842 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



eral years I was constantly experimenting on 

 different distances from the center-shaft, also 

 with an extractor to be turned with a crank 

 directly on top of the shaft, instead of being 

 connected with gearing ; with extractors to 

 hold three or four frames instead of two ; 

 extractors to be run by power applied to the 

 bottom and on top ; with a belt or strap to 

 unwiLd, etc. Now, it is a little encourag- 

 ing to know that my experiments agree al- 

 most exactly with yours. At first we made 

 our Langstroth-frame extractors with the 

 combs on end, standing quite near the 

 shaft, that we might use a can of tin 

 made of a certain size and thus get the ex- 

 tractor up cheaply. After we had made and 

 sold a good many of these, however, I had 

 an opinion that a larger can, with combs 

 further away, would give better results ; but 

 as they cost more, I did not make many of 

 them. I was somewhat surprised, however, 

 to find that a four-frame extractor did not 

 throw out the honey better, and also that it 

 can not be started and stopped as quickly as 

 the old-style two-frame extractors. After I 

 had been making them some years, Gray 

 and Winder, Murphy, Peabody, and others, 

 made extractors where the can revolved in- 

 stead of the frame. I decided at once that 

 all these were a mistake. I did, however, 

 test them quite extensively. The Peabody 

 was so neat looking and so substantial, I in- 

 vested in half a dozen of them ; but they 

 were so much more laborious, compared with 

 our light cheap extractors, that they were 

 soon laid aside. Now, then, whenever you 

 revolve four combs, or get your two combs 

 too far away from the center - shaft, or 

 whenever you revolve a heavy frame to hold 

 combs, you make a blunder. The arrange- 

 ment that holds the combs while they are 

 revolving should be just as light as is con- 

 sistent with strength ; and I do believe that 

 an expert, with a two-frame extractor, will 

 throw out more honey than an expert with 

 any of the great big heavy machines. There 

 is, of course, a saving of time in having a 

 reversible extractor ; but I should have this 

 made just as light as possible ; and I would 

 have the combs as near the shaft as possible. 

 Your point in regard to breaking combs be- 

 cause they sink into the wire cloth, I am 

 sure does not apply to any of the extractors 

 we make. If the wire against where the 

 combs rest is of the proper size of mesh, and 

 supported as all of ours are, no such trou- 

 ble will be experienced. Very thick honey 

 may make it a little more difficult ; but we 

 have had no such complaint for a good 

 many years. After the comb has been 

 forced into the wire cloth by turning harder 

 than need be, a reversing "device will pull 

 the comb off, perhaps better than you can 

 get it loose by hand. But very heavy combs 

 and very thick honey should be extracted 

 gradually — that is, throw out a part of the 

 honey, then reverse, and finally finish the 

 side you extracted from first. I saw a good 

 many reversible extractors while 1 was in 

 California, but I do not remember of seeing 

 the device you illustrate. May be I saw it 

 and forgot it, because I examined a great 

 many ingenious devices in a very short time. 

 I think very likely your idea of toothed 



gearing is as simple as anything that can 

 be devised. Is it not more trouble, how- 

 ever, to put in and take out the combs with 

 any reversible extractor? Now in regard to 

 t he Stanley reversible extractors: I do not 

 believe I found a bee-keeper in any of my 

 travels who is now using one of them. If 

 there is any apiarist among our readers who 

 extracts honey by the ton, year after year, 

 who uses a Stanley extractor, let us hear 

 from him. I do not wish to discourage the 

 use of these— I simply want the facts. 



THE GLASS-SNAKE. 



HOW IT BREAKS IN TWO. 



§0 many reports in regard to these 

 strange reptiles have come in, that we 

 have not space for them all. We have, 

 however, decided to give place to the 

 following : 



Friend Boot:— We don't exactly see the connec- 

 tion between "jinted snaix " and queen-bees; but 

 having- had some experience with this marvel of 

 nature on the points for which you inquire, we take 

 pleasure in adding our mite to your store of infor- 

 mation. It was some years ago, when we were the 

 "boy bee-keeper" of Hawkinsville, Ga., that, while 

 out gunning one morning, we found a snake in the 

 grass (literally) about 18 inches long. We set the 

 gun-stock down on him, and the snake broke in 

 two, thus discovering he was of the much-beard-of 

 jointed kind. We amused ourselves in seeing how 

 badly he could be broken up. We piled the re- 

 mains on top of a pine stump, and returned to the 

 scene about 10 p. m. We had probably killed him to 

 too dead for a resuscitation. The pieces were all 

 there, but warmth and vitality had fled. 



We witnessed one night, only a few weeks ago, 

 from a second-story window, what seemed the 

 rather peculiar antics of a small gray fox that had 

 wandered into the front yard. The animal appear- 

 ed to be having a lively frolic all to himself in the 

 moonlight. Suddenly he ceased, gazed carefully 

 about him, and then stole quietly away. The next 

 morning, such a snake as Mr. E. Mclntyre describ- 

 ed on page 77V was found where the sport ended. 

 He was still intact, but his head had been " chaw- 

 ed." Should another specimen fall into our hands 

 we will send it to Prof. Cook, for the tail is not 

 "horny substance," and differs little, apparently, 

 from any other snake's tail, beyond the body prop- 

 er, except that it breaks readily anywhere the blow 

 falls— at every joint of the vertebra. 



We do not agree that the tail is or should of ne- 

 cessity be similar to the rattles of the rattlesnake, 

 or devoid of life in itself, as there is told us of a 

 lizard in portions of Africa and Australia that pos- 

 sesses the property not only of having its tail broken 

 off without injury, but can even discard the same at 

 pleasure when pursued. This tail retains its vitali- 

 ty for some while, and is usually active for several 

 minutes. The pursuer, being attracted by the dis- 

 carded member, the lizard scampers off and a new 

 ta'l grows out. 



As to the queen and drone of the honey-bees act- 

 ing similar to Prof. Cook's observations on the bum- 

 ble bee, we think there can be little question, as 

 the drone must necessarily become powerless after 

 copulation, before the queen finally succeeds in ex- 



