1886 



GLEANINGS 1^ JJEE CULTUilE. 



767 



with chopped oats straw. Our honej'-board is in 

 three sections. Talse out the center one, move the 

 other two toward the center, so as to leave one inch 

 open over the ends of the frames, and about four 

 inches open at the center; now lay the other board 

 across the center, at rig-ht angles, and spread over 

 all a piece of burlap. Pour in four inches of straw. 

 I consider this an improvement on the Hill device, 

 as it ventilates all around, .yet holds the warm air 

 directly over the cluster. 



PWai.t. S. Pouder, .50. 



Groesbeck, O., Nov. 6, 188.5. 



Friend P., this plan of inducing the queen 

 and drones to taice their flight when tlie 

 queen is of a proper age, by giving the col- 

 ony or nucleus a feed of warm honey, is a 

 very old idea. It was lirst given us by the 

 Germans, and with some other features for 

 getting Italian queens and Italian drones to 

 take their flight while common drones were 

 not on the wing, was called the Hobler meth- 

 od. It was a good deal discussed, and 

 seemed to be Anally dropped by universal 

 consent. I do not remember, however, that 

 the point was l)rought forward, that queens 

 induced to fly this way were sure to regain 

 their hives safely.— In regard to your plan 

 of wintering, friend P., I agree with you, 

 that plenty of ventilation, both at the" en- 

 trance and over the bees, seems to be one 

 great factor in succeeding. 



THE WIDTH OF AN ENTRANCE. , 



THE COST OF STOPPINn HEAVV .MACHINERY. 



« LETTER from Mrs. L. Harrison says that I 

 did not tell all about Mr. Kiifus Porter's win- 

 ter management of bees, in Lewistown, 111.; 

 that I did not tell how much lower ventila- 

 tion he gave them. Mr. Porter contracts the 

 entrance to 'HXS inches, and pays no attention to 

 the snow at tlie entrance, unless there should be a 

 sudden thaw, and the snow should get in the way of 

 the bees flying out. He says, that when the en- 

 trance faces to the south there is not much danger 

 of snow or ice clogging the entrance. The way he 

 packs his bees, they would have plenty of air with 

 the entrance entirely closed. 



Yesterday, Mollyony and I started out to find ap- 

 ples and cider to make our supply of apple butter. 

 Apples are very scarce and high-priced now, good 

 hand-picked apples selling for $1.(0 per bushel; but 

 we found some very nice snow-apples that had fall- 

 en from the tree, which we bought for ~5 cts. a 

 bushel. Then we went to the cider mill. Now, the 

 cider is made at the drain-tile factory; and to reach 

 it we have to drive down a long narrow lane, past 

 the graveyard on one side, and the slaughter-yard 

 on the other; up a hill and past the factory, before 

 we can turn around. Well, when we got just to the 

 top of the hill our horses got frightened at some 

 blankets that they use to cover the tile when it is 

 drying, that were hung to dry near the road, and 

 they pranced and reared and backed out, and lung- 

 ed forward, and all the while the machinery in the 

 factory that was grinding clay was uttering the 

 most heart-rending groans a«d shrieks. It would go 

 •on groaning and cliimping for a minute, and then, 

 as if it had gathered strength for a grander effort, 

 it would sead forth one of iiiose blood-curdling 

 " scrowifefi " fif^t 5fifimp.rt M if they would tear the 



building all to pieces. Well, there we were, with a 

 barb-wire fence on one side, and the hollow square 

 on the other, where the machinery was, partly be- 

 neath the ground, and we were debating in our 

 minds whether it ^•rould be better to be thrown on 

 the barbs or down among the machinery, when they 

 straightened out and went on all right. I drove as 

 far away from the building as possible, and then 

 left Mollyony at the horses' heads, while I went in 

 to see about the cider. 



The proprietor is very much of a gentleman. 

 While measuring the cider (it was boiled down, 

 three gallons into one, and I took home twelve 

 gallons of cider in two two-gallon jugs), he told me 

 all about his cider jelly. He has machinery on 

 purpose, boils it with steam-pipes, and makes a 

 very nice and cheap jelly. He runs it, while hot, 

 into wooden buckets holding half a gallon, and 

 covers them with a wooden lid put on with a twist 

 so that it will not come off unless untwisted; he 

 sells the bucket and the half-gallon of jelly for fifty 

 cents. The jelly contains nothing but cider. Ho 

 turned the buckets ui)Side down, and the jelly 

 never moved. 



Pretty soon after we got there the machinery 

 stopped; but before we were ready to go away it 

 started up again with all its horrid noise. 1 asked 

 hlin how long r\ins they made, and he said they 

 would not stop again till dinner time, unless some- 

 thing got wrong with the machinery. I told him 

 that I was in hopes they would stop about the time 

 I started home, as tlie horses were afraid of their 

 noise. 



" Oh !" said he, " we will stop till you get by. Al- 

 most all the horses that come here arc afraid, and 

 we have to stop till they get away." 



Then he spoke to the engineer, and before 1 had 

 got in and turned around the dreadful noise had 

 ceased, and I drove by the building all right. He 

 went and took down the blankets (I had told him 

 about them), and 1 liad no more trouble. 



Here is the point that I want to make: He stop- 

 ped his machinery to let me get away, and he said 

 he did it often. I suppose the stopping and start- 

 ing up took him five or eight minutes; and while it 

 was stopped, all the men and boys stopped too. 

 There seemed to be ten or fifteen of them, and he 

 pays the men, I suppose, about -52.00 a day. If they 

 stop half a dozen times in a day his loss must bo 

 considerable. Now, if I were that man I would 

 liave the road clear on the other side of the lot, as 

 far away from tho noise as possible, and I would 

 have a road twice as wide, so that horses might 

 prance around a little without having to climb a 

 wire fence or fall into a hole. I think it would be 

 money in his pocket, besides being so much safer, 

 as they never see the incoming teams in time to 

 stop for them, but only the outgoing ones. 



I had no idea, when I ordered those division- 

 boards sent "in the flat," that they would be all in 

 little strips. I expected a board and a top strip to 

 hang them up by; but I ought to have known that 

 no man could sell a solid board of that size for six 

 cents. I had some fun nailing them together. I 

 suppose that your men in the factory, with their 

 work benchee, and clamps to hold them level, and 

 the right-sized nails, and a good hammer, could 

 make twenty-five of them in an hour; while I, with 

 my best licks, could make only four in 40 minutes. 

 In the first place, I could not got any nails that werp 

 Just right. Nails large enough to stand the strokes 



