50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



dear friends, most of us manage in some 

 way to pay doctors' bills and funeral ex- 

 penses. 



m ^ 



GRINDING YOUR GRAIN AT HOME. 



wii.son brothers' bone-mill, from a sanitary 

 poInt of view. 



Friend Root:— If it is not too muCh out of the 

 line of Gleanings, I want to tell your readers 

 something- that will be a permanent beneflt to some 

 Of them. Every one knows what an endless amount 

 of patent medicines, patent foods of all kinds, full 

 t)atent, half patent, and third patent flour, and the 

 thousands of patent machines there are, all work- 

 ing night and day, manufacturing all the patent 

 ttroductioDs the human mind can conceive of to 

 Suit the palate instead of the digestion. Almost all 

 of these modern improvements I have tried, some- 

 times from choice and sometimes from force of cir- 

 cumstances; but as I didn't have a patent stomach, 

 I have found of late years that old man Gastric was 

 giving way; and the more of these modern intro- 

 ductions he had to contend with, the more obsti- 

 nate he became. In fact, it looked as if death was 

 on his countenance sometimes. About two years 

 ago I sent and got one of Wilson Brothers' $5.00 

 mills for grinding graham flour. I see you adver- 

 tise his No. 1 mill for grinding bone, etc.; but this 

 was No. 0. It proved to be all they claimed for it, 

 and more too. The introduction of this mill was a 

 poor day's work for the patent-medicine men in our 

 family. My wife mixes enough clear flour with it 

 to suit us ; and from that day old man Gastric's coun- 

 tenance has brightened up, and even our children 

 are showing- the beneflt of Wilson Brothers' $,5.00 

 mill. I ihink that these men have been a greater 

 beneflt to those having weak stomachs than all the 

 patent-medicine men put together, and all the 

 patent roller-mill machinery besides. I have spent 

 thousands of .f 5 00 in my time; but I can recall no 

 instance where that amount gave a better return. 

 I hope that flrm is doing a good business, and long 

 may they live. E. E. Risien. 



San Saba, Texas, Dec. 24. 



Well, friend R., you may be interested in 

 knowing that, in the first volume of Glean- 

 ings that was ever published, I made some 

 quite thorough experiments in regard to 

 this very matter; and I talked cracked 

 wheat and cracked corn so strongly to the 

 brethren that some of them got tired of it. 

 A few days ago Mrs. Root said she did wish 

 she could have some corn meal ground as it 

 ought to be. She said all she could get at the 

 flour-store was ground fine, like flour, and 

 that spoiled it for making corn cake or corn 

 mush. Now, friend R., we know just what 

 to do. We will take a bone-mill ov^er to the 

 house, and grind not only corn, but wheat, 

 oats, and barley, to suit. I believe you are 

 entirely right in the position you take ; and 

 I am firmly satisfied that, if people would 

 only take the trouble to grind their own 

 grain they would not only get material for 

 food that is ever so much more wholesome 

 than that bought at the stores, but they 

 would also get it for half price or less. Just 

 figure up what your flour and meal cost you, 

 and buy some grain of some of your farming 

 friends, and grind it yourself, and see what 

 that costs ; then have your wife learn how to 



cook these cracked grains, and see if you do 

 not pronounce them more delicious than 

 any thing our best hotels can furnish. It 

 may be some trouble to sift the hulls out of 

 the oats; but there is no food I enjoy so 

 much as freshly ground oatmeal ; and noth- 

 ing is more conducive to my health, unless, 

 indeed, it is the bowl of hot lemonade I have 

 every night just before going to bed. 



DR. MILLER'S REVERSIBLE BOTTOM- 

 BOARD. 



Its use in the cellar, for hauling bees, etc. 



I HAVE never had any desire to invent a hive. 

 For a good many years I used the hive that happen- 

 ed to fall into my hands just as I found it, except- 

 ing the cover. This was a ten-frame hive; but hav- 

 ing had only eight frames in it for a few years, I 

 concluded in 18^9 to change to an eight-frame size. 

 Sometimes I question whether it might not be bet- 

 ter to use the full ten frames the year round, and 

 possibly the change to eight frames is not the 

 wisest. Aside from the matter of size, the part 

 upon which I bestowed the most thought was the 

 bottom-board. For a good many years I had used 

 nothing but fixed bottom-boards. I had thought I 

 could not tolerate a loose bottom-board. In fact, 

 for hauling back and forth, fixedness seemed a 

 necessity. But there seemed to be an increasing 

 weight of testimony in favor of having much space 

 under the bottom-bars in winter. It looked reason- 

 able, too, that bees might do better if the fresh air 

 could have easy access to the cluster, and I had had 

 many instances of dead bees clogging the ?8 or i4 

 inch entrance in winter; and it was always difficult, 

 although important, to clean out all dead bees from 

 under the brood-frames. Of course, a deep space 

 under the bottom-bais would not do in summer, so 

 I concluded I might do what others had done, and 

 have the space deep in winter and shallow it sum- 

 mer. 



Two ways of doing this presented themselves. 

 One was to have the hive made with an immovable 

 bottom, nailed on in the usual way, only, instead of 

 a i's or K inch space under the frames, to have a 

 space of about two inches. This would be all right 

 for winter; and for summer a board or boards 

 could be pushed in to partly till up the space, leav- 

 ing it only ?8 deep. I was afraid it would be diffi- 

 cult to keep the space clear enough under the 

 board, so I rejected this plan and adopted the other, 

 which was, to have a reversible bottom-board. 



on. miller's reversible bottom-board. 



It is simply a shallow box, IVi inches deep, 2J4 

 inches longer than the hive, and open at one end; 

 3S4 inches from the open end is a 'g-inch saw-kerf 

 at each side, ]>i inch deep. This allows a wire-cloth 

 stopper to be slid in, when hauling, to shut in the 

 bees; and during winter, wire cloth having 3 mesh- 

 es to the inch is slid in to exclude mice, and yet 

 leave all practically open for the bees. In summer 

 it is reversed, and makes a perfectly plane surface 



