58 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



crop I have nothing whatever to do except with the fin- 

 ished product, and only so much of that as we can fin- 

 ish in the house — by no means a small quantity. 



]\Iiss Wilson was a school-teacher with health run 

 down, and in 1882 she stopped a year for the out-door 

 life of bee-keeping. She is still stopping. Although 

 never rugged in health, I think she has never missed a 

 day's work in the apiary during all the years since, when 

 there was work to be done. Small of stature and frail 

 of build, she yet has a remarkable capacity for w^ork, per- 

 haps partly owing to the fact that she is full-blooded 

 Scotch, and she will go through more colonies in a day 

 than I can, do my best. I think, however, that the bees 

 prefer just a little to have me work with them. They 

 have more time to get out of the way, and not so many 

 of them get killed. 



T-SUPER SEAT. 



Well, I started in for a digression, but I didn't mean 

 to write a history. We were talking about seats. An- 

 other kind of seat is made of an old T-super. A piece of 

 lath is nailed to two opposite diagonal corners, and an- 

 other piece nailed to the other two corners. That stif- 

 fens and strengthens it, so it makes a good seat for one 

 who doesn't like a low seat. 



HIVE-TOOLS. 



Of all the hive-tools I have tried, I like best the 

 Muench tool (Fig. 20). Its broad semi-circular end with 

 sharp edge can hardly be excelled for the purpose of 

 raising covers and supers, and when the other end is 

 thrust between two frames, a quarter turn separates the 

 frames with the least possible effort. Miss Wilson has 

 a liking for the Root tool. I have not used it much, but 

 it has the special advantage that it is a fine scraper. Be- 

 side the hive-tool for opening the hive and starting the 



