1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



107 



couple together and perfect the things that 

 have been worked out by others, a little at a 

 time, here and there. Where so many hands 

 are working on something there begins to be 

 a demand for, the ground becomes worked 

 over and over. The same has proven true 

 on extractors, feeders, cases for holding sec- 

 tions, making sections of one and four piec- 

 es, fastening into frames, and, of late, re- 

 versing devices for frames. Notwithstand- 

 ing the above, there seems to be occasional- 

 ly something worked out almost entirely by 

 a single individual, where he devotes much 

 time to it. Of course, he has, however, to 

 commence on a basis where somebody else 

 left off. Then the question comes. IIow 

 much right has anybody to a monopoly of 

 these plans and ideas V The grand point 

 that you make, that it takes us all together 

 to bring out anv good thing, harmonizfs 

 nicely, as you will observe, with my remark 

 at the bee-keepers' congress at New'Orleans, 

 under the department of Our Neighbors. 



BEE -KEEPERS' CONGRESS AT NEW 

 ORLEANS. 



NOTES BY THE WAV.— IX THE NIGHT. 



ContimtccJ from Last Kvmhcr. 

 'HAT a blessing is the modern sleoi)ing- 

 car! A little before midnight I glanc- 

 ed out at the Kentufky landscape. 

 The snow was gone, and bare lields 

 and dry sidewalks met my eye. An 

 hour later the iicad-liglits of the locomotivt? 

 showed the air tilled with large fleecy snow- 

 llakes. .Vn event occurred right liere tiiat 

 lias a great moral lesson in it, and I think it 

 bears especially on us bee-keepers. Wlicn 

 railroads were llrst started, our friends in 

 the South, after more or less consiilcration. 

 decided on tlie width of track. ■'} ft.: and our 

 friends at the North, without thinking, when 

 tliey started to lay track, adopted 4 ft. sA 

 inches as the width. Simple tiling, isn"l it? 

 \'ery likely these early fathers in railroad- 

 ing thought but little about it luitil trallic 

 demanded that these north and south roatis 

 should connect. Even then nothing serious 

 resulted, for a simple transfer of passengers 

 " lixed " it— that is, passengers gathered up 

 their luggage and walked over into a car on 

 the other gauge track. A little later, sleep- 

 ing-cars came into being, and just now in 

 our journey the change would have to be at 

 1 o'clock at night. I imagine the passengers 

 scrambling out of the berths of a lilUd 

 sleeping-car, and piling into another on an 

 adjoining track. Whew I wouldn't there be 

 a fracas? Do you know what they do? 

 Why, tliey have gone to the expense of a 

 great structure that lifts the sleepers almost 

 noiselessly from the trucks, suspending 

 them in mid air. The trucks are then run 

 out, and others suited for a different gauge 

 aie put in their place. After this the cars 

 with their precious freight of sleeping pas- 

 sengers are let down as quietly as tliey were 

 taken up. This is done so skillfully and 

 noiselessly you would sleep on without in- 

 terruption unless some one told you of what 



was transpiring. The operation of raising 

 up and letting down did not take over two 

 minutes. 



'• Why in the world do they not tear up 

 these odd-gauged tracks, and make all of the 

 standard size?" said 1 to Mr. Holmes. 



"• \Vhy, my dear sir, do you suppose 

 changing the tracks would be all the ex- 

 pense required? All the great rolling-stock 

 must be made over and changed, to say 

 nothing of throwing away good locomotives 

 that cost y:20,000 apiece, or such a matter." 



'' Well, what are you going to do?"' 



"■ Why, we are going to use our present 

 stock iintil we wear it out, and get along 

 the best we can, changing passengers and 

 changing freight ; but all the new work 

 made now is being made with the change 

 you speak of in view. Some time we expect 

 to be able to send any car from Canada to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and on any road.'' 



The al)ove may not be exactly as Mr. 

 Holmes stated it^ but it is in substance. 

 Now, then, friends, do you see its applica- 

 tion to bee culture? A great many of us 

 have started just as thouglillessly as did the 

 railroad men. My neighbor Rice, of Seville, 

 O., when he started with movable frames, 

 just sawed olf some sticks and never 

 measured them at all. He refused to listen 

 to my remonstrances, but kept on with his 

 frame uidike any thing anybody ever used 

 before, and until I began \o buy bees of 

 him every summer in ;?o()0 lots at a time, 

 each colony having to be transferred before [ 

 ccuild make use of it. Arguing in words 

 didn't convince him ; biit the trouble of 

 transferring each colony into frames like the 

 rest of us use, did the business. He now 

 has no more of those " mongrel " frames. 



10 n'cJnck \. s\.,i^4ih. We are just out of 

 Nashville. All traces of ice and snow have 

 linally disappeared ; but 1 have looked in 

 vain for some signs of early gardening ; not 

 a trace even, around the suburbs of the city 

 of Nashville, while acres of hotbeds are to 

 be seen close to Cincinnati, where they 

 still have almost zero temperature to battle 

 with. 



A sad. sad sight was presented us just 

 before reaching Nashville. Little tomb- 

 stones, almost without number, covering 

 acres of ground, showed where our boys 

 fought, bled, and died. Can any one look 

 on that burial-ground without almost over- 

 whelming sadness? ^lay God help us, that 

 we may all so live that such an event can 

 never, never happen again. 



11 A. :m. — Tiirough Southern Tennessee 

 many localities would be difficult for farm- 

 ing and gardening purposes, because one 

 would have to draw dirt to cover the rocks 

 that crop out almost everywhere. The soil 

 is a reddish yellow, but looks very light and 

 fine for tillage. 



A good deal has been said, and I think un- 

 necessarily, at least some of it, abottt the 

 expense of meals on the trip. Now, one can 

 practice economy, and that, too, without 

 the annoyance of carrying a lunch, which 

 many, myself included, so much dislike. 

 At the restaurant on the sleeping-car you 

 can get a good lot of bread and butter for a 



