346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIiTUllE. 



May 



believe they will want to get along without it un- 

 less they have something better. 



Here is the recipe; One pound crystal potash; 

 one ounce stroiiRest aqua ammonia; one ounce bor- 

 ax, and one gallon of sol't water. Put all in a jug and 

 keep well corked. Use half to two-thirds of a cup- 

 ful, and about one inch shaved off an ordinary bar 

 of soap, to a boiler of clothes. Soak the clothes 

 over night; wring them out in the morning, and 

 boil without rubbing; rinse thoroughly and you 

 will be delighted to see how white the wash will be. 

 Mrs. M. uses soft soap, and uses the fluid in soaking 

 the clothes also, and rubs the dirty spots. 



Week before last, one warm pleasant daj- I set 

 some of my bees out of the cellar for a flight; and 

 in looking over some of the colonies I got my hands 

 more than usually daubed with propolis, and then, 

 of course, a lady had to call to have some teeth 

 filled. My hands were in a pretty fix. It being 

 winter, there was no lime at hand; and alcohol, 

 ammonia, benzine, turpentine, and coal oil were too 

 slow coaches, in my hurry. My better half came, 

 as usual, to my relief by suggesting that 1 try the 

 washing-fluid. She poured two or three table- 

 spoonfuls in the wash-dish, and I " showed my faith 

 by my works." My I but that projiolis was awfully 

 scared, I verily believe, for it left my hands almost 

 instantly, and they felt as though the skin might be 

 wanting to keep it company ; but some vinegar 

 stopped such a proceeding, and I had some clean 

 hands. The memory of the oldest inhabitant at 

 our house doesn't reach back to the time when they 

 were made so clean in so short a time. I shall use 

 the washing-fluid to remove propolis in the futui-e; 

 but unless I forget it, it will be diluted some before 

 my hands get into it. It may not come amiss, al- 

 though not new to many, to say that, when the 

 roughness of our hands gets filled with dirt that 

 soap and water don't remove, we put twenty or 

 thirty drops of aqua ammonia, more or less, in a 

 wash-dish and add two or three tablespoonfuls of 

 soft water, and wash the hands with it. It is pleas- 

 ing to see the dirt unite with the water and ammo- 

 nia so quicklj'. 



Mrs. M. wishes me to say that she thinks Mr. 

 Root must have taken pains to select a nice " Go- 

 shen" carpet-sweeper when you sent ours, it is so 

 nice and works so nicely. I don't like to tell her 

 that I don't believe you even know that we orderi'd 

 one of you, and then she won't know but you did 

 her a most special favor. It was her valentine, but 

 I call it her little wagon, and it is nice and handy to 

 have in the house. A. B. Mason. 



Auburndale, O., Mar. 19, 1887. 



Why, friend M., you started out to tell us 

 how to remove propolis, and have indirect- 

 ly siven us a valuable preparation tor wash- 

 ing clothes, and the latter is probably of a 

 hundred fold more moment than the former; 

 but I watched anxiously to see some remark 

 in regard to injury to the clothing. Mrs. 

 Root used almost ihe same thing years ago, 

 but tinally abandoned it, because she and 

 others thought it made the clothes wear out 

 faster. Will your good wife please tell us 

 her opinion in regard to this point? In any 

 event, the recipe would be an excellent one 

 for bee-keepers, I am sure. When I was in 

 the jewelry business we used to have a large 

 bt)ttle of ammonia on a shelf over the 

 sink, and the hands were so much in the 



habit of using it when washing grease and 

 other accumulations from their hands that 

 it got to be an expensive item. It is an ex- 

 cellent thing to have in the house, at all 

 events, and perhaps the friends remember 

 we have had it put up in bottles on our 10- 

 cent counter; in fact, it is there especially 

 advei tised for removing propolis, with the 

 addition of a little soap. Now, are you sure 

 the potash and borax make it any more ef- 

 fective?— Many thanks for Mrs. Mason's 

 kind opinion of the carpet-sweepers, and of 

 our establishment in general. 



house: WARMING. 



HONKV-BO VUDS. AM) Ml;NDIN({ TINWARE. 



XcTOT one - half the people whom Gl,eanings 

 lll| reaches think they are able to have a fur- 

 c|iy| nace or a hard-coal base-burner, or keep up 

 "^-^ I fires in stoves so as to warm distant bed- 

 rooms. I think it would he cheaper in the 

 long run, as it would save taking colds, I am sure. 

 The next best thing to having rooms warmed is 

 soapstone foot-stoves, one or more of which will 

 last for a lifetime. They take heat quickly and 

 hold the heat a long time. We find it a great com- 

 fort to have one heated and laid in bed, where our 

 shoulders come, and at night push it down to our 

 feet. We find them much more comfortable than a 

 jug of hot water, an iron, or a brick. The soap- 

 stone seems to hold the heat longer, and need not 

 be heated scorching or sissing hot. 



HOW TO MEND TINWARE. 



Not long since I learned how to solder. It seems 

 a simpler process than yours. I will give it to you 

 and your readers. Procure a 25-cent bar of tinner's 

 solder, and melt it up in an old dripping-pan, one 

 end of which has two holes or more in it. When 

 melted tip the pan so that the melted metal will run 

 toward the holes. Let it run through them upon a 

 long board or hard-wood floor; pull the pan slowly 

 so as to make the solder come out in long slim bars. 

 Cut up in lengths of six inches or so. Purchase 

 5 cents' worth of muriatic acid. Scrape the tin with 

 an old jack-knife; if rusty, apply with cork a little 

 of the acid; if not rusty, no acid is needed. Now 

 light a candle or lamp. If a lamp is used, turn up 

 the cap which Is over the burner; leave oft' the 

 chimney. Now hold the hole in the pan to be mend- 

 ed, over the flame, and with a bar of solder rub 

 around the hole. The flame will melt enough sol- 

 der to fill the hole in a moment, and the work is 

 done. In this way I keep all my pans and cups 

 mended. It is less trouble than to send to a tinner's, 

 and less trouble than to be pulling in strings to fill 

 the holes. Av)ply the solder to the side of the pan 

 that is the least rusty. It is better to mend before 

 the holes get too large, as it is more easily done. 

 Practice first on the small holes, and then on the 

 larger. 



THE HONEY-BOAKD WITH A BEE-SPACE ON TOP, 

 AND A BEE-SPACE BELOW. 



I am very much interested in the correspondence 

 between Dr. Miller, Ernest, and yourself, in respect 

 to ilie stxi loiicases. I wish we could come upon 

 soiiielhing wc were entirely suited with, and which 

 needs no change. The honey-board with a bee- 

 space below it and above the sections, I think, in- 

 valuable, as bees build bridges all over the tops of 



