98 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Last year the firm of which I am a member 

 raised sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds 

 of extracted. The first was candied solid 

 before the last was out of the hives, and all 

 of it was solid within three weeks from ex- 

 tracting. We would drive to the yards in the 

 morning and get a load of extracting combs, 

 and in the afternoon extract. The same 

 time and labor would bring in twice as much 

 comb. In other words, a day's work would 

 put in the house two loads of comb worth 

 $200, as against one load of extracted worth 

 $60 or .$70. When extracted, the honey was 

 put into GO pound cans at a cost of just % of 

 a cent per pound for the package. The very 

 best offer we could get on the lot was ^''>}:2 

 cents in Chicago. The freight would be two 

 cents, which would leave us but 4^4 cents. 

 This, less the cost of cans, leaves 8 .5-(! cents 

 per pound for all our labor. The actual cost 

 of comb is, for the sections with foundation 

 in and ready for the super, one cent. Cases 

 and cleaning, about one cent, or a total of 

 two cents outside of our field work. We 

 could easily get V2,}4 cents in Chicago for 

 comb. The freight was 2I4 cents. This 

 would leave us on comb 8% cents for our 

 field work. 



Now on the above basis the extrated honey 

 colonies would give us 1% cents when the 

 comb honey colonies would give 8^4 cents. 

 However, with the extracted, we have double 

 the bulk to handle, a big lot of extras in 

 chambers and combs, an extractor, tanks, 

 etc. Then if the honey must be liquefied — 

 and we have to do more or less of that to sup- 

 ply home trade — we must have a melting 

 tank and furnace or big stove. My tank for 

 liquefying holds six, (50 pound cans, and has 

 run day and night at least half of the time 

 for the past three months. 



Now, as shown in the first part of this arti- 

 cle, it is not true that we can get twice as 

 much extracted as comb. Last season we 

 had a very slow and long continued flow — so 

 slow that it seemed as though we could not 

 get section work done— and, it did look as 

 though we got twice as much extracted as 

 comb. The fact is that we did, but it was at 

 the expense of stores in the brood combs, 

 very largely. If the flow had been free, the 

 difference would show somewhat the same 

 way, but not in so marked a degree. With 

 a fair to good flow lasting through three or 

 more weeks, the difference would be still 

 less noticeable. The things that seem to 

 favor the extracted is the throwing of stores 



that ought to be in the brood chamber into 

 the surplus ; a local market that takes the 

 extracted at about the same as second or 

 third grade comb, and a careless system of 

 management that produces only a low grade 

 of comb. 



LovELAND, Colo. Jan. 31, 189.'j. 



Objections and Difficulties to be Overcome 



in Claiming to Have Made an Invention 



Previous to its Patentee. 



JAS. HEDDON. 



pEFERRING to 

 fV the article of 

 B. Taylor on page 

 ;i!> of the Review, 

 the following 

 thoughts were sug- 

 gested: Bro. T. 

 says there are more 

 than .500 patents 

 issued upon bee 

 nives. The same 

 is true of tele- 

 phones and electri- 

 cal fixtures, but only two or three of them 

 are good for anything. The Bell patent is a 

 good one as you may know by the way the 

 public desires to claim and infringe it. If 

 you want to know which one of the 500 pa- 

 tent hives are valuable, all you need to do is 

 to search the past records of bee literature 

 and find out which ones people are claiming 

 as having previously made or partially made, 

 '• in a private, quiet way for their own use." 

 The following sentence is from Walker's 



patent law : 



IV. "According to a principle in patent law 

 —one protnineut in determining patentability— 

 the public aduption or desire to adopt a new de- 

 vice aftords cvidenee of novelty and patent- 

 ability." 



Mr. Taylor remarks that he doesn't see 

 that the latter-day hives tend to increase the 

 honey crop. That has not been the object 

 of modern inventors. The object has been 

 to lessen labor : to so construct a hive that 

 the bee-keeper may know just what condi- 

 tion his colonies are in, and when he finds 

 anything wrong, can immediately right it 

 with less than one-third the labor heretofore 

 employed, and without exposing the combs 

 in the robbing season. " Improved lines of 

 management," necessitate improved hives. 



Bro. Taylor says he tried my combination 

 of close-fitting frames closely fitting the 



