222 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



would soon be natural pollen; but the trouble did 

 come again the next day. Just as soon as the 

 April showers let up enough to let the bees out, 

 they came in very large numbers. 



Now, our neighbor was a kindly disposed man 

 — one who was willing to put up with a reason- 

 able amount of annoyance. Had it been other- 

 wise we might have had trouble. 



We sent Mr. Pritchard down the second time 

 with a quantity of ground feed, with instructions 

 to scatter it around in the apiary so the bees would 

 not have to go over to this good neighbor's barn 

 to help themselves to artificial pollen. He was 

 also instructed to fumigate the stalls by sprink- 

 ling some of Lee's lice-killer that is said to be very 

 repulsive to insects of all sorts. Pritchard says 

 it is the best stuff he ever saw to drive away rob- 

 bers. 



We never had a complaint like this before; and 

 we do not remember seeing any thing like it in 

 all of our correspondence. The conditions of 

 this long-deferred warm weather were probably 

 just right to make the bees crazy for nitrogenous 

 food, so they siezed on any thing they could find. 



Of course, it is now clear to us why the bees 

 went into our neighbor's hen-coop near our home 

 yard. Leaves, loose straw, etc., were strewn 

 over the floor of that coop. The bees probably 

 found just enough nitrogenous food from the 

 scattered chicken feed to make them wild, and 

 hence their visitation. If any one else has run up 

 against this same kind of proposition we should 

 be pleased to have him tell us about it. 



THE GOOD THINGS IN THIS ISSUE; THE NEW 

 CRANE SHIPPING-CASE, ETC. 



We regard this issue of the journal as an ex- 

 ceptionally good one, and we are proud of its 

 contents The new shipping-case by J. E. 

 Crane, on page 239 we believe introduces a new 

 era in the shipment of comb honey, providing, of 

 course, such case can be made cheap enough to 

 compete with those made of wood. 



It will be the means also, perhaps, of greatly 

 increasing the sale of comb honey. Many large 

 would-be buyers will not take on comb honey 

 because past experience has shown them that 

 much of it is broken, resulting in explanations 

 and trouble in making adjustment with the pro- 

 ducer. If those same buyers can now be assur- 

 ed that their comb honey will come through in 

 good order without breakage they may be in- 

 duced to take up the business again. There is 

 no knowing what this new shipping-case is going 

 to do in the way of helping bee-keepers in the 

 way of seeking a larger and better market. 



The new decapper offers possibilities that may 

 be very attractive to some of our readers. We 

 have not seen the machine, nor have we seen any 

 testimonials of what can be accomplished. 



In the mean time Mr. Samuel Simmins, of 

 Heathfield, Sussex, England, still believes that 

 his machine without gears or cranks is better than 

 any thing else that has ever been put on the mar- 

 ket. He feels that it has passed the experimental 

 stage, and now is an assured success. His machine 

 uses stationary V-shaped knives which he claims 

 are far more effective than the oscillating knives, 

 which he discarded long ago. 



The article on wax-rendering in a large way, 



by Mr. Edward G. Brown, p. 248, is something 

 that will bear careful reading 



E. D. Townsend's article, for beginners, on 

 how to avoid stings, is worth a whole year's sub- 

 scription to Gleanings. Then the Conversa- 

 tion with Doolittle, and the questions and ans- 

 wers in Heads of Grain department, are always 

 helpful. 



The Home talks, and hints on poultry, by A. 

 I. Root, are always read with interest. Indeed, 

 many take Gleanings for these alone. 

 an uncapping-knife kept continuously hot 



by steam from a ten-cent tea-kettle. 



Very shortly we hope to show something in 

 the way of keeping an uncapping-knife hot con- 

 tinuously by means of steam from a ten- cent tea- 

 kettle. This knife is self- cleaning. It does not 

 require to be scraped off every ten seconds on 

 some wooden edge, because the accumulations 

 slide off the hot surface as fast as they lodge. 



something new in the way OF CUT COMB 

 HONEY FOR PULLMAN-CAR TRADE. 



We also expect to show something new in the 

 way of cut comb honey in cartons for the Pull- 

 man dining car trade and for fancy restaurants in 

 our big cities. The Pullman Car Company, 

 through the efforts of the publishers of this jour 

 nal, are now furnishing for its trade thousands of 

 pounds of comb honey. The next time you are 

 on a diner, speeding along at forty miles an hour, 

 ask for some comb honey. Come to think of it, 

 you might ask for the honey when the car is go- 

 ing at only a thirty-mile pace. 



Right here we can not forbear making an ex- 

 tract from a private letter from one of the secre- 

 taries of The American Sunday-school Union, 

 Mr. W. A. Hillis: 



My dear Mr. Root (and all the young Rooters, even to the sons- 

 in-law and daughters-in-law): 



Imagine my surprise, when coming across the mountains the 

 other day, while in the dining-car, on the bill of fare I found 

 comb honey. I ate enough in the days gone by, but I took the 

 good advice to eat honey, and 1 said bread and butter and some 

 good honey with a glass of milk is good enough for a king; and 

 when I opened the neat little package there greeted me a card 

 from The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 1 slipped it into my 

 vest pocket. It felt good to have it there. I even wrote a letter 

 home and told the wife how the honey made me feel good, and 

 the card made me feel better. 



Chicago. 



AUTOMATIC UNCAPPING-MACHINES WITH OSCIL- 

 LATING KNIVES; THE EARLY HISTORY OF 

 SUCH MACHINES. 



Elsfwhere in this issue is a cut and descrip- 

 tion of an uncapping-machine or what its inven- 

 tor, Mr. A. C. Miller, prefers to call it, a "de- 

 capper." While we have not seen the machine, 

 the illustration conveys the impression to any 

 one familiar with machinery that the machine is 

 well designed, and it looks as if it would work. 



After the matter on page 235 was made up in 

 page form it occurred to us that, some-Tv/iere about 

 the time we first took up the editorial work on 

 this journal, in 1885, we had seen a cut and de- 

 scription of an uncapping-machine embodying 

 the principle of a pair of oscillating knives oper- 

 ated by foot power. Sure enough, in looking 

 through the British Bee Journal for April 8, 1886, 

 we found quite an elaborate cut and description 

 from Samuel Simmins, then of Rottingdean, 

 E:^gland. In that issue the first sentence of the 

 description reads as follows: 



