102 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



this reason I prefer sun-extracted beeswax to 

 all other kinds. 

 Hamilton, 111., Jan. 3. 



[Yes, I did ask C. P. to review the figures 

 from his standpoint, because, with no disrespect 

 to Mr. Taylor, such an array of figures should 

 be looked at from several different sides to get 

 all the lessons to be learned. 



It is said that figures will not lie if you place 

 them right; and I believe it is equally true 

 that a skillful arranging of figures can often be 

 made to prove almost any thing, and yet that 

 arrangement not give an untruthful statement. 

 I had a similar experience with life insurance. 

 The first policy that 1 took out was in the 

 Equitable: and the agent made so much of the 

 point of its having the largest surplus that I 

 verily believed it had the largest of every thing. 

 Later I took a policy in the New York Mutual 

 Life; and the special point of emphasis made 

 by their agent was that they were the biggest 

 company because they had the largest assets. 

 Later on I was solicited to take out a policy in 

 the Northwestern; and I was informed that an 

 elephant was not nearly as effective as a horse 

 in the ordinary occupations of life; that a 

 smaller company could give a better showing 

 than a large one; that the Northwestern could 

 and did show the largest earnincj capacity for 

 their policy-holders, of any of the big four. 

 The statements made by the three agents were 

 literally true; but by laying special emphasis 

 upon some one feature, each agent would con- 

 vey the impression that his company outranked 

 and outnva.led the others in every thing. 



You have made a good showing for your 

 "company;" but when we come to simmer it 

 right down, it really proves that, the thinner 

 and lighter the foundation, the more pounds of 

 honey can be stored upon it for a given amount 

 of wax. This truth is almost silf-evident ; but 

 it is strikingly illustrated as you have arranged 

 the table.— Eb.] 



DRAWN COMBS IN SECTIONS. 



THEIB advantages; THE TAYI-OR COMB-LEV- 



ELER, AND HOW TO USE IT; HOW^ TO 



CONVERT UNFINISHED SECTIONS 



INTO GOOD MONEY. 



By B. Taylor. 



Dr. A. T. Peete, of Branchville, vS. C. in a 

 private letter, says: 



There is one point I wish you would explain for 

 me, either personally or in the journals. I see the 

 advantage of sections already drawn out, especially 

 in poor seasons. We can easily get such here in 

 our long summers, tlie main honey-flow being over 

 by June 10. But your sections go on the hive twice 

 or three times; are extracted once, cleaned by the 

 bees once, and then have'the combs pai-tly melted 

 in the leveler. What van the wood of the section lixik 

 like, after all that ? Have you no propolis, or do you 

 have wide frames which lieep every thing clean ? 

 or have you a way of cleaning the sections ? I am 

 afraid mine would look as clean as very old nest- 

 eggs. Some liglit on this subject would greatly 

 oblige me. 



The doctor's way of asking questions makes 

 it look as if the drawn combs involved a for- 

 midable amount of work. In this he is mistak- 

 en; for the sections are not returned to the 



hive " three or four times," as he seems to sup- 

 pose. I will try to make the matter plain by 

 again stating just how I work to get the main 

 part of these drawn (or partly drawn) combs. 



Before we began the use of drawn combs we 

 were compelled to restrict the room in the sur- 

 plus-apartment of strong colonies, so there 

 would not be a large lot of unfinished sections 

 at the end of the surplus-honey season, for we 

 then regarded unfinished sections (as they truly 

 were) as a great misfortune to the comb-honey 

 producer. Curtailing the section room near 

 the end of the basswood season often resulted 

 in renewed swarming, which is at that time a 

 great loss; but if we continued to give unre- 

 stricted room at that time there were sure to 

 be thousands of partly tilled sections of white 

 honey. I tried many ways to utilize such sec- 

 tions the next season, but without profitable 

 results. With all our care, the honey in the 

 uncapped cells would be more or less candied, 

 and, when returned and finished the next sea- 

 son, never would be in even second-class con- 

 dition, and were prone to sour and become 

 damp and dauby. 



In our locality there was nearly always a 

 good fall flow of dark honey; and if the partly 

 filled sections of white honey would be complet- 

 ed from fall flowers, in my market they would 

 be rated below well-finished sections of entirely 

 dark honey. These difficulties led to the ex- 

 periments that perfected the "Handy" comb- 

 leveler, which with us turned misfortune into 

 fortune. 



Basswood is here the last of the white honey 

 for each season, as a rule. Now, we pile on 

 unlimited supers of sections until the end of 

 the basswood flow, and not one colony in fifty 

 has the swarming passion renewed, but they go 

 on storing surplus to the end. At the end of 

 basswood the colonies thus supplied with room 

 will have far more honey in the supers than 

 they would if they had been restricted for room; 

 and there will be more finished honey than in 

 colonies with limited surplus-room; and the 

 large quantity of unfinished sections is, if 

 rightly used, the best capital ever owned by a 

 comb-honey producer, for I can extract the un- 

 finished Sections, and sell the honey to my cus- 

 tomers for 13K cents per pound more easily 

 than I can sell gilt-edged combs for 15 cents; 

 and I can use the empty combs to double my 

 crop of white honey next season. Mr. Van 

 Deuse'n tried to convince me that bees would 

 finish foundation in less time than finished 

 combs; but after four years of practical results 

 I know he is incorrect; for in supers with one 

 half finished combs, and these in the outside of 

 the supers, and the center filled with sections 

 in which full sheets of Van Deusen and other 

 makes of first-class foundation were used every 

 season, the drawn combs were all ftUed and 

 sealed, while the foundation in the center 



