THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



21 



he will pay, then, almost as much for 

 his lumber, or perhaps just as much, 

 as the regular supply-manufacturer 

 would charge for the hive all cut ready 

 to put together without any waste. 

 But labor has advanced, and the mill- 

 man will not charge less than 40 cents 

 an hour, and possibly 60. He is not 

 familiar with hive-making. His sjiws 

 are coarse toothed, and his men do not 

 realize the importance of extreme 

 accuracy in hive-making. The hives 

 at the ends will not be lock-cornered, 

 for the mill has no machinery for that 

 purpose. The boards when put to- 

 gether will have to depend entirely on 

 the nails for the strength of the cor- 

 ner. 



Perhaps it might be said that the 

 bee-keeper will have to pay freight on 

 his factory hives, but they will be ac- 

 curately cut and standard in every re- 

 spect. I have seen a lot of planing- 

 mill hives, and heard some of the bee- 

 keepers who had hives made in that 

 way tell their experience. The stuff 

 was irregular, the frames would not 

 alternate, they were very rough, and 

 the work was altogether unsatisfactory. 

 • But perhaps some one does not see 

 how a manufacturer can furnish a bee- 

 keeper a complete hive at the bare cost 

 of the lumber in the open market. The 

 supply manufacturer can buy by the 

 cargo and a comparatively cheap 

 grade of lumber, and cut around the 

 knots. Here is a board that is 12 or 

 16 feet long. We will say it has four 

 or five knots in it. Out of this board 

 he may be able to cut out of the clear 

 stock two or three ends or two or three 

 sides. There will be several boards 

 that have knots in them. The manu- 

 facturer, who is in the business, can 

 use these for a great variety of pur- 

 poses, and not lose money on them. 

 Some of them will g"o into the ends of 

 square (can) boxes; others will be used 

 for crating; some will be used for a 

 great variety of purposes too numerous 

 to mention. The bee-keeper who de- 

 sires to have his hives made in a small 

 way would have to buy clear stock 

 at a price of S50 or $60 per 1000, for 

 the planing-mill could not afford to 

 throw away short boards having knots 

 in them, for it would have no use for 

 short knotty boards. Its business is 

 making sash-doors, blinds, door-cases, 

 window-frames, etc., and it can use 

 only long stuff. It wil 1, therefore, be 

 necessary for the bee-keeper to buy 

 clear stock, which is expensive, as he 

 cannot afford to have hives with loose 



knots in that are liable to fall out. 

 He may argue that he can use a cheap 

 grade of lumber; but experience with 

 thousands of customers shows that the 

 average customer won't have such lum- 

 ber in hives at any price. 



It is true there has been a sharp ad- 

 vance in prices on bee-supplies; but 

 the marked advance in lumber, in 

 labor, and in all common commodities, 

 has made this all necessary. Prices 

 on bee-goods have hardly kept pace 

 with other commodities. 



Mr. Hutchinson suggests that, with 

 the prices in view that hives are apt 

 to reach, it will be well for bee-keep- 

 ers to rig up a buzz-saw or a horse- 

 power. The old adage, "Don't monkey 

 with a buzz-saw, " is good advice for 

 nine men out of ten. There are very 

 few people who have mechanical in- 

 genuity enough to run a buzz-saw with- 

 out coming to grief. If they do not 

 saw their fingers and maim themselves 

 for life, they may do very bad work. 

 Mr. Hutchinson got up a home-made 

 buzz-saw years ago, because he is a 

 natural genius and a fine mechanic. 

 But where there is one W. Z. H. tliere 

 are thousands who do not know even 

 the A. B. C— much less the W. Z's. 



A short time ago we published a 

 letter from one of our friends who had 

 bought a buzz-saw, thinking he could 

 make his own stuff cheaper. After he 

 got through he took account of the 

 cost, and found his hives cost him 

 nearly or quite twice as much as those 

 he could buy at a factory. He had 

 lost one finger; his hives were poorly 

 made, and all he had was the experi- 

 ence and a lot of supplies that were 

 bound to be a continual annoyance, 

 and a fifty-dollar buzz-saw "for sale 

 cheap. " 



Now, in taking this view from the 

 standpoint of the manufacturer I have 

 tried to give the exact facts as I 

 happen to know them — not because I 

 am interested in having bee-keepers 

 buy hives from the Root Co., but be- 

 cause I am anxious to have the exact 

 facts come before the public. I know 

 that Mr. Hutchinson will not miscon- 

 strue mj^ motives, even if he doesn't see 

 the matter as I do. 



I suppose that what Bro. Root saj's 

 about the manufacturers of hives be- 

 ing able to put into said hives a grade 

 of lumber that would cost the ordinary 

 buyer $50 or $60 a thousand, is true. 

 The last time that I was at Medina, I 



