1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



283 



weeds" grow together to see which will have the 

 "coarse leaf and branching top, with innumerable 

 little balls, etc.?" Our bees are feasting upon the 

 fruit blossoms now, and we are looking for a rich 

 harvest of sweet things soon. I will not say more, 

 as you never publish anything from Egypt. 



Jacob Copeland. 

 Allendale, 111., April 26, 1880. 



It is true, friend C, that the Simpson hon- 

 ey-plant seeds are a little fastidious. At 

 first, I failed entirely with all I sowed ; but 

 the girls got some leaf mold from the woods, 

 and raised them by the thousands. After 

 they are up, they have a provoking way of 

 dying just about the time you think they are 

 certainly well started. We have failed so 

 many times that I finally gave a lot of seed 

 to our market gardener, and he told me a 

 few days ago that he thought he could fur- 

 nish me with 10,000 nice plants, for £25,00. 

 I looked at the plants, and told him I would 

 give it. Now this lot of plants is growing 

 on not over 5 square yards of ground ; what 

 do you think of the profits that a man— ay 

 or woman either, who is skillful in the plant 

 business might make? Making seeds grow 

 is one of the fine arts, friend C. 



PLANING SAWS. 



Can we not get up a combination saw that will 

 rip and plane at the same time? It would be the 

 "trick" for making sections. My plan is to have 

 part of the teeth rippers and part planers. The rip- 

 pers should be just a little larger than the planers, 

 and have no set in them; while the planers should 

 be a little short, and have a little set. I have no 

 means of testing it, but if it will "work," I would 

 like to have one. 



THE COUNTER STORE. 



I am very much pleased with the counter store. 

 I find many things that are desirable and that some 

 of us, at least, can not find in our little country 

 towns, and other things much cheaper than we can 

 get them. I think we ought to gi^e you a vote of 

 thanks. 



TINNER'S SHEARS. 



And now while we are on that subject, can you 

 not get us good, cheap, tinner's shears? I have to 

 carry my tin 1 miles to get it cut. 



HAND HOLDS TO HIVES, AN IMPROVEMENT. 



I send you by this mail a finger hold as I make 

 them in my Simplicity hives. I like them better 

 than yours for two reasons; they look better, I 

 think, and they are so easily painted. If you like it, 

 and do not see readily how it is made, I will explain. 



M. E. Parker. 



Somerset, Ky., May 10, 1880. 



The planer saw has not turned out so well 

 as I expected ; it cuts too slow, and when it 

 needs sharpening, it is a great deal of work, 

 and finally requires expensive re-cutting, 

 before it can be sharpened further. It also 

 is found impossible to get it to cut stuff to 

 exactly the same thickness, as do planers. 

 In spite of all these drawbacks, however, 

 we find places where ours is quite a saving, 

 for we can make it do smooth, linished work, 

 in places a planer could not reach. Your 

 plan could be tested only by actual experi- 

 ments.— Nothing can cut up tin rapidly and 

 neatly like a pair of squaring shears, and 

 they cost about s:;.5.00 ; but I think I can 

 furnish some tinner's snips, if 1 purchase 



them by the gross, for about a dollar.— The 

 improvement consists in cutting out the 

 wood below the mortice, on a smooth slo- 

 ping curve. With a proper cutter the ex- 

 pense will be only the cutting away of a 

 little more wood. They will be easier to 

 paint, and, I presume, less likely to decay, 

 as they will not hold water from driving 

 storms as do the old kind. 



TONGS AND GLOVES. 



Some one has invented "tongs" to lift out frames 

 with; pwhew! I would as' soon think of putting 

 gloves on my cat to catch mice with. I recently 

 overhauled and cleaned out the hives of 40 colonies, 

 and prepared them for shipment, and did not get 

 stung once. I used no veil or gloves, and a smoker 

 but little. How is that for good natured bees? 



WINGS FOR BIU'SniNG OFF HEES. 



I have never used anything but chicken's wings to 

 brush bees off the combs, and can't imagine what 

 could be better. 



ROBBERS, —HOW TO GET THEM OUT OF THE HIVE. 



My way of getting robbers out of a hive is to open 

 the top of the hive, and give them a few puffs from 

 the smoker. The robbers will get out on the double 

 quick, and the owners will stick to their combs. 

 Close up then, and close the entrance also so but 

 one bee can pass. If that does not stop the robbing, 

 I go at night, and change places with a stronger 

 swarm. 



SURPLUS HONEY; A NOVEL PACKAGE FOR IT. 



A few years ago, my brother-in-law, Alfred Broun- 

 son, was living in Wayland, Allegan Co... Mich. He 

 procured a hive of bees, and set them on two in- 

 verted sap troughs, and put in some boxes for sur- 

 plus. They worked well, but put no honey in the 

 boxes. On moving the hive the next spring he 

 found they had stored the sap troughs full. 



I think I saw an item somewhere in Gleanings, 

 stating that Bingham gets honey stored under his 

 hives, but I can not And it again; and that puts me 

 in mind that you say only one man finds fault with 

 leaving out the table of contents. Count me No. 2. 

 After reading Gleanings over once, I frequently 

 wish to find some item I have read, and I find it a 

 big bore, to have to go through from one cover to 

 the other to find it. Chas. E. McRay. 



Canon City, Colorado, May 10, 1880. 



I quite agree with you about tongs and 

 gloves.— The sap trough incident is not only 

 suggestive of Bingham's plan, but also of 

 the one given in the English bee book, rec- 

 ommending that surplus be obtained in 

 American cheese boxes, set underneath the 

 old-fashioned straw hives. The honey ob- 

 tained under the hives, next the ground, 

 was said to be of extra whiteness and puri- 

 ty. AVho is going to develop this idea, 

 and give us "extra, ground-stored, virgin 

 honey?" 



"HOW DOTH THE BUSY BEE IMPROVE EACH 

 SHINING HOUR ! " 



We clip the following from the Bee-Keep- 



we clip t 

 2r's Quia*. : 



A Chinese student at Andover wrote in a lady's 

 album the following version of a well-known poem: 

 "How doth the little sting-bug 

 Improve every sixty minutes 



All the day. 

 Go pickec up sting-bug juice 

 From tiowers just got busted," 



