398 



plenty of time that he can devote to 

 working with the bees every other day. 



With proper management the "•sag- 

 ging " that we hear so much about can 

 be readily put up with, and will do no 

 material injury, but the warping, twist- 

 ing and kinking is the trouble which 

 we must seek to obviate. This season I 

 found that to mash a thin strip of wood 

 about ^ inch wide onto the bottom of 

 sheet (which is cut 1*4 inches short in 

 the Langstroth frame) would prevent 

 waving or warping ; but then one end 

 would move out or the frame one way, 

 while the other end went the opposite 

 way. Then I cut a slot 3-16 of an inch 

 wide and 2 inches long in the center of 

 the lower end of the end bar, and let 

 these stiffeners run into them. This 

 was all right early in the season, but 

 later when the bees began to gather 

 propolis more profusely, of course, they 

 glued these ends fast in the slots, just 

 as I feared they would when I first got 

 the thought. I will recommend this 

 method to those who are not in a very 

 gluey location and for swarms that issue 

 early, or when honey is plenty in the 

 fields. I have not experimented with 

 it as much as I mean to another season. 

 I have reference entirely to the Wag- 

 ner or Perrine foundation as made on 

 Novice's machine, and also to the Dun- 

 ham foundation, which I am testing on 

 a large scale to satisfy myself of the 

 comparative merits between it and the 

 old style. The flat-bottomed wired 

 foundation I leave out of the list, as 

 its price is, in my opinion, beyond the 

 practicability of its use, and I do not as 

 yet understand that the point of the 

 queen avoiding the wired cells and 

 these wires destroying the brood if she 

 does not, to be a settled problem. I 

 have not tried it. I think that if foun- 

 dation is made just right, of pure wax, 

 and the conditions in the apiary are 

 also right, that the bees will thin the 

 base is certain, and that an expert will 

 have trouble to find out whether any 

 foundation was used or not. It is un- 

 doubtedly true that different runs of 

 wax, disposition of bees, kinds of 

 weather, make of foundation, etc., etc., 

 fully account for the different conclu- 

 sions and reports in regard to the use of 

 foundation. I would say let us use no 

 foundation for surplus honey, unless 

 the conditions are right to avoid the 

 " fish-bone " base and that the wax was 

 made from comb as clean as honey. I 

 allow all my extracted honey to be cap- 

 ped over, you will remember, and from 

 these cappings I have made over 100 

 lbs. of clean, white wax and foundation 

 this season. This we may put into sec- 

 tions in as large or small guides as we 



may feel that we can afford and have 

 enough to go round. 



The best plan for cutting foundation, 

 that I know of, is to mark the patterns 

 on a board (let your marks run out 

 longer than the sheet) and lay from 10 

 to 20 sheets down true on this board, 

 and then with a thin, wet knife cut 

 clear through on said marks by the use 

 of a straight-edge. I can cut more 

 foundation thus in one day, than 1,000 

 colonies will need in one season. 



The method we prefer to fasten it to 

 frame or section isthe "mashing down" 

 system, shown me three years ago by 

 Mr. Perrine, while visiting my apiary. 

 One of my men here put the foundation 

 into 200 sections in one hour. It will 

 pull in two elsewhere before it will 

 loosen from the bar when properly 

 mashed. The bar must be dressed 

 smoothly, and the putty-knife honeyed 

 often when mashing. 



Notwithstanding the extent of my 

 interest in honey raising, 1 have not as 

 yet purchased a machine, but expect to 

 next spring, hoping that this season's 

 experimenting will enable me to decide 

 upon the best one. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Aug. 11, 1879. 



Bee Stings. 



DR. GEORGE HOBBS. 



Nearly 20 years ago I lived in West- 

 ern Ohio. Our family consisted of my 

 wife and myself, a little girl about 3 

 years old and a little boy a babe. One 

 day my wife started on a visit on horse- 

 back intending to return in the even- 

 ing. I helped ner on the horse and went 

 probably about 30 rods distance with 

 her to let down the fence for her to 

 pass through. During the time we left 

 the children in the house, thinking 

 they would not be likely to receive 

 harm till I came back ; but to my great 

 surprise on returning to the house I 

 found the little girl had made her way 

 to the bee-hives, and I suppose had 

 thrust out one of her arms into a hive 

 as it stood up some distance from the 

 ground, and in this way had stirred up 

 the bees. When I took her into the 

 house she was suffering extremely from 

 the great number of stings which she 

 had received. I took her up on my 

 knee, and counted the number of sting- 

 ers as I pulled them out from her face, 

 arms and neck — I found 33, — and after- 

 wards discovered that there were as 

 many more in her hair. 



Of course, this looked to me like a 

 very serious injury — enough to cause 

 her death, if I could not adopt some 

 mode of treatment that would be very 



