1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



945 



and I. wonder, since you mention it, that 

 we have not had it on our book-list before. 

 — I am glad to know that there is a bosk 

 published in regard to this organization 

 known as the King's Daughters. There is 

 something inspiring in the very thought ; 

 and when we come to know that their work 

 is really in spreading the truths of the gos- 

 pel, we can not wonder that a blessing 

 seems to follow them. At our noon-day 

 service, we have been in the habit, every 

 Thursday, of repeating texts. For some 

 years text-day seemed to drag a little. 

 Finally a band of King's Daughters was or- 

 ganized among our women folks, and since 

 then we have had more beautiful texts, 

 sometimes, than our ten minutes will give 

 room for. 



WIRED FOUNDATION. 



FOUNDATION ON FINE WIRE, CHEESE CLOTH, OR 

 OTHER FABRIC; IS THE IDEA NEW? 



T HAVE read in the American Bee Journal of 

 |jr wooden comb and its many claims, and this set 

 W me to thinking about the wired combs. I 

 thought this: Why not take close, smooth 

 print cloth, or good cheese-cloth, or even 

 the veiling or strong unsized paper, or else fine 

 wire cloth, or any such material, which upon trial 

 may be found suitable, and pass it through the 

 melted wax, the same as the wire cloth is passed 

 through the melted metal to coat it ? If one 

 time passing through should not be sufficient to 

 give a suitable coating, pass through the second 

 time, and let it be rolled upon round rollers or 

 drums; then to print or manufacture, run through 

 the machine as the dipped sheets are, then there 

 will be no trouble about combs breaking down, 

 queens hiding in the holes, and running around the 

 ends and the bottoms, for the sheet of foundation 

 can be tacked in tight, full, and straight. What do 

 you think of this? Is it original ? Who has tried? 

 Will it do? Why will it not do? Many other ques- 

 tions could be asked. 



What do you think of foundation made on fine 

 cloth, put up in rolls of 25 yards, of all widths ? If 

 I had a machine, I would not ask so many ques- 

 tions. I feel very confident that there is no reason 

 why it can not be made, and that the bees will not 

 work it out as well as they will any other founda- 

 tion. If so, then wired frames will be a lost art, 

 broken combs a crime, shipping bees and their 

 combs a certainty that is doubly sure. Try this on 

 eome fine close cloth; and if it will do, say so. If 

 any person has tried it, let him arise and say when 

 and where, so that, if there is any good in it, I want 

 the originator to have the praise and the profit. I 

 do not think it will take as much wax to properly 

 coat such cloth as to make the brood-comb founda- 

 tion, as we use a fine cloth coated with beeswax, 

 and torn into strips about one inch wide for wrap- 

 ping the buds in when budding the orange-tree; and 

 from this I think there can be no doubt but that 

 such comb foundation can be made, and I will leave 

 it to you and the bee-keepers to test; but if I am 

 the first, I want the credit as the originator, and 

 shall claim the right of a patent if I so think in the 

 future. John Craycraft. 



Altoona, Lake Co., Fla., Nov. 11, 1889. 



Friend C, you are wasting your time and 

 brains in giving any further attention to 

 cloth or other material as foundation as a 

 base for making foundation. Every thing 

 you suggest has been invented again and 

 again. Cheese-cloth or any other kind of 

 cloth will be eventually torn out by the 

 bees. They seem to regard it as some indi- 

 cation that the moth worms are at work. 

 Paper has been used to some extent, but it 

 is open to the same objection. Very tine 

 light wire cloth will do, but it spoils your 

 rolls, and makes your foundation unneces- 

 sarily heavy. You can not incorporate any 

 thing of the sort without using a great deal 

 more wax than \ou use with the ordinary 

 wired frames. No doubt you could get a 

 patent, and very likely it would be worth 

 fully as much as the patents we have al- 

 ready on bee-hives and their fixtures— just 

 nothing at all. 



ALFALFA IN MICHIGAN 



VALUABLE POINTERS FROM GEO. E. HILTON. 



f OR the past three years I have been trying to 

 get the farmers living on the light sandy 

 land known as "stump lands," and where it 

 seems quite difficult to get the common clo- 

 vers to catch, to try alfalfa. Two years ago 

 a Mr. Davis, living about four miles from here, 

 sowed a small patch, and it did nicely. Last fall I 

 sent for a bushel of seed, and a friend of mine has 

 sown it. Should this prove a success it will not be 

 long until there will be a large amount sown abroad 

 here; and if it produces honey in Michigan, as 

 friend Ball reports from Nevada, Middle and 

 Northern Michigan is coming to the front as a hon- 

 ey-producing locality. What a wonderful trans- 

 formation it would be, friend Root, if that waste of 

 land we passed over on that (to me) eventful day 

 between Baldwin and White Cloud could be cover- 

 ed with fields of alfalfa, dotted with happy homes 

 surrounded by herds of cattle and humming bees! 

 Our State officials see the necessity of reclaiming 

 these lands, and now have experimental farms at 

 Baldwin and other places. I am watching closely, 

 and hoping that alfalfa is to be at least one of the 

 agencies to do the work. I shall watch closely this 

 little experiment in which I am directly interested, 

 and report as fast as there is any thing to report, 

 either favorable or otherwise. 



WIDTH AND THICKNESS OF TOP-BARS. 



I very much dislike to throw a " wet blanket " on 

 anj project, but I don't think the heavy-top-bar 

 project will " hold water." About two years ago, 

 T. F. Bingham shipped his entire apiary to me. It 

 now comprises my out-apiary, known as the " Gold- 

 enrod Apiary." Vou are aware, the top-bars are 

 % of an inch square; the ends of frames project 

 | of an;inch above the top-bars; then comes the 

 slatted honey-boai - d, then the clamp of sections, 

 with !4-inch bottom-bars, bringing the sections 2& 

 inches from the brood, providing the brood is close 

 to the top bar, and it usually is, in these shallow 

 frames. Now, if the honey - board could be dis- 

 pensed with we could get the sections % of an inch 

 nearer; but, bless your heart, in 99 cases out of 100 

 it is built 6o full of comb that in some cases there 

 are riot as many "pop-holes" left as one tow of 



