1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



363 



■exhibit will he a large water- color painting, 25 

 X 40 inches, giving a birdseye view of our man- 

 ufacturing plant. The picture has been pro- 

 nounced, by all who have seen it, to be exceed- 

 ingly accurate: and those who visit the World's 

 Fair will have not only a chance to see the ex- 

 ternal appearance of the Home of the Honey- 

 bees as it is, covering as it does so large an area, 

 but a sample of all the goods manufactured 

 therein. The painting has just been complet- 

 ed, and is made with the special object of ex- 

 hibiting the same at the World's Fair. We shall 

 doubtless give our readers a half-tone reduced 

 ■engraving of it. But a reduced copy in one col- 

 or does not begin to express its lifelike propor- 

 tions. The artist, we are proud to say. is a 

 Medina County man, and is a relative of two 

 of our employes. 



The location of the exhibit is in the Agricul- 

 tural Building, in the gallery of the second 

 floor, in section 33, H. It is shown along with 

 exhibits of a similar character, and we think 

 there will be no difficulty in finding it. 



ginners, and, in a general way, text-books, un- 

 til we have ample evidence that it is superior 

 to the old. So far as beginners are concerned, 

 and those who look to their elders for instruc- 

 tion, no harm has been done. 



SEALED covers: THE FINAL STATEMENT OF 

 THE CASE. 



In response to our request in a couple of issues 

 back, we have received scores of reports giving 

 comparative tests between colonies under sealed 

 covers packed in chaff, and colonies similarly 

 packed with absorbing cushions or upward ven- 

 tilation. We have given a few of the reports as 

 they happened to come in elsewhere, as average 

 samples. The results, as reported, show that 

 bees have been wint^'red successfully both ways; 

 but the evidence taken as a wholn seems to in- 

 dicate that the absorbing cushions, or upward 

 ventilation, gives the better result. In some 

 quite marked instances there is (juite a decided 

 difference in favor of absorbing cushions. We 

 notice that the reported mortality, in some in- 

 stances at least, under sealed covers, is due to 

 the fact that the moisture, not being able to es- 

 cape upward, runs down on the inside of the 

 hive, on the bottom-board, to the entrance. 

 There, coming in contact with the cold air, it 

 freezes, and seals hermetically the only opening 

 to a supply of fresh air. The result has been, 

 that such colonies die, as a matter of course; 

 and as warm weather comes on, the entrance 

 thaws out before the apiarist gets around to as- 

 certain the cause. Upward ventilation, on the 

 contrary, will, of course, save such colonies: 

 but absorbing cushions often become wet and 

 soggy; and if they are left on the hives without 

 being dried out during winter they are worse 

 than nothing. It becomes evident, then, that, 

 in order to have the best results with the ab- 

 sorbing cushions, there shou'd be a free circu- 

 lation of air over the top, through ventilators 

 sufficiently ample. It is never the thing to do, 

 to place a telescoi)ic cover (without ventilators) 

 over the absorbing cushion so tight that there 

 is no escape for moisture. Such cushions inva- 

 riably become practically water-soaked; and 

 the colonies under them will be quite likely to 

 ■die. 



Now, although we have said a good deal in 

 favor of the sealed cover, in the last year or so 

 back, what we did say was more to stimulate 

 experiment along the line that we thought 

 might develop something valuable : but the 

 scores of letters show that the old absorbing 

 cushion, with its upward ventilation, is the more 

 reliable plan for outdoor wintering yet. 



So far, in our A B C of Bee Culture we have 

 not given one hint that there was any such idea 

 ■extant as the sealed cover. Indeed, the direc- 

 tions through all this time have been to use ab- 

 sorbing cushions. We go on the principle that 

 it is better not to recommend a new plan to be- 



A PANORAMA OF THE NOTABLE OBJECTS OF IN- 

 TEREST IN THE WORLD. 



We have just received from the publishers, 

 Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, of Springfield, O., 

 a wonderful book. It contains over 500 photo- 

 graphic views, ir.ixl4 inches; and these views, 

 by the way, are of the highest order of art that 

 photography has ever yet aspired to. A large 

 portion of them are from the Old World; yet 

 quite a number of them are lifelike, familiar 

 scenes from our own land. Mrs. Root and I 

 went over some glimpses from California, until 

 it seemed as if we were back on the old familiar 

 spot. We showed the children the hotels where 

 we had stopped, the mountain-peaks covered 

 with snow, the waterfalls we had visited, etc. 

 The glimpses from the Holy Land are especial- 

 ly valuable. From all pictures of the pyramids 

 I had previously seen, I supposed they were 

 made of hewn stone throughout, something like 

 the steps to the public buildings in our great 

 cities. The camera, however, with its unerring 

 fidelity, reveals the fact that the great pyramid 

 is now, after a lapse of about 4u centuries, what 

 we should call a great stone-pile.* Of course, 

 they were once blocks, each block reaching up 

 to a man's arms; but the action of the elements, 

 after so long a time, has done its work, as with 

 thousands of other things. Wood-cut engrav- 

 ings have many times given us erroneous con- 

 ceptions ; but the faithful camera tells the 

 truth. The photograph tells no lies. The sub- 

 jects are written up by Gen. Lew Wallace, Ed- 

 ward Everett Hale. Washington Gladden, and 

 others. Many of the pictures are reproduc- 

 tions of paintings that are valued away up into 

 the thousands. I was especially interested in a 

 couple of companion pictures representing Abra- 

 ham and Sarah turning away Hagar and Ish- 

 mael. It is a nice book to look over on Sunday 

 afternoon, while you tell the children Bible sto- 

 ries. I do not know what the book costs. I 

 have been told that it is sold only by agents. 



* something more ABOUT THE PYRAMIDS. 



Since the above was written, our stenogra- 

 pher, W. P. Root, furnishes the following: 



The outside of tlie pyramid of Cheops is not the 

 same now that it was wlien finislied. Wliat now 

 look like steps of stairs on eafh side were A 



at first filled in with tlu'ee-cornered .C—i 



stones, commencing, of course, at the /\ 

 top, and working- downward, thus leav- /i — 

 ing-the pyramid as smooth on tlie out-/ I 

 side as any surface of stone could possihly be made. 

 This will be made plain by the figure above, where 

 the zig/.;ig m;itk I'epresents tlie present surface, and 

 the straight line the outside as the liuilders left it. 

 At a comparativt'ij- re</ciit date tlic Arabs pried 

 these stones from "tlieir pljices and used tliem for 

 building palaces, etc.. in Cairo, witiiin sight of the 

 pyramids toward tlip east. As Egypt lias neither 

 rain nor frost, tlie elements liave made no marked 

 change in the general appearance of tins greatest 

 of all human works. Thfi beauty of the pyramid, so 

 far as its masonry is concerned, is all on tlie inside, 

 in the wonderful galleries, where the immense blocks 

 of syenite are cemented together in tlie strongest 

 manner with a layer of mortar scaicely thicker 

 than a coat of paint. A thoughtful pcison t'an not 

 help thinking that, if man has emerged from a state 

 of animalism, it is strange tliat this great monu- 

 ment, which appears at the dawn of human history, 

 is, a model that man to-day can not surpass, and 

 probably can not even Imitate in any particular. It 

 is built on geometrical principles that olVer no room 

 for improvement. It contains S5,iK)(I.(M«) cubic feet 

 of stone — enough to pave a road IT feet wide and a 

 foot tliick a distance of 947 miles. 



