ULE.\NINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Ohio State Beekeepers' Association at the 

 State Fair. He was Dot able to give defi- 

 nite data, because Mr. Morris, who is now 

 in Cuba, had all the facts and figures. 



As a foul-brood inspector he called par- 

 ticular attention to the carelessness of some 

 good beekeepers in the matter of treating 

 foul brood. One man in particular had 

 been melting up his combs in a leaky solar 

 wax-extractor, and wondered why the dis- 

 ease kept spreading through his apiary. 

 Others had been careless in the way the\' 

 exposed their combs. There was just one 

 thing in the law that he thought ought to 

 be amended, and that was a section that 

 would give the inspector police poAvers to 



ccsmpel a beekeeper to transfer his bees 

 into movable-frame hives. So far no spe- 

 cial difficulty had been experienced; but 

 the time might come when such authority 

 would be required. 



Dr. E. F. Phillii3s closed with an address 

 on outdoor wintering. He read from his 

 bulletin No. 695, " Outdoor Wintering of 

 Bees," a review of which was given on 

 page 876 of our issue for November 1st. 

 Copies of these bulletins were distributed 

 among the members. 



The election of officers resulted as follows : 

 President, Fred Leininger, Delphos ; Vice- 

 president, A. C. Ames, Peninsula: Secre- 

 tary, Dr. Ernest H. Kohn, Clover Hill, 0. 



THE HOME -BUILT TRACTOR 



BY XENO W. PUTNAM 



[On account of illness Mr. Putnam was unable to complete promptly his series of three articles on the 

 Home-built Tractor, the second of which appeared in the first September number.] 



A 36-incli drive-wheel moves ahead about 

 eleven and one-third feet for each revolu- 

 tion on the axle. Twenty-five revolutions 

 per minute rolls it forward at the rate of 

 something over three miles per hour. This 

 is quite fast enough for ordinary work 

 around an apiary. If an occasional trip to an 

 out-apiary is necessary this speed may be 

 increased either by increasing the size of 

 any driving-pinion or by diminishing that 

 of any gear-wheel which it drives. Under 

 nearly all circumstances, lower rather than 

 higher speed is needed, 

 because the sudden 

 pitching of a tractor 

 over rough places,add- 

 ed to the continuous 

 vibration caused by 

 the engine, is hard 

 enough at best upon 

 both engine and tract- 

 or. 



Let us assume that 

 the normal speed of 

 our engine - shaft 

 show-n at A, Fig. 1, is 

 600 revolutions per 

 minute. In the process 

 of transferring this 

 motion to the tractor 

 drive-wheels at H, the 



revolutions must be reduced to twenty-five 

 or less. An 8-inch sprocket wheel on the 

 engine, belted to a 24-inch wheel on the 

 countershaft B, would bring this speed 

 down to 200 revolutions per minute, be- 

 cause the smaller driving-sprocket would 

 have to make three revolutions in order to 



drive the larger wheel through one of its 

 24-inch revolutions. Our coitntershaft at 

 B, then, to which the 24-inch sprocket is 

 securely keyed and all that is secured to it 

 along any portion of its length, revolves 

 200 times per minute. 



Between the two sides of the tractor 

 frame we will mount a small gear-pini', n 

 on the countershaft. This meshes with the 

 drive rim of the differential shown at C, 

 which is three times as large as the pinion. 

 For every three revolutions of the counter- 



PiG. 1. — A, engine-shaft with 8-inch sprocket; B. counter-shaft with 

 24-inch sprocket and small sear-i)iiiion at center of shaft; C, diflferential 

 shaft with differential, D, between tractor-sills, and carrjin? .small sprocket 

 wheels (not shown in cut) at each end for belting to bull-sprocket H on the 

 inside of drive-wheel G. Chain between A and B works just inside the 

 chain from C to H between bull-drive chain and sill. 



shaft, or every nine of the engine-shaft, the 

 differential revolves once — that is, about 66 

 times i)er miimte. pro\ iding there is no lost 

 motion through sliiDpage. If the tractor is 

 always to move forward, with no reversing 

 gear, the counter-shaft pinion is keyed se- 

 curely to the shaft. If we wish to provide 



