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DEVOTED TO BEESA1ND HONEY, A.1NT> HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VII. 



JANUARY 1, 1879. 



No. 1. 



A. I. ROOT, ") Published Monthly. (TERMS! $1.00 Per Annum in Ad- 



Publisher and Proprietor, > < vance; 3 Copies for $2.50; 5 for $3.75; 



Medina, O. ) Established in 1 87 3 . C 1 01 more, 60c. each. Single Number, lOc. 



SCRAPS AND SKETCHES. NO. 1. 



0W, my friends, I wish each one of you to im- 

 iyii agine that you are a neighbor of mine, and 

 s * that you have just driven over to make me a 

 visit and have a real good bee chat; and I, in re- 

 turn, will imagine that I have put your horse, Clip, 

 in the barn, given him a nice "lunch" of Alsike clo- 

 ver hay, and invited you into the shop where I am 

 making hives. 



Please don't think you have been slighted, and 

 feel offended, because I asked you into the shop in- 

 stead of the house, for my shop is neat, clean, and 

 cosy. I will confess, however, that when I first com- 

 menced work in it things did get scattered around 

 just a little, and sometimes I was obliged to hunt for 

 a tool when I wished to use it; but increase of busi- 

 ness compelled me to be more orderly and systemat- 

 ic, to have a place for everything and everything in 

 its place, and to keep my floor, workbench, &c, all 

 brushed up "slick." 



Now, my friend, we will imagine that you are 

 "dangling" your feet from the top of my work- 

 bench, while I am putting together frames and tell- 

 ing you about 



THE HIVE I AM USING. 



1 used the American hive one season, and that 

 Convinced me that, although expensive and compli- 

 •cated, it was too limited in capacity to suit any go- 

 ahead bee-keeper. And right here, please let me di- 

 jrress long enough to say that, although I am trying 

 Very hard to go ahead, and not beoutstrippedbymy 

 brother bee-keepers, I have no ambition to own a 

 large number of bees; the height of my aspirations 

 is to keep what bees I do have in the best possible 

 manner. I try to keep my apiary so neat and tidy 



that I should not be ashamed of it if if Novice 



■himself should make me a visit. And now that my 

 npiarv Is fully started, I try to make it self-sustain- 

 ing; if I need any improvements the bees have to 



'buy them, and and 1 am making money out of 



v»\y bees. There, I think I have "bragged" enough 

 so that T can stick to the hive question and not 

 •dodjre off again. 



When the American hive is full, you have either 

 got to divide your bees or let themswarm; you can 

 'not build them up into a mammoth colony, and get 

 a large yield of honey. There is little chance to use 

 the extractor, as the brood occupies, or at least 

 should occupy, nearly all of the frames. Boxes can 

 be used only (in tup of the frames. 



I was suited with the American frame, and I did 

 not wish to throw away the hives I hvd made, there- 

 fore, the easiest way out of my troubles seemed to 

 be to use a Simplicity hive holding the American 

 frame, and one year's experience with such a hive 

 seems to prove that it is the hrst. As some of mv 

 •customers tonk a fancy to the American hive, as I 

 myself once did, there was little trouble in disposing 

 of what few I had; some were sold empty, and some 

 with bees in them. 



My friend, perhaps you think r am rather harsh in 

 my criticisms on the American hive; I may be harsh, 

 hut if vou should give it a fair trial, I think you 

 would be harsher. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kogersville, Michigan. 



If I understand you, friend II.. it is not 



I the hive which you criticise, so much as the 

 j principle on which it was planned originally. 

 ! It has been very much modified and changed 

 : since it was first given to the public. We fre- 

 j quently make Simplicity hives, with frames 



1 foot square, and call them Am. hives, but 

 I only on account of the size of the frame. 



The onlv objection I have to the -Am. frames 



is that they are too deep for a two story hive. 



Friend Bingham uses and succeeds well with 

 ; a frame even shallower than the Langstroth. 

 i This works nicely in a hive as tall as even 3 

 ' stories. 



OUR FRIEND SCIENTIFIC, ON A VISIT. 



E have been on a visit, my wife and I. On 

 the 24th of Oct., after seeing that our bees 

 were all in good order, honey all shipped off 

 (except enough to supply the neighbors), and the 

 turkeys, geese, chickens, and cattle, all in good 

 hands, we set our faces toward the east, and the far 

 famed land of wooden nutmegs. 



Now we do not propose to tell you of our visit 

 with friends, or of all the machinery we saw, but of 

 the few facts we observed in our journey, upon hon- 

 ey matters. We halted in Albany a few days, and 

 found honey quite plentiful, and for sale at from 10 

 to 25 cts. Very good comb honey was selling, in 

 some stores, for 14c, but was of dark color. 



From Albany to Southington, Conn., we occasion- 

 ally saw bee hives, but they were few and far be- 

 tween, and all of the box hive pattern. In S., we 

 found no bee-keepers, and as a consequence, their 

 market was supplied with California honey in Har- 

 bison frames, and selling at 25c. S., is a small man- 

 ufacturing town, and ought to consume much ex- 

 tracted honey, but we saw none on sale. A day 

 spent in Hartford also revealed honey, both local 

 and California (so called), for sale for 2"ic. All hon- 

 ey put up in Harbison frames is from California, 

 you know. Some people imagine they can taste 

 honev from the orange blossoms. This is a very 

 beautiful thing for groeerymen to expiate upon, 

 and their customers are sometimes green enough to 

 swallow their Stories. 



We 1)11(4 tnention our visit to Colt's Armory, or 

 manufactory of revolvers and gatling guns. This 

 whole manufactory is kept as nice as an apiary, or 

 shall I say bee hive? Cleanliness, precision, intel- 

 ligent workmen, and splendid engines were promi- 

 nent points. All were hard at work, supplying man- 

 kind with weapons of defence, or shall I say making 

 Btincrere for mankind? 



Middletown was our next stoppiner place. This is 



an old city on the Conn., River. We found there 



many old 'fashioned houses, with large chimneys 



and capacious tire places, and the regular old New 



England garret, with relics of a hundred years ago. 



This place is also dependent on other sources for 



i its honey supply, and prices range from 20 to 30c. 



! We were pleased to meet here Mr. J. L. Davis, who 



I ihas a few swarms and is well posted upon their 



i management. Mr. D. has invented a very ingenious 



I cast iron apparatus for holding the frames at fixed 



