1896 



■ GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



51 



SQUARE FRAMES, AND WHY. 



Regarding the dimensions and size of frames 

 I indorse every word Mr. Boardnian has said, 

 whose frames are 13.\13 inches inside. Shielded 

 by Boardman I dare speak out andlet"Doo- 

 little and the giants" come on, without much 

 fear. But there Is one reason of which Mr. 

 Boardman, who uses upper stories, could not 

 have thought, but which has influenced me, 

 and it is the following. I, like some others, 

 Mr. Poppleton among them, am in favor of the 

 Long-idea hive. I raise only extracted honey, 

 and find said hive very handy for this purpose 

 at all events! But how, if I felt like raising 

 honey in one-pound sections (what would have 

 to be done in wide frames back of the brood- 

 nest) ? It being granted that the 4J^x4J^ section 

 is the standard, of what size must a wide frame 

 be to hold them and at the same time be 

 neither too light nor too heavy? It must 

 measure 13x13, or, perhaps, better, 12%xl2% 

 inches inside to contain three rows of three sec- 

 tions each, or nine sections all together. If the 

 bee-keeper, though, does not mind handling a 

 heavy frame, and if, at the same time, he does 

 not care to have a square frame, frames that 

 measure 12Kxl7'.s inches inside, containing 

 twelve 1-pound sections, have some advantages. 



All, or, say, most readers of Gleanings know 

 what the so-called Wells system consists in; 

 namely, having one common honey storeroom 

 for two separate colonies, so that, like true 

 brethren (sisters, rather), or cooperators, or 

 Bellamy socialists, they throw their earnings 

 together. There are not a few bee-keepers in 

 England, France, Switzerland, Germany, who 

 are well pleased with this kind of combination. 

 Is it not strange, and (I beg your pardon, dear 

 reader) a sign of the narrowness of the human 

 mind, that, till just lately, none of these bee- 

 keepers ever thought of extending the principle 

 which underlies the Wells system, and to ask 

 how it would do to have more than two colo- 

 nies, yes, to have a whole apiary work to- 

 gether? Well, according to L'AvicuUeur, a 

 Catholic priest in France, Pere Julien, has con- 

 ceived the idea at last, and, what is more, has 

 put it into practice and successful operation. 

 The number of his hives and the construction 

 of the whole is not given. The idea is not pat- 

 ented and so any of your readers are free to 

 experiment " along this line " as Mr. Doolittle 

 used to say. Old! for on page 899 of Glean- 

 ings, I. to my utmost astonishment, noticed 

 that Mr. Doolittle speaks of experimenting " in 

 the direction of," etc. Has he become tired of 

 his favorite expression? or does he "put on 

 style" (it is against good style, you know, to 

 unnecessarily repeat the same word or expres- 

 sion). 



liEE-STINOS AND RHEUMATISM. 



A French bee-keeper, Mr. Huillon. was suf- 

 "fering from muscular rheumatism, which trav- 



eled from one part of a leg to another, and, 

 after having stayed there for some time, took a 

 notion to pay a little friendly visit to the other 

 leg, so that the poor gentleman had to go lame, 

 now on this, now on that leg. In vain he tried 

 many remedies till at last he thought of "our 

 pets" one day. He repaired to his apiary, took 

 a bee by the wings and held it against the 

 place where he suffered. The "pet" worked 

 conscientiously, and he allowed it sufficient 

 time to liberate itself of whatever " poison " it 

 possessed. He then set two more bees at the 

 same work. Soon an intense heat spread on 

 and about the affected part, but all pain was 

 gone. He triumphed. The following morning, 

 however, when he awoke he noticed that Sir 

 Rheumatism had been mean enough to take 

 possession of another part of the leg. Quickly 

 he directed his going-lame-on-oue-leg steps to 

 the apiary, and again called for the help of 

 three " peis." Result, the same as on the pre- 

 ceding day. For three more days he pursued 

 the enemy in like manner, when he was entire- 

 ly delivered from it. 



The Revue says, "The highest altitude above 

 the level of the sea where an apiary is located 

 in Europe is at Saas-fee (Valais); altitude, 1800 

 meters, or about 2000 feet; owner, Benjamin 

 Imseng ; last crop, 300 kilograms (about 600 

 lbs.) of honey from 20 colonies. 



THE BEEF DIET TREATMENT. 



The Salisbury treatment, which you have 

 been recommending in Gleanings of late, is it 

 not, however effective, somewhat onesided ? 

 It seems to be all right for " meat-eaters," in the 

 widest sen^i of the word; but when one is ad- 

 verse to eating the flesh of warm-blooded ani- 

 mals, will not fish do ? And when one, like so 

 many, is opposed to eating flesh of any kind, 

 will not eggs answer? On page 905 you mere- 

 ly say, '■' I presume that they would not ans- 

 swer for a steady diet." Or would not milk be 

 all right, especially when prepared according 

 to Dr. Alice Stockham's prescription (Glean- 

 ings, 1893, page 481), when it does not curdle or 

 coagulate, and is conveyed directly to the 

 blood, and can be drank by very weak persons, 

 with impunity? Moreover, if one is a xtrict 

 vegetarian, and shuns eating or drinking any 

 thing that comes from an animal, is science not 

 advanced enough to show up some vegetable 

 product that will do as wel' as lean beef? Mr. 

 A. I. R. has lately told us of his visit at the 

 Battle Creek Sanitarium, where they live on a 

 strictly vegetarian diet, and of their prepared 

 health-foods. Should not the doctors there be 

 able to point out a food, or combination of 

 foods, which as to chemical composition as well 

 as to digestibility are equal to lean beef ? In 

 respect to drinking hot water, is it not a little 

 one-sided too, not to allow an admixture of any 

 kind? Would it not answer to render the 

 liquid more palatable by the addition of fennel, 



