1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



371 



be patient, friends, for John and Ernest are 

 every day learning more and more to take 

 my place, and to know yon as I have known 

 you. It is not altogether things that dollars 

 and cents will make right ; but when you 

 feel as if you had been neglected and ig- 

 nored, do not, I pray you, feel uncharitable. 

 At this season of the year I have steadily 

 refused to go anywhere, even for a single 

 day. 1 have even refused to talk and visit 

 with my intimate friends and relatives, in 

 order that 1 may use all the strength I have, 

 to do by you as I would be done by. Some- 

 times I long to give up business, and not try 

 to look after things as I do at this season of 

 the year. But this feeling is wrong, I am 

 sure. Sometimes I am told that I won't last 

 long at this rate. So far as I am concerned, 

 I do not know that I care so very much about 

 a long life ; but if by prolonging my life I can 

 be of service to my fellows, then I want to 

 live. If I can contribute to your happiness 

 by living, and if I can, by influence and ex- 

 ample, or by working when I am tired and 

 fatigued, be able to lead some soul to "drink 

 of the waters 1 " I have been telling you 

 about, then I am glad to live and glad to 

 work. 



During those six weeks while I was away. 

 I felt remarkably free from temptation of 

 any sort. No one vexed me, that I know of, 

 and I did not feel tried with humanity, as I 

 often do here at home. I met wickedness 

 and sin ; but God helped me to meet it with 

 more calmness and courage than I do here. 

 It would not be right or well, however, if I 

 should spend much of my time in a life so 

 free from care.' The thought that I had 

 earned my vacation and holiday helped to 

 make me happy ; but real life must be, for 

 the most part, in the busy throng. When 

 Jesus prayed for his disciples, just before 

 he was about to leave them, his prayer was, 

 lt I pray not that thou shouldst take them 

 out of the world, but that thou shouldst 

 keep them from the evil.'* And so it is 

 with us all. Christ's followers are all need- 

 ed in the world. Where humanity throngs 

 thickest and busiest, there they are needed 

 most. " Ye are the salt of the earth •" and 

 therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us 

 be content to labor on, especially while it is 

 not for sellish ends that we are bearing 

 toil and care and sorrow, but for humanity's 

 sake and for Christ's sake. 



By this shall all men know that ye are my disci- 

 ples, if ye have love one to another. 



A VISIT TO BEE-CELLARS IN NORTH- 

 ERN OHIO. 



EKNEST OFF ON A RAMBLE— CONCLUDED. 



R. BOARDMAN,like a good many 

 other prominent bee-keepers, uses a 

 square frame, the dimensions of 

 which, if I remember correctly, are 

 4f inches inside measure, square, 

 this size being adapted to nine 1} sections. 



" Then you think you prefer the square 

 frame?" said I. 



" I do, sir, on account of the compactness 

 of the brood-nest, both for brood-rearing 

 and for the concentration of warmth while 



in winter quarters. And then, again, when 

 two of these hives are tiered up, the upper 

 set of frames is just right to handle in a 

 standing posture. With your Simplicity or 

 Langstroth frame you are obliged to stoop a 

 little more in the manipulation of the 

 frames." 



" YeSj that is true," I replied. " But then, 

 for comb honey don't you think you lose 

 some advantage in not having a shallow 

 frame— that is, shallow enough to bring the 

 brood nearer the surplus apartment?" 



" Yes, there is something in this ; but I 

 think this is more than offset by the advan- 

 tages of the cubical brood-nest in winter." 



I noticed that, when he turned up some of 

 the hives, the frames being so deep, some of 

 the bottom-bars touched together, while a 

 wide space was left between the adjoining 

 bottom-bars. Mr. Boardman admitted that 

 this was true too, but he did not seem to 

 think that it made very much trouble. 



On our way homeward we talked about 

 contraction. Mr. Boardman's method of 

 contraction is not to reduce the number of 

 brood-frames, but to cut out the combs. To 

 prevent the bees from storing honey in the 

 brood-chamber he leaves on an inch or so of 

 comb attached to the top-bar. As the bees 

 build this downward, the queen fills them 

 with eggs, and, as a matter of course, the 

 honey goes into the sections. With most 

 bee-keepers this would be considerable of a 

 job, I imagine ; but as Mr. Boardman uses a 

 side -opening hive, he simply removes the 

 loose side, slices off the combs, replaces the 

 side without removing the cover or surplus 

 arrangement. The plan is quite similar to 

 the one outlined by Samuel Simmins, and 

 later by W. Z. Hutchinson. Mr. Boardman 

 has practiced this method of contraction for 

 several years, and he thinks it is by all odds 

 the best method. After supper that even- 

 ing we fcot so interested in conversation, 

 the special topic of which I do not now rec- 

 ollect, that, before we were aware of it, 

 the train which I had intended to take came 

 in, and I half a mile away, enjoying the 

 hospitality of my friend. Well, there was 

 no help for it, and so I waited till morning, 

 and then Mr. Boardman kindly drove me 

 back to Norwalk with one of his out-apiary 

 horses, where I joined the junior Mrs. Root, 

 or, putting aside stiff conventionalities, 

 Elizabef/i. Be sure to put the accent strong 

 on the last syllable, if you want to get my 

 method of pronouncing it. I regret now 

 that she could not have made the acquain- 

 tance of the genial Mrs. Boardman, who, 

 by the way, is not only a bee-keeper's wife, 

 but a bee-keeper herself. 



I feel now more than ever the importance 

 of getting out and knocking off the corners. 

 I discover in our correspondence that a 

 great many bee-keepers have set notions. 

 To stay at home with some of us means to 

 get into old ruts. One of the benefits of 

 conventions and of personal visits, as I re- 

 gard it, is the breaking-down of old preju- 

 dices. I believe I am a broader man — cer- 

 tainly a broader bee-keeper — since visiting 

 friend Boardman. While I do not feel con- 

 vinced that indoor wintering would be bet- 

 ter for ug. or that the square frame would 



