308 FIFTY YEARS A^IONG THE BEES 



But let us go back to the time before that, when the chief 

 difficulty was to keep the cellar warm enough. Some 

 think it a bad thing to have fire in cellar. I would rather 

 have the right temperature without the fire. So I would 

 in my sitting-room. But when the temperature in the 

 sitting-room w^ithout a fire gets down in the neighbor- 

 hood of zero, I would rather have the fire. Same way in 

 the cellar. In this latitude. 42 degrees north. I have 

 known the mercury to reach 37 degrees below zero, and 

 some winters there is very little of the time when my 

 cellar is warm enough for the bees. A thermometer hangs 

 centrally in the cellar, and I try to keep it at about 45 

 degrees. Sometimes it goes to 36 degrees, but not often, 

 and not for long. Oftener it reaches 50 degrees, but that 

 is neither often nor long. 



STOVE IX CELLAR. 



Whenever the thermometer appears to have any 

 fixed determination to stay below 45 degrees, a fire is 

 started. I would not think of using an oil-stove, or 

 anything of the kind that would allow the gases to 

 escape in the cellar. A chimney goes from the ground 

 up through the house, and a hard-coal stove is used. 

 For many years I used a common small cylinder stove, 

 having an inside diameter of abort 8 inches between 

 the fire-brick. Then T used a low-down open or Frank- 

 lin stove, and I think I like it as well or better. 

 With either stove there is the open fire, and one might 

 fear that the bees w^ould fly into it, but they do not ap- 

 pear to do so. Neither does any harm come to the hiv^s 

 that stand within two feet of the stove, for the stove is 

 right in the same room as the bees. A few minutes' at- 

 tention each morning and evening will keep the fire 2:oing 

 continuously, in case it is needed continuously. There 

 have been winters when fire was kept going nearly all 

 the wnnter through, and other winters when little was 

 needed. The winter of 1901-2 was one of the mild ones. A 



