524 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



bility of shoving a certain portion of the brood- 

 nest from one side or the other of the hive, or 

 of picking up three or four more frames at a 

 time. When the spacers are on the frames, the 

 frames may be picked up, and the fingers grip 

 hold of the outside edges of the outside frames, 

 so there is no danger that the intermediate 

 frame or frames will knock together, because 

 the spacers hold them apart just as when in 

 the hive. 



Friend Eagerty's spacers, if, instead of being 

 put in the rabbets, were put in the frames 

 themselves, along the top-bars or end-bars, 

 would make very good spacers — that is, as 

 shown at the top of the engraving. When I 

 first looked it over I thought that was his idea, 

 and I wrote him I thought it was very good; 

 but I have since observed he would make them 

 a part of the hive, and here is where he would 

 make his mistake, as I have already pointed 

 out. Friend Eagerty's plan of staples, especial- 

 ly the second one. is quite old. and has bfen. I 

 think, illustrated and described in our columns 

 before.— Ed.] 



ANOTHER HIVER 



*'no profit in all these traps to a hon- 

 ey-producer; " INVENTIONS AND 

 THEIR INVENTORS. 



By B. Taylor. 



Mr. Root;— On page 403, May 15th, you give a 

 cut of Mr. Alley's latest swarm-catcher. I send 

 you to-day a photo to show that I have been all 

 over this field. The picture was taken four 



years ago. The idea is the same as Alley's, ex- 

 cept that my device as illustrated has no zinc 

 for the bees co work through. The entrance to 



the hive is not interfered with in any way; but 

 when a swarm begins to rush out, the entrance 

 is closed by their force, and the whole swarm is 

 caught with the queen. I tried the zinc and 

 cones, but this is much better. I lay no claim 

 to this idea. I believe this device will work as 

 well as any that can be made; but if any per- 

 son ever makes one that is practical — that is, 

 profitable to honey-producers — I give notice I 

 will not claim priority, for I have abandoned all 

 hope of making any of these traps profitable. 

 Friend Root, I am almost ashamed to send you 

 this, for it begins to look as though I were go- 

 ing to claim every thing that inventors bring 

 out. The fact is, I have dreamed out and tried 

 a vast range of ideas on apiarian subjects; have 

 tried them until I have come to the conclusion 

 that there is no profit in all these traps to a hon- 

 ey-producer. I believe that the inventors and 

 patentees and makers of these things are the 

 only ones who are likely to get any profit; and 

 the outlook for them is not good enough to 

 tempt me to further effort. I abandon the field 

 to others, and will give any one who makes one 

 of these self-hiving inventions practically use- 

 ful a handsome sum for the right to use it. 



In the articles I am now writing for the Bee- 

 keepers'' Review I am giving my sincerest con- 

 victions in regard to each question discussed. 

 This may look like throwing cold water on in- 

 ventors; but it is not, for I regard mechanical 

 inventors as the greatest and most useful of the 

 human race. I was talking with a very bright 

 teacher lately, and made the above claim. He 

 disputed, and claimed that a teacher standing 

 before a class of boys and girls, and directing 

 their developing minds, as the grandest human 

 character; but I said, "Mr. K., I fear that, 

 without the aid of mechanical inventors, you 

 and your class would cut a sorry figure — no 

 shirt nor pants, no hat nor shoes, and your 

 scholars in the same fix ; no schoolhouse, no 

 books, not even a birch gad to wallop the un- 

 ruly with ; for the moment you break off a 

 sprout and strip it you begin an invention." 

 Reader, stop and reflect in what kind of state 

 the human family would be but for mechanical 

 inventors : and see if you are not forced to 

 agree that they are the greatest and most use- 

 ful of human beings. 



Forestville, Minn. 



[B. Taylor is more frank than most of us 

 would be. An inventor, when he gets up 

 something, and has it patented, whether it is 

 practical and valuable or not, is pretty apt to 

 feel that it is the best thing of the kind. In 

 fact, he feels toward it as a fond father does 

 toward a babe. But it is the every-day life 

 that demonstrates the value of these inventions. 

 I know it is true a lot of useless traps are an- 

 nually poured upon the public; but that public, 

 fortunately, does not very often adopt a thing 

 unless there is use in it. 



While your handy bee-hiver, friend T., is not 

 practicable, it represents an idea from which 

 further ideas may develop. 



I should hate to discuss that question— which 



