THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



265 



halter were in constant use, disposing- 

 of one, while tiie brimstone pit disposed 

 of the other. As a parting- shot, I told 

 this man that my father never had a 

 brimstone pit in his bee yard, and 

 often said he would rather never see 

 honey than to take it in that inhuman 

 way. This remark cost me my dinner, 

 for the man looked anj^rily at me, and 

 went to the house, while I started for 

 home, as nearly discourag-ed as I ever 

 was in my life; for it seemed as if I 

 never could find out anything about 

 bees that would be of any use to me, un- 

 less I g-ot it direct from the bees them- 

 selves. 



My poor little leg's ached that night, 

 when I g-ot home with an empty stomach 

 and a heavy heart; but my disappoint- 

 ment was the worst of that day's 

 work, for I had such high hopes in the 

 morning- of learning something that 

 would be of use to me in the future. 



Father never liked to have his bees 

 swarm, as he would lose so many. Not 

 knowing anything about clipping the 

 queen's wing, he invented the plan of 

 making his increase in this way: he 

 had a blanket, in the center of which 

 he had a small loop fastened, then he 

 would turn one of those box hives bot- 

 tom side up, lay this blanket over it, 

 raise it up by the loop a few inches, 

 forming a little tent over the hive, while 

 [ would hold the cloth tight around the 

 sides, and drum on the hive, he raising 

 he cloth occasionally until we saw we 

 lad a nice swarm in the cloth; then we 

 spread it out on the ground and the 

 )ees would go into an empty hive, the 

 anie as a natural swarm. Such were 

 x\y first lessons in bee-keeping. 



FAINT HINT OF A MOVABLE COMB. 



One spring, after losing several col- 

 nies during the winter in those Bevan 

 ives, I spoke of above, when father 

 nd I were taking out the combs, I 

 aid, "Hold on, I have an idea. You 

 now some of those Bevan hives on that 

 -ont row are very light in honey, so, 

 'ait a minute." I then got my 



mother's bread knife and, carefully 

 cutting the combs loose from the ends 

 of the hive, I raised them out, one at a 

 time, and put them into an empty hive. 

 "There," I said, "I want those heavy 

 combs to put in those light hives in the 

 garden." p\-ither looked at me a 

 moment, then said, "my son, that is a 

 great idea and will some day make 

 bee-keeping a fine business." 



This was in the spring of 1855; and 

 he gave me the whole charge of his 

 apiary at that time. After awhile I 

 heard of a movable comb hive. Then 

 bee-keeping took a great start. The 

 American Bee Journal came to the 

 front, edited by Samuel Wagner. 

 Then came Gleanings, the Review and 

 many other journals. About this time 

 Italian bees were brought to this 

 country. Then came the bee smokers, 

 honey extractors, comb foundation, 

 and many other valuable inventions 

 and improved methods, enabling us to 

 manage, to an advantage, apiaries of 

 a 1,000 colonies and producing honey 

 by the car load ! 



My young friend, if you should read 

 this article over a dozen times you 

 could not even then realize the many 

 advantages you now have in caring for 

 bees. If it be true that ' 'He who makes 

 two blades of grass grow where only 

 one grew before is a public bene- 

 factor," then, truly, those men were 

 great benefactors who have given us 

 these inventions and improved methods. 

 The same may be said of the authors 

 of our many volumes of bee literature, 

 together with the editors of our bee 

 journals, all of whom have spent many 

 hours of hard labor by their midnight 

 lamp in order that we might save 

 thousands of tons of honey where only 

 a few tons of honey were saved 50 

 years ago. May their names and 

 memory be cherished for many years 

 to come, is my sincere hops. 



And now, when we go into our apia- 

 ries, and enjoy using all these improve- 

 ments, let OS not forget to extend a 



