1870.] 



TUE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



67 



sour. Iron is used in tliree states ; as crude or 

 cast iron, as steel, and as wrought iron, the differ- 

 ence only depending on the rehitive amount of 

 carbon with which the metal is combined— cast 

 iron containing a larger proportion of carbon than 

 steel, and steel more than wrought or malleable 

 iron. 



I have nothing whatever against Mv. Baldridge, 

 this being my first dealing with him ; and my 

 only excuse for writing as I did (A. B. .I.,vol V , 

 page 18, J is that, after waiting, and watching 

 the post office, so long as I did, and finally re- 

 ceiving a knife— too late for use — which did not 

 then come up to my expectations, I felt considera- 

 bly out of humor, and told the whole story, when 

 perhai.sl shouldhavekeptm;*;/* and "sAvallowed" 

 it all, as he had not advertised knives for sale, 

 his reason for not being more prompt, may be 

 that he was obliged to invent and manufacture 

 it, after it was ordered. I have no doubt that 

 parties ordering of him now, will receive 

 knives that will give perfect satisfaction. 



1. F. TiLLINGHAST. 



Factorymlle, Pa , Aug. 5, 1870. 



[For the Ainericim Boe Journal.] 



More a); out the Looking-glass. 



On pages 34-5, Yol. VI., of the American Bee 

 Journal, 11. Nesbit s'ates that he has tried the 

 looking-glass theory to liis satisfaction in one in- 

 stance. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I wisli to say, in reply, that 

 the glass has been tried three times, this year, 

 to my knowledge, and three swarms of bees se- 

 cured. The particulars of one case will be suffi- 

 cient to cause most of the Journal's readers to 

 try the experiment, when opportunity ofters, 

 whether one that has "played^^ the theory '■'■ouC' 

 will try any more, or not. 



An old lady was in her garden, about four 

 o'clock one afternoon, when her attention Avas 

 arrested by the hum of a swarm of bees, leaving 

 the top of an apple-tree that stood in the garden. 

 The superstitious notion of stopping bees by the 

 music of the cow-bell (peculiar to a certain class) 

 was soon put in practice, but the bees moved on 

 till somebody flashed the sun's i-ays among them, 

 by the aid of a looking-glass. Then, almost in- 

 stantly, from some cause or another, the bees 

 scattered and some even fell to the ground ; but 

 in a few minutes more, all were snugly clustered 

 on another apple-tree, in sight of the one on 

 which a portion of them were first discovered. 



Did the queen stop to rest in this case? Per- 

 haps 3Ir. Nesbit will think she was defective ; 

 or would his reply to this be as ambiguous as 

 his language, when he says in one place that 

 there is "no use of your trying to go away, for I 

 will stop you with the looking-glass ;" and in 

 another breath, after he had tried and failed, 

 says — "I was rather a scei^tic before." 



Mr. Editor, he makes me think of an old Dutch 

 lady, with whom I used to be acquainted, that 

 knew how to bake bread and fi"y meat. You 

 might read her a recipe from some agricultural 

 or other .lournal, for making something new and 

 rich, and slie would at once go about trying it, 



" to see if it was good." But, in place of follow- 

 ing the directions to the letter, she would use 

 the ingredients in quantities that seemed hand- 

 iest ; and the consequence was that she would 

 make compounds to disagree with the gustatory 

 organs of all hands. The fault was never with 

 the old lady, and she could always tell that it 

 was in the recipe ; but in no instance could she 

 be induced to try her hand a second time on the 

 same thing. Perhaps, if ]\Ir. ISTesbit will take 

 his looking-glass to the well and invert it, and 

 instead of looking down the well, will look into 

 the glass, he will .see differently from the Avay he 

 did on the other occasion. If he will take a 

 glass large enough (a piece will answer the pur- 

 pose ; but it will depend upon how bright the 

 sun shines, and the distance of the bees fi'om the 

 ground, what must be the size of the glass re- 

 quired,) I think he can stop a swarm in every 

 instance. 



Before quitting, I will also say that if Mr. 

 Nesbit, or any one else will obtain the "bhtckesf^ 

 and ^^knottiesV piece of wood, near the size of a 

 quart pot, and secure it by means of a pole or 

 otherwise, surrounded by foliage, in front of the 

 apiary, before natural swarms issue, that by the 

 time the fifth natural swarm is hived, the ex- 

 periment will have very well paid him for his 

 trouble with the knot. Ignoramus. 



SawyersdiUe, A". C, Aug. 12, 18^0. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Humbngs. 



Since the introduction of movable comb hives, 

 numerous attempts have been made to palm off 

 on bee-keepers worthless hives and sundry hum- 

 bugs. 



As with other branches of business, so with 

 bee-culture; it has its proficieut.-^, amnteurs, 

 novices, and pretenders. Generally, it is with 

 the two last-mentioned classes that worthless 

 hives and various humbugs originate. The novice 

 is often suddenly attacked with that disease 

 known as "bee on the brain," and ignorantly 

 but innocently fancies he has mastered the whole 

 science of bee-culture, and is therefore j^repared 

 to astonish the world by producing a bee hive 

 that will supplant all its predecessors. Now, 

 with many, to think is to act. Hence, yearly, 

 there are introduced to the public several "best 

 hives in the world," which, however, prove to 

 be either bungling attempts at an imitation of 

 some good hive, or a worthless throwing together 

 of timber, embracing in its construction not one 

 scientific principle, but often many features di- 

 rectly oppo.sed to the nature and wants of the 

 bees. Their fanciful shape, novel construction, 

 and the many advantages they are said to pos- 

 sess, often cause a number of them to be sold to 

 unsusj)ecting bee-keepers, who are not educated 

 in the science of bee-culture. The country is 

 full of such worthless trash, and parties often 

 pay more than they would require to do for really 

 good hives, the reputation of which has been 

 established for year.s — hives constructed by those 

 well acquainted with bee-culture, and who are 

 hence qualified to construct a hive adapted in 

 every feature to the wants of the bee. 



