fame, througli over taxation of the braiu, 

 became an imbecile of Mount Pleasant, 

 Iowa, Insane Asylum ; where, I am told, 

 by Mr. Thomas, of that institution, that he 

 died after suffering from softening of the 

 brain. Mr. Thomas says he paid but little 

 or no attention to anything. Will Mr. 

 Thomas give, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, the particulars of his last days ? 



OLD QUEEN GOING WITH SWARM. 



Among bees, like all other animated 

 Mature, tliere are exceptions to all general 

 rules, e. g. The old queen goes with the 

 swarm. I never knew but one exception to 

 this. In the summer of 1877, a colony 

 swarmed twice ; both times taking a young 

 virgin queen and leaving the old, laying 

 queen in the hive. 



June 3rd, and no surplus boxes yet. May 

 has been cold and wet. We are building a 

 honey house, for storage of 30,000 lbs. of 

 honey. We believe in setting our mark 

 high. 



CYPRIAN BEES. 



Mr. Editor. — I, like many others, won- 

 der when I see Cyprian bees advertised 

 in the American Bee Journal for the 

 low price of $5 ; and they are pure, for the 

 advertisement says " No impure bees in my 

 locality;" also imported Italian queens, 

 33.75. At these figures, we want some of 

 those queens, if we can be assured by 

 parties who have bought of him that they 

 are pure, but out of the many, I cannot get 

 one to answer favorably ; in fact, they are 

 silent. 



As you were lucky enough at our Bee- 

 keepers' Convention to draw a queen of 

 Hardin Haines, please send me a setting of 

 eggs. 



PRIZE BOX HOLDER. 



The one I have invented for my double- 

 portico Langstroth hive is made as follows : 

 Take 3 strips %x% of an inch, and as long 

 as tiie honey board is wide, on these put a 

 strip at each end %x% of an inch edgewise. 

 This will hold 4 rows of 7 sections each. 



" our homes " DEPARTMENT. 



A. I. Root, in the June number, under 

 "Our Homes," gives one very mild letter 

 from Mass., in which John D. White asks, 

 " Would it not be better to leave the 

 religious department out of Oleaningsf" 

 &c. A. I Root says in his religious com- 

 ments on this, moved by the Spirit, ot 

 course : " I have had, perhaps, a half 

 dozen similar letters in the past 3 years." — 

 Now, Novice repent, and have your God to 

 straighten you up, for in this neighborhood 

 I know of (no " perhaps ") a half dozen 

 " similar letters," only much more so, being 

 sent to you, and if your 3,515 subscribers 

 would average as many " similar letters," 

 to you, as a few do here, your " perhaps a 

 half dozen " would number over 1,000. I am 

 a liberal minded bee-keeper. I do not want 

 MYSTERY written on my hives. We would 

 like Oleanings if not spoiled with so much 

 baby talk in " Our Homes." 



I had a talk with a neighbor bee-keeper, 

 one of the best informed on bees we have ; 

 he is also a writer of Scraps for the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journai-, as well as Oleanings. 



He says he has written Novice a " half 

 dozen similar letters " himself. We have 

 plead and reasoned with him to do to others 

 as he would have others do to him. Would 

 he wish Catholics, Jews, Turks, infidels, 

 heathen, &c.. to take an underhanded way 

 of forcing their ideas upon him ? I have 

 taught school for 5 years, and what would I 

 think of a pupil doing wrong every day ; 

 yes, perhaps every hour, but as constantly 

 asking my forgiveness and making new 

 promises that he would do better, but as 

 often breaking them, with the idea that he 

 could make another promise as good? — 

 Such a pupil is Novice, but what does his 

 teacher think of him ? D. D. Palmer. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Kretchmer's Metal Frame-Bearings. 



In the illustration accompanying this 

 article, A represents the end of the hive ; d, 

 a metal rabbet of folded tin ; b, the end 

 piece of a frame ; and c, the top ; whilst tlie 

 tri-angular piece, F, is a piece of galvanized 

 sheet iron, resting edgewise across the 

 metal rabbet, and supports the frame. In 

 making the frame, the point g is. by the use 

 of a guage block, driven centrally through 

 the end piece of the fiame, and the point g 



clenched ; the top is next driven over the 

 point h, and the point clenched, so that the 

 piece F has a position in the centre of the 

 width of the frame ; the dotted lines indi- 

 cate where it passes through the wood.— - 

 Althou<;h the clenching alone gives it the 

 strength of an ordinarily nailed frame, the 

 frame is, in addition, nailed in the usual 

 way. 



Before enumerating some of the advan- 

 tages of this bearing, I desire to state that 

 this is not a new, untried idea. I have had 

 over 5,000 combs built in such frames, and 

 have used them over 8 years, testing their 

 merits by the side of nearly every device 

 known for the purpose, and hence claim to 

 know whereof 1 speak. 



Some of the advantages are : 



The frames are never glued to the rab- 

 bets, as the ])oint of support is less than the 

 head of a pin, the bees passing under, over 

 and between, at pleasure. 



In the metal rabbets are cut, with a single 

 file stroke, small V shaped notches, at such 

 distance apart as it may be desirable to 

 have the distance of the several frames 

 from centre to centre ; in these small 



