100 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MAit. 



vanced people on the face of the globe, for even the 

 babies seem to take to tools before they are well out 

 of their cradles. 



I do not know how it is with you, but it 

 hits the nail on the head exactly at our 

 house, and the "girl babies 1 ' seem almost as 

 eager to crawl out of their cradles in pursuit 

 of "tools," as do the boy babies. 



Much has been said in favor of buying 

 good tools, and while I appreciate the ad- 

 vantages of good tools as much as anybody, 

 I wish to say something in regard to the 

 economy of the tools that are being made of 

 late, that cost but a very little money. A 

 nice steel hammer is a hue thing to have, 

 but there are a great many families in our 

 land, where they have no hammer at all, and 

 I do not know but they are right in saying 

 they can not afford one. Well, since the 

 wonderful improvements of late in working 

 wood and iron, a very good, serviceable 

 hammer, with a stout hickory handle, can 

 be easily sold for 10c, at every country store. 

 Such a family would find 10c invested in this 

 way a boon indeed, and I am sure the baby 

 would think more of it for a play thing than 

 almost any toy you could buy for a dime. 

 The furniture and fingers might catch a 

 pounding, it is true, but the mechanical 

 skill the child would gain would far outbal- 

 ance the damage. The way I run across 

 these hammers was in ordering some for our 

 10c. counter. I wanted a fair sized, tack 

 hammer, but the maker was short of them, 

 and sent 3 doz. full sized hammers, saying 

 the price was the same. They cost £7.20, 

 per gross, just 5c. each. My wife says it is 

 wicked to ask anybody to work for so little, 

 and wonders if poor women and children are 

 not half starved to enable them to sell goods 

 so low. I am inclined to think not. And I 

 do not know but that they are making good 

 pay, and are glad to have orders at that fig- 

 ure. It was all the man asked for the goods. 



We will consider some of these cheap tools 

 alphabetically. 



Awls.— Almost every bee-keeper has use 

 for scratch and brad awls, and our boys and 

 girls require so many, and so often get those 

 that are poorly tempered, or get broken eas- 

 ily, that I have devised a cheap, all-metal 

 awl, that is always of perfect temper. Go 

 to the store, and get a paper of the largest 

 darning needles you can find. Fold a strip 

 of tin aoout an inch wide (or get it done at a 

 tin shop), so as to make the metal bars we 

 use in the extractor and wired frames. 

 AVhen folded into a hollow metal rod. bend 

 it so as to form a handle, like the cut below. 

 Solder the needle between the ends, and you 

 have it. 



break it, put in another needle. If you do 

 not like this kind of a handle, very pretty, 

 wood-handled awls can be purchased by the 

 gross, so as to be sold on the 5c. counter. 

 "We give an engraving of one of each. 



HOMEMADE, ALL-METAL, BRAD OR SCRATCH 

 AWL. 



If you want a brad awl, break off \he point 

 of tlie needle, and flatten two sides of the 

 point, with a whet or grindstone. If you 



WOOD-HANDLED AWLS. 



The brad awl answers excellently for pierc- 

 ing frames for wires, where bid few are to 

 be done. 



POCKET RULES AND MEASERES. 



I thought when we got a nice, one-foot 

 rule on the 10c counter, we had done a fine 

 thing; but now we have a very pretty rule 

 that does not fold up, for only 5c. 



A FIVE CENT RILE. 



Our engraver has given a picture of it 

 above, but he left the figures off. I presume 

 he did it because he thought he could not 

 afford figures for only 5c, but they are plain 

 and nice, on the 5c rule. The graduations 

 and figures are cut in the wood, as on rules 

 generally; but, on the yard stick, which is 

 also sold at 5c, they are printed on a paper 

 and pasted on. 





•i 2.1 I 81 



-^TTi TTTTTITTT 



THE TEN TENT ROCKET RULE. 



This folds up 4 times, and is as well made 

 as those generally sold for 25 or 50c. The 

 two-foot rule is just like it, and only 15c. 



FIFTY CENT CALIPER RULE. 



When you wish to get exactly the diame- 

 ter of a round rod, or even the thickness of 

 a board when you are setting your planer, it 

 is difficult to get it exactly, without the cali- 

 per rule. These usually" sell at 75c or a dol- 

 lar, and I have not yet been aide to give the 

 manufacturer an order large enough to get 

 them so as to sell them for less than 50c. As 

 they are made with the working ports all of 

 brass, the price is not very high. Every me- 

 chanic who makes any pretensions to accu- 

 racy should have a caliper rule. One almost 



