168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



APR. 



BEE-KEEPERS PRICE LISTS AND CIRCULARS. 



I told you I would send you a copy of my circular 

 when I got it printed, but I do not want you to laugh 

 at it, when you see all the mistakes in it. If all the 

 rest of the printers are as good at making mistakes 

 as the one I got to do my printing, you must have 

 some fun. But you must make an allowance for us 

 backwoods settlers, if we do not do things right the 

 first time we try them. John W. C alder. 



Williamston, Ont., Ca., Feb. 13, 1880. 



It is rather bad, friend C, to see bad spell- 

 ing, bad grammar, and bad print, but it is 

 by no means to be compared to a bad and 

 fault-finding spirit manifested toward oth- 

 ers who are in the same line of business. I 

 have not seen much of the latter, it is true, 

 but now and then a spirit is manifest that 

 seems to say, '"Buy of me ; I will sell better 

 goods, and sell them cheaper, than my 

 brother in business." To be sure, it is well 

 to do this, if you can honestly and consist- 

 ently, but I beg of you, dear friends, do not 

 ever think it necessary to indulge in unkind 

 insinuations, even while extolling the good 

 qualities of your own wares, liemember the 

 little text that ends with, "and thy neighbor 

 as thyself '." If you stick to this, there will 

 alwaj i be plenty of room, and plenty to do. 

 IVo ; can not be linding fault with your 

 circular friend C, for I have not even seen 

 it. yet. 



THE CHEIROGRAPH; HOW TO MAKE THE INK, ETC. 



Mr. Editor: — I think if you or some one else who 

 told us how to make the cheirograph had given us a 

 good recipe for making the ink, there would be less 

 trouble. Here is a recipe I got of Fuller & Stillman, 

 New York, with enough of the powder to make a 

 little ink, for 25 cents: 



Dissolve 1 part of the aniline in 7 parts of hot wa- 

 ter. After cooling, add 1 part spirits of wine, a few 

 drops of ether ( I put 4 or 5 drops in mine), nnd a drop 

 of carbolic aoid. Keep in a well-stopped bottle. 



With this recipe and a good pad I will warrant it to 

 work, for I have just taken 134 impressions, and I 

 think I could make 150 that could be read easily. 

 You want to be sure to get erood aniline. What we 

 got first for aniline did not look much like the last. 

 It was a bronze color to look at. Glue and glycerine 

 cost 30 c. For a tin dish, the tinners wanted 20 c. for 

 making, so we made one ourselves. Take a square 

 piece of tin the right size, and cut half an inch out 

 of each corner, then bend it up until the corners are 

 close together; then solder them, and you have a 

 dish for less than 10 c. V. W. Keeney. 



Khirland, 111., March 3, 1880. 



Thanks, friend K. We obtained the best 

 directions we could at the time, and I sup- 

 posed that it would very likely be improved. 

 We can furnish the tin plate, with a good 

 serviceable cover, for luc. We will try to 

 get a supply of the best aniline for the bene- 

 fit of our readers. I know that the article 

 generally kept at our drug stores is not what 

 is required. A good firm pad seems also 

 quite important. 



cheaper sections. 

 Mr. Root: —I send a section frame of my own in- 

 vention, for surplus honey. I have used them 4 or 5 

 years, and find that they give entire satisfaction. 

 They are easily made, require but one small tack to 

 hold them, and are so very light. I use Langstroth 



hive, 10 frames. I could furnish the sections herein 

 large quantities at $ 1.25 per thousand, and could 

 vary them in size. No patent. G. W. Church. 



Benton Harbor, Mich., March 5, 1880. 



Your section frame, friend C.., is exactly 

 the kind we described years ago, when sec- 

 tion boxes were first talked about ; but your 

 price is lower than any thing ever offered 

 before, to my knowledge. Are you sure you 

 could pay expenses and come out "whole," 

 at tlie price you name? If you are not an 

 old hand at manufacturing goods, I shall be 

 inclined to think you have got the price low- 

 er than you can afford it. I will say to our 

 readers, that the section is simply a strip of 

 whitewood veneer, or berry box material, 

 li inches wide, scored so as to bend up 

 into a box, the ends lapping. One tack 

 holds the lap. The boxes are placed in an 

 ordinary brood frame, and, to get the right 

 thickness of comb honey, the frames are 

 placed a little distance apart. It will answer 

 all purposes, and great crops of honey will 

 be stored, in these light, narrow sections, 

 but what are we to do with a tun of such 

 honey? You can not set them into any kind 

 of a shipping crate without their mashing 

 each other, and you can not do one up for 

 a customer in apy way that I know of, so 

 that it can be carried safely unless he carries 

 it all the time in his hands, and then he 

 stands a great chance of mashing the whole 

 tiling, or letting it fall out of the frame, if 

 he does not handle it very carefully. It may 

 do to retail directly out of the hive to your 

 neighbors, but all who have used them, so 

 far as I know, have discarded them for 

 something stronger and nicer. 



the mailing cage; HONOR to whom honor is due. 



I mail you with this a queen cage like one I sent 

 with a letter to the Postmaster General, Feb. 20th, 

 1879, and like one I sent you, the latter part of last 

 May, or the first part of June. I did not write you 

 at the time, but put my name and address on the 

 cage. I do not believe you received it, as I have rea- 

 son to think that it was thrown out of the mail by 

 some over zealous agent or postmaster. From your 

 description on page 180, 1 should say it was similar to 

 the cage you propose to have engraved next month. 



L. Heine. 



Smithville South, Queens Co., N. Y., Mar. 6, 1880. 



The cage was received, friend II., but I 

 had entirely forgotten ever having seen such 

 a thing, until I was reminded by taking a 

 search in our "museum," where I found ex- 

 actly the thing that Mr. Gray and 1 had been 

 at work oh, labeled with your name and ad- 

 dress. I beg pardon, and cheerfully hand 

 the invention over to you where it belongs. 



CABINET OF NEW r INVENTIONS AND CURI- 

 OSITIES. 



This illustrates a point I have long been 

 considering. Our collection of samples and 

 models is getting to be like the patent office. 

 Smokers we have in such numbers and vari- 

 ety, that it would almost weary one to look 

 at them, let alone thinking of studying them 

 all out. Feeders and queen cages are about 

 as varied and plentiful. We have lately 

 commenced labeling each article with date, 

 name, and address, and as a great many ax- 



