of sections and the second 

 T tin, then the third row of sections and the 

 third T tin, and, by crowding the T tin up 

 tight, it gave me plenty of room for the fourth 

 row of sections. When I lifted the super the 

 sections all settled down in their places. 



I can not imagine how sections could be put 

 in more easily into any kind of super. 



Marengo, 111., Feb. 11. 



WINTER IN FLORIDA. 



JACK FROST AMONG THE ORANGE-TREES. 



By Mix. L. Harrhon. 



Mr. Editor:— "The sunny Southland, with 

 its sweet warm air and land of flowers," has 

 been a misnomer during this winter. We have 

 just passed through a severe cold storm, ac- 

 companied with snow and sleet. As I sit by 

 the table writing, and look through the win- 

 dows upon the piny woods, a beautiful vision 

 greets my eye. The tall pines, with their green 

 branches, are decorated more beautifully than 

 any Christmas-trees in festive halls. Their 

 proud heads, crowned with sparkling diamonds 

 and clear transparent prisms, are a thing of 

 beauty, to be enjoyed once in a lifetime. There 



