THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



33 



pertaining to tlie production of 

 comb honey. Yonr sections should 

 be at liand. also brood frames tack- 

 ed u[) and wired, ready for founda- 

 tion, and sliould you not be in 

 possession of a bee-book, don't de- 

 lay but oet it witli tlie shortest pos- 

 sible dispatcli. A, I. Root's "A li C 

 of Hee Culture" and "Cook's Man- 

 ual of the Apiary," are among the 

 best, and are worth $1.25 to those 

 wanting a treatise on bee culture. 

 Should you wish to keep up witii the 

 times, you should take a bee paper 

 Among the best are the Amkr- 

 ICAN Apicultukist, "American Bee 

 Journal" and " Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture." In case you desire to run 

 your suiplus honey for extracting, 

 you should have your surplus de- 

 partments all at hand, brood or 

 extracting fraines all tacked up 

 and wired, ready for the founda- 

 tion, wdiich should be put in, in full 

 sheets. As soon as the warm days 

 of February or March appear, on 

 some warm and sunny day, all 

 cases, upper and lower bodies, 

 should have two coats of paint and 

 everything in readiness for the ap- 

 proaching harvest. I will give my 

 mode of manipulating to i)roduce 

 the best results in a future letter. 

 Spring, Ills., Dec. 26, 1887. 



For the American ApicuUiirist. 



AN INTERESTING LETTER 

 FROM TEXAS. 



L. Stachelhausen. 



In December issue of the Apr you 

 published some part of one of my 

 letters to you. This is all right, 

 but I would like to have the reader 

 of the Api know a little more 

 about my experience in beekeeping. 

 It is eight years since I made bee- 

 keeping, especially honey-produc- 

 ing, my exclusive business here in 

 Texas. 



My first lesson in beekeeping 

 dates back to the year 1857, when 

 1 assisted an uncle of mine in his 

 small ajjiary a few months every 

 year. As soon as I left the Uni- 

 iversity and had my own busi- 

 ness, I bought some colonies and 

 started my apiary. This was in 

 1SG7; so I can say I have had 

 thirty-one years* experience in 

 beekeeping. Since 1877 I have 

 written articles for German bee pa- 

 pers. 



Your Api has improved very 

 much. The idea to have some 

 timel}^ articles on the same matter 

 from different writers is an excel- 

 lent one. I hope to see more such 

 issues as the June number. They 

 are interesting and profitable to 

 the raostexperienced beekeeper. In 

 some things I go my own way, but 

 I learn considerable from the dif- 

 ferent beekeepers, and sometimes 

 a single idea caught in a bee pa- 

 per is worth more to me than the 

 cost of all the papers together ; and 

 your Api has done a good share in 

 benefiting and instructing me. 



The article on " British Bee 

 Hives" is very interesting. Mr. 

 Locke published a translation of 

 "Christ's" old book. Well, the same 

 Christ recommended, about one hun- 

 dred years ago, a hive very similar 

 to the " Stevvarton," and his hive 

 was in use in Germany till Dr. 

 Dzierzon invented his hive with 

 movable bars and is still in use. 

 The stories of the "Christ"-hive 

 were interchangeable (the brood- 

 chamber had two stories) and re- 

 versible, but had no movable 

 combs. Later, the "Christ's" sto- 

 ries were adjusted with Dzierzon's 

 movable comb bars, but the combs 

 were not very handy to manipu- 

 late. Some years ago this old 

 "Christ"-hive was recommended 

 again, but adjusted with comb- 

 frames. Closed-end frames pressed 

 together by screws were in use in 

 Germany about ten or twelve years, 



