GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



Speaking" of hills always brings to mint! 

 sjDrings, and just now the spring where the 

 Spieer household gets water. There are 

 large stones (there is one near there the 

 size of a load of hay) about the sides of 

 the spring, and grasses and bushes. A gi'eat 

 majDle has its roots just behind; and to 

 eomiDlete the setting there are always three 

 solemn frogs sitting guard ready to "plunk" 

 unexpectedly, and make one -start. 



The little poem by Secretary of Labor 

 Wilson describes it so aptly that a quota- 

 tion of the opening verse may be allowable. 

 The title is, " To an Old Tin Can." 



There's a spring of sparkling water flowing out 

 beneath the hill, 

 Where the trees are tall and shady, and the robins 

 sport at will. 

 As the breezes, soft and pleasant, in the summer's 

 sultry heat, 

 Play about in cooling eddies where the light and 

 shadows meet, 

 On a stone within those shadows stands a can of 

 ancient tin. 

 With a band of rust about it and a coat of rust 

 within ; 

 And there's nothing God has given to appease the 

 thirst of man 

 Like a cooling draught of water from that rusty 

 old tin can. 



Hoboken, N. J. 



SOME INVENTIONS MOTHERED BY NECESSITY 



BY A. BUTSCH 



After living twenty-one years in the AVest 

 Indies (just half my life) 1 can do but 

 little hard work m^-self. The result is that 

 'Host of the work must be done by ordinary 

 laborers; and a more awkward and careless 

 set of fellows it would be ditficult to imag- 

 ine. None in the lot can read or write ; 

 none of them knows his age. Their jDereep- 

 tion of right and wa'ong is about on a level 

 with that of a well-bred fox terrier. With 

 such help at hand, and with the inability of 

 a European to do much hard work, bee- 

 keeping on a large scale becomes cjuite a 

 problem. 



Frail devices such as Hoffman frames. 

 Bingham smokers, etc., which in gentler 

 hands work nicely would here crumble away 

 like match-sticks. Even the Cowan auto- 

 matic had to be overhauled before it could 

 stand the test. 



The Hoffman frames were the first I used. 

 They proved too weak. Either the frame 

 came out without the bottom-bar, or the 

 supporting projections or spacing devices 

 would give way. In many cases where a 

 brood-nest had not been taken to pieces for 

 two years I found no other means of get- 

 ting the frames out than to turn the brood- 

 nest upside down and kick the whole ar- 

 rangement out " en bloc." 



The staple-spaced frames came out a 

 little easier; but the staples are an abom- 

 ination when extracting. With eight frames 

 in a super the combs get quite tliick, and 

 the staples hidden in the honey play havoc 

 with the extraeting-knife. If one is pre- 

 pared to can-y a grindstone around in his 

 out-apiaries, and to keep his temper, lie 

 may get along with staple-spaced frames: 

 but I think the average beekeeper who 

 extracts between fifteen and twenty tons of 

 honey a year, and means to go to heaven 

 at the end of his laborious beekeeping days, 



had better leave the staples out of the 

 business. 



This is exactly what I did. To prevent 

 tlie bottom-bars from pulling out, I made 

 them % inch thick and nailed them between 

 the end-bars. The spacing-devices were left 

 out, and the supporting lugs were replaced 

 by a 2y2-inch Avire nail. The top, bottom, 

 and end bars were all made the same width, 

 the toj) and bottom bars being nailed be- 

 tween the end-bars. Now there I had a 

 frame that was extremely simple and quite 

 solid. 



Longitudnial Section 

 through center of 

 \ frame and end of 

 Niue body 



Pia. 1. 

 1, steel plate, 18-gauge, with top edge cut out as 

 shown in Pig. 2, supporting the frames and side- 

 spacing the top-bars ; 2, steel pivots supporting 

 frames; 3, steel plate, 18-gauge, cut out the same 

 as 1, but with a notch at 7 ; 4, steel pivots for end- 

 s-pacing frames and side-spacing top-bars; 5, Avood 

 strip 3/16 incli thick, holding steel plate 3 in pasi- 

 tion. 



The trouble that now remained was how 

 to space it. Notwithstanding the general 



