112 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



HOME-MADE WAX AND HONEY EXTRAC- 

 TORS. 



1. Please tell me how to make a solar wax- 

 extractor — that is, g-ive size and style which 

 }'ou most prefer for about 25 colonies, and 

 what kind of glass to use. Will window 

 glass do? 



2. Do you think it would pay me to make 

 my own honey-extractor — that is, to buy 

 the gearing- and all that is needed, and get 

 a tinner to make the can? My tinner offers 

 to make the can out of g^alvanized zinc for 

 twelve cents a pound when finished. Do 

 you think I had better do that or buy one 

 already made? What kind would you rec- 

 ommend for me? 



3. Do you think sweet clover would g-row 

 here in Southern Indiana, about 20 miles 

 north of Evansville? 



4. What do _vou think about this country 

 for a bee business? Do you think it as 

 g-ood as where you are, or as good as most 

 of the States? I kept bees for about three 

 years. Last year was the only one I got 

 any honey to amount to any thing-, which 

 was about 32 lbs. per colon}'. How much 

 do you generally averag-e? How many col- 

 onies do you keep? H. F. Buck. 



Buckskin, Ind., Jan. 10. 



[Dr."Miller replies:] J 



1. The essential thing- in a solar wax-ex- 

 tractor is to have an arrangement that will 

 let the sun's rays in, and at the same time 

 will not let the heated air escape; and 

 along with that a chance for the melted 

 wax to separate from the debris. Take a 

 box covered in any way you choose with 

 glass; put in that a dish to hold the melted 

 wax, and over that a dish of wire cloth or 

 perforated metal to hold the combs to be 

 melted, and you have a solar wax-extract- 

 tor. Common window g-lass will do all 

 right. The size required for 25 colonies 

 might vary considerably. Some would 

 have much more wax to melt than others. 

 Probably an extractor with a glass surface 

 of one square foot would answer, although 

 one of larger size would cost not much more 

 and would be more satisfactory. Use tin 

 for the dish, and wood for the box. Let 

 the g-lass be half an inch or an inch above 

 the top of the tin dish. Two thicknesses of 

 glass half an inch or more apart would be 

 better than a single thickness, but I doubt 

 if it would be worth while. It is quite pos- 

 sible, however, that, if you hare much wax 

 to extract, it might be economy to get one of 

 the new steam-extractors. 

 [; 2. I suspect it would be a little more 

 satisfactory to get the whole thing ready 

 made. The tinner wavmake itallright; but 

 when it is finished, if something proves to 

 be out of whack, there you are. The ready 

 made is sure to be all right. A novice ex- 

 tractor would do all right for 25 colonies, 

 but it isn't at all certain that you may not 

 go considerably beyond that, in which case 

 a two-frame Cowan would be much better. 



3. I don't know whether any grows in 



your locality, but I don't believe there's a 

 township in Indiana where sweet clover 

 will not grow vigorously. 



4. Proijably 3'our locality is as good as 

 and possibly much better than my own. 

 Taking bad and good years together, the 

 average here is somewhere between 30 and 

 40 lbs. per colony. I have at present 235 

 colonies. 



OUR 



homes; 



BY A.I, ROOT. 



If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ; 

 and if he repent, forgive liini. And if he trespiss 

 against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in 

 a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt 

 forgive him.— L,UKE 17:3, 4. 



In considering these two verses I wish to 

 confine my talk to one point — to that phrase 

 in the third verse which says, " // he re- 

 pent," and the saine point in the next verse. 

 We can forgive people for injury done us, 

 even if they do not repent; and I suppose 

 that is the right and proper thing- to do — 

 the Christianlike way of doing in the ma- 

 jority of cases. But perhaps we might con- 

 sider the real definition of that word for- 

 give. A great many times even good Chris- 

 tian people will say, "I will forgive, but I 

 can not forget." Now, in one sense we 

 should both forgive and forget. We should 

 not cherish malice nor hold a grudge. ,But 

 in another sense it is not right nor Cnris- 

 tianlike to forget. There has been much 

 said in the papers of late in regard to the 

 "pardoning business" in the criminal 

 courts in Cleveland. The mayor, and di- 

 rector of charities. Rev. H. R. Cooley, have 

 been doing an unusual amount of pardon- 

 ing people and letting them go after they 

 were arrested and found guilty of crime. 

 I will not stop here to discuss which side is 

 right and which is wrong. Perhaps I may 

 say, however, that a good many hiive been 

 let go when the good of the community de- 

 manded they should have been kept in the 

 workhouse or behind prison bars. In dis- 

 cussing the matter, the point that came up 

 strongly was, " Is this man you have par- 

 doned in for his first offense, or is he an 

 old offender?" If the latter, it makes quite 

 a difference; and it is perfectly right and 

 proper that the police and criminal courts 

 should not forget that the man in question 

 has been up for a similar offense before. 

 Sometimes, perhaps in only a few cases, a 

 man was not only an old offender, but he 

 went back to his old trick of picking pock- 

 ets and the like just as soon as he was let 

 loose. His repentance was only pretended 

 — no repentance about it. 



When an offender is truly penitent he 

 should most assuredly apologize, even if he 

 does nothing more. Where one does not 

 apologize, but just goes right on without 

 considering, or paying any attention to the 



