188? 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



845 



There is ro difficulty at all in making the founda- 

 tion " nice, thin, and even." If the sheets of wax as 

 dipped are not of an even thicKuess, it is only 

 necessary to cliang-e the method of dipping, to 

 make them sntHeiently so. Why, friend Root, 

 don't you see that your little account of the young 

 woman in Norway entirely upsets mrst of yourob- 

 .ject;onsy The success of one person with a ma- 

 chine is a much weightier argument in favor of the 

 machine than arc the failures of a dozen persons 

 against it. Many very valuable contrivances are 

 long unused, because it takes a long time to learn 

 how to use them. But what man once does, man 

 can do again. Tliat either yourself or Mr. Dadant 

 could make a notable success of the press, the 

 Norway story proves. 



Now, a word on the editorial in the Nov. 1st issue 

 of Gleanings, regarding the Bingham and Clark 

 smokers. In what strangely ditferent ways people 

 will look at things! I am now using four Binghams, 

 and have heretofore used about half a'dozen Clark 

 smokers, and think I am quite within bounds when 

 I say that, in this locality, the time required during 

 a single season to punch the soot out of the tubes of 

 the Clark smoker, and to unload the bellows of the 

 same material, would, if usefully employed, more 

 than purchase one of Bingham's best, that would 

 need no such expenditure of time. I have often 

 had the fire-box of a Clark come off the bellows, but 

 never a Bingham. Only carelessness, I think, 

 would ever permit the contents of a Bingham 

 smoker to fall into a hive, and it is decidedly less 

 liable to throw cinders than Clark's. For me, 1 lind 

 the Bingham more easily lighted, the Arc more 

 easily kept in order, and in no respect do I find the 

 Bingham inferior to the other; and, moreover, the 

 Clark is a source of great danger in the hands of a 

 person who is liable to set it on a hive. 



Lapeer, Mich., Nov. 4, 1887. K. L. Tavloh. 



I am very glad indeed, friend T.. to hear 

 what you have to say in regard to the Given 

 press ; and it certainly does seem as you 

 say, that friend Dailant, ourselves, and 

 others, ought to succeed with it ; but we 

 have had two different presses sent us, and 

 I have wasted time and money in trying 

 to make them come anywhere near our 

 foundation-mills in regard to rapidity and 

 quality of work ; but we were obliged to 

 give it up. In the first place, after spend- 

 ing days in papering up the dies, according 

 to the instructions of friend Given, we could 

 not get foundation with an even base. The 

 base would be thick in some places and thin 

 in others. Neither could we get the sheets 

 to come off without more or less bother and 

 tearing ; and after we got them off they 

 were not fit to send out. Perhaps we didn't 

 have a good press ; and, by the way. friend 

 Given said he feared it was a difficult mat- 

 ter to make the press work as well with the 

 L. frames as it does with the smaller frames, 

 such as friend Good uses. My impression 

 was. that you used the L. frames. J3ut per- 

 haps I am" mistaken. In your experiments, 

 you say you got more honey in the sections 

 where the Given foundation was used. 

 Now, that may not be any particular ad- 

 vantage, as I understand it. If the bees 

 filled those sections first, or with more 

 rapidity, having the Given foundation in- 

 stead of tlie other, then we shoidd have to 



pronounce it better. I know it is true, that 

 there are many valuable contrivances wliich 

 often lie idle for years, unused, because no 

 one ever gets acquainted with them; and I 

 have sometimes sadly meditated that this 

 must necessarily go on. 1 sliould say you 

 hadn't ever really got the hang of the Clark 

 smoker. Please reinember that many of 

 our large and successful apiarists use the 

 Clark, after having tried both kinds. 



In regard to the smokers, Ernest replies as 

 follows : 



Yes, it is a little remarkable that we 

 look at things so differently sometimes. I 

 believe it is a good deal in getting used to 

 things, in the first place. About the sooty 

 accumulations in the Clark, I am ready to 

 concede the point to you, that the time re- 

 quired during a single season to clean the 

 soot from the tubes of the Clark would sev- 

 eral times pay for a Bingham, (/"there Avere 

 nothing in the latter to offset it. While it 

 does take time to clean the tube in the 

 Clark (on an average, two minutes a day in 

 the working season, with us), it takes us 

 as much time to refill the Bingham, during 

 the day. I never saw the Bingham yet 

 wlien it required to be refilled but that I 

 found it quite uncomfortable to handle the 

 smoker-cone in pulling off and putting on 

 again. If you have an old cloth handy, or 

 something of the sort, with which to handle 

 the hot smoker-top, we might get along 

 very well ; but it has been our experience 

 that we can replenish the Clark in about 

 one-fourth of the time that it takes to re- 

 plenish the Bingham. In general, it takes 

 about as much manipulation with one 

 smoker as with the other ; and while some 

 might save valuable time by the use of the 

 Bingham, we so far have not been able to 

 discover the gain or loss of time in the 

 use of either one. — It may be carelessness in 

 letting the smoker- top drop off, so as to 

 precipitate coals down among the bees ; at 

 any rate, we have as careful a man to han- 

 dle the Bingham as we ever had in the 

 a])iary ; in fact, he was selected for an 

 apiarist because he was always very careful 

 in every thing that he did. With some, the 

 Bingham may be more easily lighted than 

 the Clark. With us, the latter is more 

 easily lighted, and. in general, is more quick- 

 ly manipulated, if we except cleaning out 

 the soot in the morning, preparatory to 

 commencing work in the apiary. You say 

 the Clark is a source of great danger in the 

 hands of a person who is liable to set it on a 

 hive. 1 presume you refer to the sparks 

 which occasionally drop out of the breech 

 end when the sliding door is slid so as to 

 leave too wide an oi)ening. While I am 

 ready to concede this, yet I think it is " only 

 carelessness " that would endanger the hive 

 or its contents. When we set the Clark 

 smoker on the hive, we invariably lay it on 

 its bellows, the valve side down, and we 

 never make a practice of setting it down 

 upright. Having considered some of the 

 objections which you make, I want to say 

 just one thing more : I do like the hot-blast 

 principle ; and I am sure that it gives a 

 little better smoke, though it is not without 

 some objections. 



