THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



319 



beehives. When such are used the 

 hives are too heavy. The trouble with 

 boards when si)lit is that the pieces are 

 too thill to groove, and in case a wide 

 piece is needed ; two boards must be 

 used, and the difficulty has been to 

 " tongue and groove " tliein properly in 

 order to iiiai<e a good joint and not 

 weaken tlie boards. Some time in Octo- 

 ber, we ordered of and received fifty 

 hives in the flat from Mr. Falconer. Tlie 

 sides to these hives were to be 15 inches 

 wide and but i of an incli thick. As it is 

 very difficult to split a common board 

 that is 15 inches wide, one board 7i 

 inches wide had to be split to lorm tlie 

 sides. Now, wliat I wish to exphiin is 

 the ingenious method devised by Mr. 

 Falconer in order to make the sides 

 water and air-proof. A saw kerf was 

 made in tlie edges of the board where 

 the two came together. The saw used, 

 of course, must be a very thin one, say 

 about 3*2 thick. Tlie tongue used was 

 a till one, but the tin furnished l)y Mr. 

 Falconer was too tliin for the purpose 

 and so we used two strips of tin the 

 entire length of the kerf, and in the cen- 

 tre a third piece al)out sixinciies loiig. 

 The tin tongues were cut a little wider 

 than the depth of the kerf, so that 

 when the two pieces for a side are 

 driven together the joint is made per- 

 fectly tight. 



Now this is a very simple method 

 formatcliing two thin pieces of boards. 

 Where this principle is applied, thin 

 boards may be used for the roofs of 

 hives, and if kept well painted they 

 never will leak. 



False Prophets.— Soinewiiat over 

 a year since Mr. W. F. Clark made a 

 visit to a well-known lieeman in Canada, 

 and while there a scheme for the pro- 

 duction of queen-bees by the million 

 at about one cent each was uiifokled 

 to the visitor. Brotlier Chirk took it 

 all ill and gave it as his opinion that 

 Brother J. was about to revolutionize 

 the world so far as it related to rearing 

 queen bees. Well, we all waited and 

 kept our eyes on the "locomotive 

 while the bell rang. '-We need not say 

 that no big revolution oranything new 

 concerning rearing queen bees ever 

 came from that source. 



Now, we are again warned to " Look 

 out for the locomotive while the bell 

 rings," as friend Clark has again ap- 

 peared in the role of a prophet and 

 predicts another revolution, and this 

 time one that will "shake the dry 

 bones and not yet extinct fossils of 

 beedom." 



Our new Canadian prophet (you 

 know there are or have been several 

 of them in Canada such as Veniior and 

 Wiggiii) predicts that l)y this inven- 

 tion the production of comb honey will 

 be reduced tvventy-Hve per cent. We 

 wonder how sucli an invention would 

 have worked during a season, like the 

 one of 1887, when there was no honey 

 to be gathered. 



It does not take a fellow with veiy 

 sharp eyes to see through the 

 " scheme." Fact of it is s«)me of the 

 bee-papers are not getting "subs" as 

 rapidly as they should in order to make 

 business pay, and so some method 

 must be resorted to in order to "boom" 

 the thing. Canada has for a long time 

 been affiicted with a surplus ol false 

 prophets. If one dies another soon 

 tills the vacancy and thus the supply is 

 kept up. 



However, we sincerely hope that 

 Brotlier Clark's second prediction will 

 be fulfllled, and tnat some method is 

 about to develop whereby the cost of 

 producing comb honey may be lessened. 

 When the revolution coines we prom- 

 ise the readers of the Api that they 

 shall know as much about it as we do. 



We are inclinetl to think the whole 

 scheme is one of the shrewd advertis- 

 ing scheme some people resort to from 

 time to time, in order to get up a 

 " boom" fur some particular object. 



Renewals — With this issue a large 

 number of subscriptions will expire. 

 Judging by the past we expect at least 

 eighty per cent, will renew promptly. 

 We need not make any promises as to 

 what the readers of the Api may expect 

 during the coming year. Judge of the 

 future by the past. 



Ai'rangements have been made with 

 a dozen or more of the best writers on 

 Apiculture to contribute to the Api. 

 By looking over this issue, the n;imes 

 of several new correspondents will be 

 noticed. As lo the ability of these new 

 correspondents to instruct and please 

 the readers of the Api, each subscriber 

 is allowed to judge for himself. "Am- 

 ateur Expert" whose most interesting 

 article may be found in this issue, will 

 frequently be heard from during the 

 coming year. 



The manager of the Api has not 

 made it a practice to quote from ex- 

 changes, but in future articles of real 

 value found in other journals, will be 

 inserted in the Api, and in all cases due 

 credit will be given. The names of tiie 

 publication from which quotations are 



