1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



180 



St. Louts. — Honey— Our honey market is pretty 

 nearh bare of any good comb honey, and prices are 

 as follows: Choice comb, 1 to 2 th. packages, -0 cents. 

 Broken comb and medium grades, 13 @ 16 ets. Ex- 

 tracted, fair, sells at 8 @ 11 c. 



Beeswax— 21 (a) 23, and not much here. 



K. c. Greer & Co. 



No. 117 N. Main St., St. Louis, March 22, 1880. 



A NEW WAY OF .TIAK1\<; DOVETAILED 

 SECTIONS. 



MERE is a novelty in the way of tools, 

 and if it were not for the new one-piece 

 " sections, I suppose it would make quite 

 a sensation. After you once understand it, 

 it seems almost ridiculous to think no one 

 ever thought of it before. 



HUBBARD'S DOVETAILING MACHINE FOR 

 SECTIONS. 



A is a steel stamp, or, rather, double row 

 of chisels. (J is a strip of wood, such as we 

 use in making sections. Now, if you place 

 A on C and hit a clip with a mallet, C is cut 

 as shown in the figure ; and, without sepa- 

 rating the pieces, you can fold it around in 

 the shape shown at B. As the chisels must 

 be curved on their inner edges to prevent 

 breaking, the corner, when turned properly, 

 has a rounded appearance ; that is, it has the 

 corner taken off. It seems to me that this 

 would be a beautiful and handy tool for cab- 

 inet-makers, for making one box or drawer 

 at a time, for this corner, when put together 

 with glue, would finish up nicely. Friend 

 Hubbard uses it with a foot-power press, 

 similar to that given in the A B C at the 

 close of " Hive-Making." On this plan of 

 making sections, too, a patent has been 

 claimed, but I have no doubt but that our 

 friend is the original inventor. Here is what 

 he says in regard to it : 



Friend Root, —about that patent. You want to 

 know if the plan is my invention. I think it is. I 

 never saw or heard of any plan like it until I made 

 the one I am now using. I made it two years ago, 

 and have cut my sections with it for the last two 

 summers. A great many bee-men have been here 

 to see it, and they would say, " Why don't you get it 

 patented, Mr. Hubbard?" I told them I would not 

 get it patented; that they might make a machine 

 and cut t heir own sections, but did not want any one 

 to patent it. Would you be so kind as to let mo 

 know who claims the invention or patent on it? 



Rohekt Hubbard. 



Chester, Eaton Co., Mich., Jan. lfi, 1880. 



The letter was distributed, friend II., and 

 I have lost the man's name and address. He 

 sent a rough piece of wood showing the 

 work of the machine, and said he owned 

 half of the U. 8., and wanted to sell it to me. 

 Such is " patents." 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Letters from Those Who Have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



If HAVE saved but 4 hives out of 50, wintered in 

 the cellar with rotten squashes in it 1 



A PlCKERTT Xj 



Beulah, Colorado, March 5, 1880. 



I have some 50 colonics of bees, and have had 

 about as many for the last fifteen years, but have 

 never received any benefit from them, except suffi- 

 cient honey for my family use. They have been 

 managed, so far, by disinterested parties, and in the 

 old box-hive. Wm. L. Foster. 



Belmont, Gonzales Co., Tex., Feb. 5, 1880. 



Whew! Fifty colonies of bees for fifteen 

 years to give a body honey enough to eat in 

 the family ! Are we to understand that you 

 paid the " disinterested " party a salary be- 

 sides, friend F.V I do not think I should 

 want to warrant that every colony of bees 

 would give a clear profit of $50.00 a year, as 

 Mrs. Cotton does ; but if 50 colonies did not 

 pay one dollar each, and all expenses, besides 

 honey for the family, every year, I would 

 give up bee-keeping pretty quick. 



Bees were a complete failure; yes, worse, — a big 

 item of expense. Last fall, most did not have a 

 pound of surplus. Nearly all the box-hives, and 

 those in frames which were not fed, are dead. We 

 put 2 and 3 together, and fed sugar. Ours are all 

 right so far. We have about 97, i think, and about 2 

 hives full of comb for every colony, with section- 

 boxes, etc., enough for 2 or 3 years. We expect to 

 feed sugar whenever the bees are not getting hon- 

 ey, and try one year more, and then, if they don't 

 pay, propose to brimstone the bees, sell the wax, and 

 split up the hives for kindlings. 1 don't propose to 

 lose any more money on the things. Just now I 

 have a letter asking about a communication in the 

 Feb. No. As I have written nothing to you for a 

 long time, and have not seen the number referred 

 to, I do not know exactly what he means. But if 

 anybody asks you about anything I have ever said 

 or written, just tell them for me that bees are a 

 "delusion;" the biggest kind of a little '"humbug;" 

 a cheat that will draw more money out of your 

 pocket than they will put in, taking a series of 

 years together; a useless stock that accumulates 

 on your hands, which you can not sell. Last fall 

 I offered mine at $2.50 per colony, and could not 

 sell one. One of my neighbors has 22 hives full of 

 nice bright comb, wbich he offers for $1.00 each,— 

 8 frames, American size, oak hives, poplar or pine 

 lid. How is that for profit? Ours have wintered 

 well so far on summer stauds, with top covered 

 with No. 2 manilla paper, which makes them air- 

 tight, and bees do not eat it through. It is the 

 cheapest covering, even if you throw it away every 

 spring. 



The reason I don't subscribe for Gleanings is, 

 I am not able. I have taken from % to 4 journals 

 for the last ten years, have lost money in the long 

 run, and propose to "go it," in the future, on past 

 reading, past experience, old hives, old combs, last 

 year's section - boxes, and grape sugar. Do you 



