7(iS 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



of the hammer would split the wood; the slim nails 

 bent over, split open, and went crooked, so that 

 about half the length came through on one side or 

 the other. The old hammer was too heavy, and the 

 new one too light, and I am fully persuaded that I do 

 not know how to drive a nail. I succeeded, however, 

 in makingr twenty of them hang together, and I 

 then stopped to let my blue finger nails and blood- 

 blisters get well before I make the rest. 



Mahai^a B. Chaddock. 

 Vermont, 111., Oct. 1.5, 1885. 



Mrs. C, you are mistaken about the 

 things that bur men make. The division- 

 boards are made by girls, and they have no 

 tools except an ordinary heavy solid table, 

 liammers of the proper weight, and nails ex- 

 actly the right size. They have, however, 

 had experience in driving these nails into 

 the thin boards, so they will go riglit along 

 with it as fast as tliey can drive, and they 

 rarely have a nail come out at all. I would 

 refer you to the remarks in regard to ham- 

 mers and nails, on page hi of our price list. 

 One of our three-cent hammers answers very 

 well for this work, but we must have nails 

 of the proper size. Your experience illus- 

 trates what we have so often talked about 

 — every one to his trade. But it seems to me 

 that every bee-keeper ought to practice 

 nailing until he or she is tolerably expert, 

 and then you must have a good assortment 

 of nails so you can choose just the proper 

 one for the proper place. I would have at 

 least three hammers for like reasons. We 

 can furnish whole boards as cheaply, but 

 they would Avarp and twist ; whereas the 

 narrow strips, Avhen properly nailed, will 

 stand dampness and sun, without checking 

 or splitting or warping. 



GALVANIZED WIRE CLOTH FOR OUT- 

 LETS TO FISH-PONDS. I 



FRIEND PfilRCE GIVES US SOMETHING FROM 

 PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE MATTER. 



§TEEL wire cloth, like sample, is kept in stock 

 by dealers here for miscellaneous uses. I 

 tried it for screens on sluices of hatching- 

 ponds. At the first drainage of ponds it clog- 

 ged very quickly; and upon cleaning with an 

 ordinary scrubbing-brush it broke like straw 

 paper; and but for a dip-net at hand, which we 

 placed over the break, we should have lost our few 

 small carp at a time when they were very valuable. 

 Two metals, when connected in this way, especially 

 if one is zinc, Avill, when kept immersed in water, 

 produce galvanic action, which will disintegrate 

 one or both metals with greater or less rapidity ac- 

 cording to the chemical ingredients held in solution 

 in all water. In most of the waters of this region, 

 galvanized iron "rots" rapidly. The sample which 

 you send would become worthless within from four 

 to six months. For I'attening-boats or vats, the 

 mesh is as near right as can be gauged; but the 

 size of wire, which seems to be 25 platc-oaiifje, is 

 many sizes too small. It should be not less than 18 

 gauge for a stiff and durable bottom. Screen, 

 woven of that size of wire, can not be reduced to 

 quite so fine a mesh as 1 could desire; but when 

 heavily galvanized, the mesh will be sufficiently 

 close to hold most kinds of food necessary for 

 carp, and certainly tho finest kernels of corn, when 



expanded by boiling, and it is not probable that any 



cheaper food for fattening purposes can be found. 



Philadelphia, Pa. Nov. 9, 188."). M. P. Peirce. 



Thanks, friend Peirce, for your very kind 

 suggestions ; but I feel quite certain that the 

 waters of our vicinity would not affect this 

 galvanized steel wire so as to cause it to rot 

 in so short a time. I have been acquainted 

 with the use of galvanized wire cloth for 

 such purposes for a good many years, and I 

 can not remember that I ever saw any that 

 seemed to be wasting by age, even when 

 kept under water. If I understand you. the 

 heavier wire cloth is no better, only that it 

 contains so much more metal that it would 

 take a much longer time to dissolve away 

 the zinc, and expose the iron or steel to the 

 action of the water. We should be very glad 

 indeed of reports from those who have used 

 galvanized wire cloth for such purposes. 

 The friends will please bear in mind, that 

 tinned wire cloth and aalvanixcd wire cloth 

 are quite different articles. We have always 

 objected to the use of galvanized wire clotn, 

 or galvanized iron in any shape, for honey- 

 extractors, or any thing of that kind, be- 

 cause the acid in the honey attacks zinc so 

 quickly, making the honey unwholesome if 

 not poisonous. 



BOILED CORN FOR FATTENING CARP. 



I am glad to know that you decide that 

 boiled corn is the cheapest food for fatten- 

 ing carp. Ours take corn with avidity, aft- 

 er it has been soaked in water a day or two. 

 A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer suggests 

 placing the soaked corn on a little platform 

 about six inches below the surface of the 

 water. I can readily imagine the^intics the 

 larger fish would make in coming for their 

 feed. We boil corn for culinary purposes 

 very rapidly and cheaply by mean's of steam. 

 The corn is put into a large deep stone jar, 

 and a rubber hose connected with the steam- 

 pipe goes down through the corn to the bot- 

 tom of the jar. A large quantity can be 

 boiled soft in a short time by this means. 



HUNTING BEES ON THE ISLAND 

 CALLED "BEES' NEST." 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT FALSE STATEMENTS IN 

 REGARD TO THE ADULTERATION OF HONEY. 



T HAVE just received a visit from Antone 

 M Sweeter. He lives near the island on the 

 jjl Muskegon River called the " Bees' Nest," of 

 "*■ which I have written before. It is interesting 

 to hear him relate the almost incredible finds 

 of honey there. Last summer, he says, he was 

 hunting bees, and found the tree and a large clus- 

 ter hanging on the outside. Thinking a new 

 swarm had tried to enter a cavity too small to hold 

 them, he thought them worthless, and so Informed 

 the family; but in about two weeks the boys insist- 

 ed on cutting the tree, which they did; fortunately 

 it fell on another small tree, and fell easily. Mr. 

 Sweeter chopped in through the thin shell directly 

 into the honey, and soon there was half a bushel of 

 bees on the outside. They then got the crosscut 

 saw and cut out a log eight feet long, mostly below 

 the hole, and he says it is solid honey; in fact, he 

 said there was a little honey above and^below where 

 they cut. They set it on end, and a few days later 



