88 FIFTY YEARS A^IOXG THE BEES 



can only keep from thinking that a thing is necessarily 

 an improvement because it is different from what has 

 been. The things and plans gotten up by me that were 

 different from others would make a pretty long list. 

 Unfortunately, a full trial has in most cases convinced 

 me that my supposed improvements were no improve- 

 ments at all, and so they were cast aside. A few, how- 

 ever, have stood the test ; the ^Miller feeder and the ]\Iiller 

 introducing cage having become standard articles on the 

 price-lists, while bottom-starters, the robber-cloth, bot- 

 tom-board, and some other things have had from my 

 brother bee-keepers a reception of which I have 

 no reason to complain. While the tendency towards 

 something different needs to be kept in bounds it would 

 be a sad thing if no changes had been made, and we were 

 set back just where we were a quarter or a half cen- 

 tury ago. 



GETTING COMBS BUILT DOWX TO BOTTOM-BARS. 



/ 



While upon the subject of frames, I may as well tell 

 how^ I manage to have them entirely filled with straight 

 combs which are built out to the end-bars and clear down 

 to the bottom-bars, a thing I experimented upon for a 

 long time before reaching success. The foundation is cut 

 so as to make a close fit in length, and the width is about 

 half an inch more than the inside depth of the frame. 

 The frame is all complete except that one of the two 

 pieces of the bottom-bar is not yet nailed on. The frame 

 is laid on a board of the usual kind, which fits inside the 

 frame and has stops on the edges so that when founda- 

 tion is laid on the board it will lie centrally in the frame. 

 The half of the bottom-bar that is nailed on lies on the 

 under side. The foundation is put in place, and one edge 

 is crowded into the saw-kerf in the top-bar. Then the 

 lacking half of the bottom-bar is put in place, and a light 

 nail at the middle is driven down through both parts. 

 Then the frame is raised and the ends of the two halves 

 of the bottom-bar are squeezed together st) as to pinch 



