490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



JULY 



glued fast enough to allow the moving of the hives 

 without any preparatory fastening, unless the hives 

 are only partly filled with frames. In this case I 

 take a piece of burlap, or any cloth that I use for 

 covering up the frames; roll it into a bunch, and 

 stuff it behind the spacing-board. 



The «lose-fltting part of the side-bars should ex- 

 tend at least 3 inches down from the top-bar. As a 

 well-made frame lasts a good many years, their ex- 

 tra expense amounts to but very little, if they have 

 any advantages over others. 



Julius Hoffman. 



Canajoharie, N. Y., June 15, 1890. 



The points you make are well taken ; but 

 it does seem to us that the frame as you 

 make it would be too expensive for thei aver- 

 age bee-keeper to use. E, E, if we under- 

 stand it correctly, are cross-sections of the 

 end-bars, looking straight down. Beveling 

 the end- bars would be rather expensive, and 

 the rounding of the points, C, C, C, etc., 

 would be another item of expense ; and yet 

 it is true, that a well-made frame will last 

 a good many years ; and the extra expense, 

 of course, would be but little on each year of 

 use, providing additional ease of manipula- 

 tion is secured. E. E. 



'WOODMAN, SPARE THE TREE. 



SOMETHING ABOUT EMBELLISHING CHEAP SEC- 

 TIONS. 



" Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, 

 this is new? it hath been already of old time, which 

 was before us."— Eccles. 1: 10. 



Bra. Root (please allow me the use of this salutato- 

 ry phrase, as we are both children of the one Father, 

 God). I have noticed a great deal of uneasiness ex- 

 pressed by writers for the bee-journals in regard to 

 the great consumption of basswood for sections, 

 etc., and the consequent decrease in honey from 

 that source; but I was not so strongly impressed, 

 nor did I realize any imminent danger from that 

 source until brought to the realization of the fact 

 by your statement that you alone had ordered two 

 carloads of sections of Mr. Lewis. Now, add this to 

 the great amount your and all other more or less 

 extensive manufactories must turn out, and one 

 can easily imagine the wholesale slaughter that is 

 going on in the linden forests. We must also con- 

 sider the alleged hair (?) mattress we find in hotels. 

 At the present rate of destruction that has been 

 inaugurated against the old linden, it will be only a 

 question of time when a " chunk " of nice delicious 

 linden honey in a beautiful basswood section will 

 be " a thing of the past." 



THE REMEDY. 



Some have recommended planting basswood 

 forests, which is wholesome advice when we are 

 considering the welfare of coming generations, 

 " because I shall leave it to a man that shall come 

 after me;" but the remedy that should be sought 

 should be one that would be beneficial to the pres- 

 ent as well as future generations. 1 am now going 

 to offer a solution to the problem; and if it is im- 

 practicable, or " has been up before," please con- 

 sign this to the waste-basket right quick; but on the 

 contrary, if it is likely to become a thing of beauty, 

 and, consequently, a joy for ever, then the fraterni- 

 ty are as welcome to it as the flow of honey that 

 God gives them from year to year. You see, peo- 

 ple would scarcely tolerate a section made of dark 



wood, such as elm or even pine; but my ideals to 

 make them out of even such, then beautify or em- 

 bellish by having labels, either of white paper print- 

 ed plain or lithographed with several colors, and 

 cut with the proper insets the same as an unfolded 

 one-piece section, beihg printed on all sides with 

 appropriate address, kind of honey, and any ex- 

 planation deemed neceiesary for the improvement 

 of the honey-trade. Now, when your sections are 

 taken off and relieved of the accumulations of pro- 

 polis, this gummed label could be wrapped around 

 your dark wood, covering up all defects, making 

 your dark section even more beautiful than the 

 whitest basswood. All scratches, stains, and joints 

 would thus be hidden; the producer would be send- 

 ing his advertisement and other apicultural litera- 

 ture broadcast into every honey-consumer's home, 

 besides saving this desirable honey-producing tree. 

 I don't think, either, that a section made of cheap 

 material that can be procured around any factory 

 and thus labeled would cost any more than the 

 present linden production; and even if it did, the 

 preservation of the basswood \vould surely more 

 than compensate. J. H. Makkley. 



Carbondale, Kan., June 16. 



The same thing has been suggested many 

 times. The only difficulty is the amount of 

 labor required to put the paper on nicely. I 

 do not believe it could be done profitably. 

 I am inclined to think, too, that most kinds 

 of paper would soil more easily than the 

 basswood. You see, the paper must be ex- 

 actly the width of the section, to have it 

 look well. Folding the edges down over the 

 edge of the section would be very nice, but 

 this makes still more labor, and it is a hard 

 matter to get it down nicely and have it 

 stay. Have any of the readers of Glean- 

 ings ever put this into practiceV The 

 pasteboard boxes which we sell in large 

 quantities to slip the section into come 

 pretty near what you suggest, and it is not 

 very expensive. We heartily agree with you 

 in regard to the consequences of slaughter- 

 ing the basswood. "What else can we doV 



SPACING BROOD-COMBS. 



AN OPEN letter TO DR. C. C. MILLER. 



" What is the proper distance from center to 

 center to space brood-combs — 1% inches?" asks Dr. 

 Miller on page 416, June 1st Gleanings. He then 

 gees on to tell us that, so far as he knows, this dis- 

 tance is all right, and concludes with '•sorncH7ie/e 

 about 1| inches from center to center is right ; but I 

 don't suppose it is exactly 1%. How can we find 

 out what it is? "when he next adds, "Upon that 

 depends our spacing and the width of our hives." 

 It is hardly necessary for me to say that I read this 

 article of Dr. Miller's with more than common in- 

 terest, although I read all of his articles with inter- 

 est beyond what I do these of most of the wi iters, 

 for he has a peculiar and fascinating way of get- 

 ting at what he wants, without committing himself 

 very positively as to any thing; hence we must 

 read with interest to find out where he stands. 

 Friend Root's foot-notes were right to the point, for 

 I really feared that we might yet be able to place 

 our combs so close together, if some one carried 

 out the doctor's reasoning a little further, I bat we 



