1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



481 



but I noticed he did not imitate that personage 

 in his clothing; for through several rents in his 

 blouse I could see the bare hide of the man, 

 showing the total absence of a shirt. 



In him was fulfilled the idea of the poet 

 when he exclaimed: 



, Sad is a man without a wife; 



Sad is a ship without a sail; 

 But the saddest thing to me in life 

 Is a shirt without— its proper length. 

 What could be more sad in this case than the 

 absence of the entire shirt, the sail, and the 

 wife? 



The shoemaker's boy said his housekeeping 

 was oflf the same piece with his general make- 



the hot sun in their then exposed position melt- 

 ed a few of them to destruction, and the rest 

 were moved into the dense shade of the red- 

 woods, and here in various places the hives 

 were mounted upon platforms attached to the 

 trees, six feet from the ground. Hogs and cat- 

 tle roamed the forest; and to keep them from 

 their depredations, the hives were this elevat- 

 ed. The bees were not prospering in the shade, 

 and they were to be moved out again. Of all 

 trees to make a dense and cool shade, the red- 

 wood is the chief. Mr. Hope said that many 

 bee-trees were found in these forest-*, and they 

 were always well supplied with honey. His 

 bees produced a good but dark honey. I pre- 



Cl.IMAX Eno. 



Cl.KV'D, O. 



MK. HOPE S APIARY. 



up; that his cat would lick out the frying pan, 

 and then curl up in it for a nap; and his bed — 

 here the boy's mother cuffed his ears, and he 

 went away disconsolate. 



Now, a bee-keeper would never degenerate 

 into such a state of bachelorhood as that. 



As a relief to the above picture, and in sharp 

 contrast, I will show you the home of the only 

 bee-keeper of Blocksburgh. Mr. Hope. Mrs. 

 Hope is a hale and stout English woman, and 

 Mr. Hope and Mrs. Hope's son are the black- 

 smiths of Blocksburgh. 



The smith, a miglity man is he. 

 With strong and sinewy hands; 



And the muscles of his brawny arms 

 Are strong as iron bands. 



With these brawny arms Mr. Hope had clear- 

 ed away the crown of the hill, and upon it 

 planted a pleasant home. The vine and the 

 fruit-tree were growing with a vigor such as 

 can be induced only by a virgin soil. In the 

 rear, and toward the east, the noble redwoods 

 formed a fitting background, while the moun- 

 tains shade off into the distance. Mr. Hope 

 had at one time about 30 colonies of bees; but 



diet that it will be a long time before bee- 

 keeping as a paying industry will be practiced 

 in these backwoods. 



THE BEST FORM OF HIVE. 



footnotes: why the langstroth form of 



HIVE IS better than THE CUBICAL; A RE- 

 PLY TO FRIEND BOARDMAN'S ARTICLE ON 

 PAGE 251. 



By J. H. Mnr-kley. 



Mr. Editor:— I see, on pp. 251, 2.52, you allow 

 friend Boardman to go on in his comparison of 

 the square and long form of hives, showing the 

 advantages of the former over the latter, with- 

 out so much as using your footnote on him. 

 He admits, in the very beginning of his com- 

 parison, that " bees adjust themselves to a wide 

 range of circumstances, and even to serious 

 inconveniences, in the hive they sometimes 

 occupy, without seeming to materially affect 

 the result." Now, " I am .suj'e that this fur- 

 nishes proof " that we should subject them to 

 these little "inconveniences" by an "econom- 

 ical form of hive" that will give the best re- 

 sults in the production of either of the forms 



