JULY 1, 1913 



little prayer to the dear Savior : " Create in 

 me a clean heart, God, and renew a right 

 spirit within me." I told you about how 

 my wife was startled because I laughed 

 aloud when reading the Bible. I laughed 

 because I felt satisfied that I had found a 

 remedy for my troubles. When I came out 

 ahead of the squash-bugs and saved my 

 plants I no doubt laughed about it. 



Let me now quote once more from the 

 Sunday School Times. Please notice again 

 the expression in our last text — " That your 

 joy may be full." Wm. H. Ridgeway, in 

 speaking about the joy of salvation, says : 



" The joy of salvation." I would have no use for 

 religion at all if there were not more fun in it than 

 in any thing else on earth. 



And I want to say amen to the above. 

 True religion, which I have been trying in 

 my feeble way to hold up before you, is 

 actually more " fun " than any thing else. 



FORTY Y'EARS WITH THE " LITTLE BUSY BEE." 



The above heading was prompted by a 

 trip I have just taken, June 17, out to one 

 of our out-apiaries down on the river bot- 

 tom, three or four miles away. Thanks to 

 a kind Providence, honey is coming in very 

 much as it did a year ago ; and as a "gang" 

 were going down to take off the first honey 

 of the season I was asked to go along. In 

 about half an hour's time our boys took off 

 toward half a ton of honey, all from the 

 upper stories, so there was no brood in any 

 of the combs. Mr. Marchant, the foreman, 

 opened the hives and lifted out the heavy 

 well-filled combs while a boy drove the bees 

 down with a smoker as much as possible. 

 After Mr. Marchant had shaken off the bees 

 in front of the hive an attendant who stood 

 ready with a suitable brush brushed off all 

 the remaining bees. The comb was then 

 passed over to a fourth man, who placed it 

 in an empty super. As soon as he received 

 nine heavy combs they were carried directly 

 to the auto truck until the load was made 

 up. Then the truck was quickly run to the 

 extracting-house at the Home of the Hon- 

 eybees. You see the auto truck could be 

 backed right up into the apiary close to 

 where the men were working. It did not 

 matter whether the air was full of flying 

 bees or not. There were no horses to be 

 stung. As the veliicle is equipped not only 

 with rubber tires but steel springs, the load 

 of honey was conveyed quickly and safely 

 three miles or more away on the auto truck. 



Forty years ago there were a good many 

 jokes at my expense because of my enthu- 

 siasm for the future of bee culture. Our 

 older readers will remember the picture I 



* Reproduced on the cover of Feb. 1st issue. — Ed. 



gave of the hexagonal apiary.* By the way, 

 that same apiary was a good deal on the 

 plan of the modem " convergent poultry- 

 yard." It was designed to save steps. You 

 will recall that I had a picture of a little 

 railway track and a car on this track to 

 run up to the honey-bouse located in the 

 center. This car was to carry the honey 

 far enough from the extracting-house so it 

 could be loaded on to a wagon without hav- 

 ing the horses stung, etc. 



Well, although I did have some wild vi- 

 sions in regard to the outcome of bee cul- 

 ture, I did not dream of an automobile for 

 helping the beekeeper, for no such thing 

 was then known or even dreamed of at that 

 time. Perhaps I might remark that this is 

 the first time we have gathered our honey 

 from out-apiaries and brought it in on an 

 auto truck. Heretofore we have carried the 

 extractor around the apiaries and brought 

 in the honey in cans; but you who have 

 tried it know it is a big job to lug that ex- 

 tracting-outfit away out in the country and 

 move it from one apiary to another. Ernest 

 remarked this morning that he had been 

 studying on the problem, and he was won- 

 dering whether the auto truck could not 

 bring in the filled combs, and carry them 

 back cheaper, rather than to carry a con- 

 venient extracting-outfit around to each 

 apiary. When the extracting is done at 

 the home or the center apiary we can use 

 a gasoline-engine for power, which would 

 be quite difficult if we had to move it 

 around; and with this management we can 

 have things fixed up in good shape for 

 extracting, uncapping, etc. Of course, this 

 necessitates having a set of empty combs; 

 but this is an easy matter, especially when 

 we extract only from upper stories and 

 prevent the queen from having access to the 

 combs above. 



There is so much going on at the Home 

 of the Honeybees just now that I feel some- 

 times like rubbing my eyes as did Rip Van 

 Winkle, to be sure that I am awake. I 

 suggested taking these heavy combs full of 

 honey up to the honey and wax room, and 

 have them do the extracting. Their force 

 of women folks one would expect might be 

 a little more tidy than a lot of men and 

 boys. But what do you think was the 

 reason given for not doing so? Why, just 

 this: Orders are coming in so thick and 

 fast for foundation that all hands have al- 

 most had to drop the work of honey and 

 make foundation. Besides, there would not 

 be any room there for the extracting busi- 

 ness; and yet this wax and honey building 

 covers a piece of ground 60 by 150 feet. 



From the 50 colonies in that one apiary 

 we took 1600 lbs. from our first extracting. 



