AUGUST 15, 1915 



681 



without the aiil of a single horse. Another 

 tractor builder has sueeeeded in const ruet- 

 \\\i^' a honio-niado machine with which he 

 does all of his work, light and heavy, on a 

 '200-acre farm without horses. These gen- 

 eralities are enough to prove that no apia- 

 rist need feel discouraged or doubt bis ulti- 

 mate success, if his work is well done, no 

 matter what the size and style of bis engine 

 (ir wliat purpose be requires of his tractor. 

 A good many home-made tractors have 

 been featured more or less of late in various 

 farm and other papei-s; but the details of 

 const I'uction have been in nearly every case 

 too meager to be of much assistance in the 

 i)uilding of even a similar rig. In this series 



of ai'liclcs it is proposed to tell the "just 

 h(i\v" of home-lractor building with as nuich 

 detail as possible, and still make llie direc- 

 tions general enough to apply to all en- 

 gines. Where necessaiy, working drawing's 

 and illustrations sufficient to make all of 

 tlie steps plain will be given, particularly in 

 relation to those ])arls which render a ti'act- 

 or of special \:ilne foi' work among (lie 

 boes. 



.Harino)isburg', Pa. 



[This is the firet of a series of three ai'ti- 

 des by Mr. Putnam, entitled " The Home- 

 made Tractor." Tlie second will be pub- 

 lished Sept. 1.— Ed.] 



A FEW REPORTS ON THE VALUE OF ASTER HONEY FOR WINTER 



STORES 



Frequciil Flights Make Wintering on Fall Honey Successful 



BY SARAH A. GRAVES 



^fy bees are in double-walled liives, 

 packed, with sawdust. I use one chaff di- 

 \ ision-l)oard and tray of shavings for win- 

 ter. They are (juite well protected on the 

 north and west by outbuilding's, trees, and 

 shrubs. 



We Jiave a large yield of g'oldenrod and 

 aster honey. I have found the bees late in 

 the fall Avorking' on asters a mile from 

 liome. They worked on asters last fall till 

 killing frosts, and w'ent into winter quai"- 

 lers very strong in bees and stores. They 

 had a g"ood flight Dee. 7. Then followed a 

 month of very severe weather, said to have 

 been the coldest December in this section 

 for forty years. On Jan. 7 the}' had an- 

 other good flight, another one early in 

 February', and freipient ones from then on. 

 The strongest colonies lost scarcely a hand- 

 ful of bees, judging from entrance indica- 

 tions, and the others very few. 



^larch 24 was the first day on which I 

 .-aw j^ollen carried into the hives. On May 

 rt. the fi»"st suitable day on which 1 -was at 

 liberty to give the hive? a thorough examin- 

 ation and cli]t (jueens, T found two colonies 

 with six frame's of brood, tiiree with seven, 

 two with eight, two with nine, and one with 

 ten. The last one had .several sealed queen- 

 cells, and two others had cells started. T 

 found an unusual quantity of drone brood. 

 Combs that were nearly perfect last season 

 had drone-cells built in every conceivable 

 place, even a fe'w cells right in the middle 

 of the frame. 



Last season one cutting of cells in my 

 best colonies stopped swarming for the rest 

 of the season. This vear I am cutting cells 



evei'y week, and yet I have already had four 

 swarms, and the rest of the ten are going to 

 follow suit. I can't understand why they 

 iia\e deA'eloped such a swarming mania, 

 because, with the exception of a day now 

 and then, the spring has been unusually 

 cold, with more than our ordinary amount 

 of rain. They have all commenced work in 

 the supers. 



1 have one queen which is a living witness 

 of how much a bee can endure. In June, 

 1913, I attempted to cage this queen, then 

 about a mouth old. With the blundering 

 awkardness of a beginner I pressed her 

 against the cornb, injunng her diagonally 

 across the upper part of her abdomen. I 

 thought she would surely die very soon, or 

 that the bees would kill sucli a cripple. 

 But she is living j^et, and has proved my 

 best queen. Her hive is always running 

 over with bees, though she has no moi'e 

 brood than many of the others. Her bees 

 proved good honey-gat lierei"s and showed no 

 inclination to swarm till this spring. They 

 swai'mcd twice, and returned while 1 w-as 

 away. 



When I had a cliance to examine tlie liive 

 1 found the bees worrying and pulling at 

 the ciueen. I located lier by her squealing. 

 1 at once put the frame in another hive. 

 The bees drove her out of the entrance on 

 the grass as fa.st as I could open the hive 

 and put her in, till I fastened them in. In 

 a few houre they had quieted down and she 

 was back on the comb busy laying. She 

 was not failing, for her hive was full of 

 brood in all stages. She now has all the 

 brood the nucleus can care for. By keep- 



