354 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



a refined and manly heart. I felt drawn to Mr. 

 Aspinwall when I first met him, just as you and 1 

 did to our friend Mr. Cowan. 1 always feel richer 

 when I become acquainted with such people. Mr. 

 Aspinwall is also a practical bee-keeper, and this is 

 why I am writing of him. He uses a modified Quin- 

 by hive, and believes in it. Indeed, he knew Mr. 

 Quinby well, and, like all who knew this excellent 

 man, he can not speak in too high terms of him. 



Mr. Aspinwall has invented, and put into practical 

 operation, wooden combs. These are simply boards 

 with round holes the size of brood-cells, cut from 

 opposite sides to the center. Mr. Aspinwall has 

 trTed these, and says they are accepted by the bees 

 both for storing and breeding. He puts these in 

 hot wax to soak, so they are covered with a very 

 thin coating of beeswax. He is going to send me a 

 hive fully stocked with these wooden combs, to try. 

 He is sure I will like it. As the partitions between 

 the cells are thick, the combs have to be larger or 

 more numerous in the hives than are natural combs. 



THE ADVANTAGES. 



Mr. Aspinwall claims that these are superior, as 

 they are strong, durable, inexpensive, perfectly un- 

 der our control, warm, and so better for winter. 

 As the size and depth are under our control, we can 

 make the combs worker, drone, or store combs, at 

 pleasure; and as the bees can not cut the cells 

 down, they must accept what we give them. Mr. 

 A. says that the queen can not lay in deep cells, 

 thus we can have cells of worker size, and yet they 

 will be only store combs. If combs are A of an 

 inch apart, then queen-cells can be made on the 

 edges only, and can be easily seen or found, as the 

 bees can not gnaw the comb away. Mr. Aspinwall 

 has secured a patent on this, which is surely his 

 right. If of no value, then we need not use it; if of 

 value, then we ought to pay him, as it is his inven- 

 tion; and without his thought and work we should 

 have known nothing of it. 



I am principally interested in this wooden comb, 

 as I see in it a chance for some very interesting and 

 I think valuable experiments. For instance, our 

 friend Mr. S. Corneil thinks that bees can not live 

 on the carbo-hydrates alone. I believe Schonfeld 

 holds the same opinion, and argues that the nitro- 

 genous material may come from the larval excreta 

 and exuvia which collects in the cells in breeding. 

 From my experiments with very new clean comb 

 I have been led to the opposite opinion. With these 

 wooden combs we can demonstrate the truth or 

 falsity of the position held by the above-mentioned 

 gentlemen. We can use wooden combs in which no 

 brood has ever developed, and combs filled in the 

 upper story above the brood-nest, where no pollen 

 would be stored. Thus we shall have a clincher. 

 Now, I feel perfectly certain that bees thus winter- 

 ed will not only live but thrive. I think this is in 

 unison with physiological laws. True, all animals 

 need nitrogenous food. But in winter bees are so 

 quiet, and the functional activity so slight, that the 

 small amount of albuminoids needed is in the 

 blood. So with the almost pure carbonaceous food 

 —honey, or, better, pure sugar syrup— they are 

 strong and healthy. Of course, these combs will be 

 very heavy. They may not be practical or satisfac- 

 tory, but I shall be glad to try them for the sake of 

 experiment and curiosity, if for nothing more. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. COOK. 



We are very glad indeed, friend Cook, to 



know that Mr. Aspinwall, of whom we have 

 all heard more or less, is a bee-keeper as well 

 as an inventor. I heartily agree with your 

 remarks in regard to our faces being an in 

 dex to our character ; therefore if a man's 

 face is not a good one it is, at least to a large 

 extent, his own fault. I will try to keep it 

 in mind next time, when I feel inclined to 

 scowl and look cross. — If I am correct, 

 father Langstroth has the credit of being 

 the first one to suggest using combs made 

 by boring holes of the desired size and depth 

 close together, in a board. I have been too 

 busy to look it up, but 1 think that in one 

 of the earlier volumes of Gleanings the 

 suggestions were put in print. Such combs 

 have been tried by different ones, if I am 

 not mistaken ; but the decision was that 

 they were too heavy ; and without exceed- 

 ingly expensive machinery it would be im- 

 possible to get as many bees to the square 

 inch as nature does. More than ten years 

 ago, myself and Mr. Washburn discussed 

 how a machine would have to be made in 

 order to make these perforated boards so 

 rapidly they could be sold at a price within 

 the compass of the average bee-keeper's 

 pocket-book. We have combs with a wood- 

 en base now in our apiary ; the base was 

 embossed by running it through a founda- 

 tion-mill. One objection to it was, that it 

 took so much beeswax to soak up the wood. 



BEE-HUNTING. 



HOW TO CLIMB THE MONAKCHS OF THE FOREST. 



R. ROOT:— By to-day's mail I send you a 

 photograph of a large poplar-tree, which I 

 climbed recently by means of spikes and 

 staples. To prevent the possibility of fall- 

 ing I put a belt under my arms. To this 1 

 attached two chains. At the end of each chain is a 

 snap. My method of climbing is as follows: After 

 ascending the ladder as far as I can go I drive into 

 the side of the tree a large bridge spike, far enough 

 into the wood to hold my weight. A little further 

 up I drive another spike. In between the spikes I 

 drive the first staple, and to this I attach the first 

 chain by means of the snap, and ascend by the 

 nails as far as the chain will allow me; I then drive 

 another staple, and attach the other chain, and 

 next loosen the lower snap. After driving in more 

 spikes, I again ascend as high as the chain will al- 

 low me, and attach the other chain to another sta- 

 ple. In this manner I can make my ascent with 

 perfect security. 



The tree shown in the picture is T feet in diameter 

 at the foot. If you will follow all along up the 

 body of the tree, just above the crotch on the right 

 limb you will see your humble servant, ss feet from 

 the ground. The tree stands close to the Black 

 River, in a graveyard, and from it I obtained 5(1 lbs. 

 of honey. Your climbers are excellent for small 

 trees, say from two to three feet in diameter; but 

 the tree illustrated has suoh a rough and uneven 

 bark, and is so large, that it would be difficult to 

 climb it without the aid of spikes and the staples I 

 have mentioned. On account of the large knots it 

 would be impossible to use a rope, or something 

 similar, to hitch up by climbers, as described in the 



