230 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



" Tlmuder ! You don't say so, do you ? Why 

 didn't tlie pesky fellow tell me of this, and then 

 I could have bouf^ht of you in the first place." 



Now, Mr. Greenhorn, there is no use in 

 mincing the matter. In the first place, be sure 

 to ascertain whether you ai-e purchasing an im- 

 provement, or the genuine article itself. In the 

 second place, ascertain whether the so-called im- 

 provement is worth anything to you, or not. 

 The patent hive man never takes the trouble to 

 inform you that Mr. Laugstroth was the origi- 

 nal inventor and patentee of the movable comb 

 hive ; but usually impresses the idea that the 

 hive he offers, movable combs and all, was in- 

 vented by himself. Take my advice. It costs 

 you nothing. Remember, the form of the hive 

 is not patented or patentable. All manner of 

 forms of hive were used before the movable comb 

 liives were thought of. It is my candid opinion, 

 that but very few of the hundreds of hives pat- 

 ented are any improvement on the Langstroth 

 movable combs ; and ninety-nine out of every 

 bundled are entirely worthless, when compared 

 with the Liingstroth hive. We will take one for 

 example. It has a slanting bottom board, mova- 

 ble combs, &c. But the patented features 

 claimed are slides to cut off the communication 

 to the boxes ; and the hive could be separated 

 in the middle into two half hives, and an empty 

 half attached to each full half. This, you will 

 readily see, was doing away Mnth the movable 

 combs to a certain extent ; and you Avill as 

 readily see that the patented i^eatures are entirely 

 worthless, while the movable comb feature, 

 which is what sells the hive, belongs to Mr. 

 Langstroth. 



Elisha Gallup. 



Orchard, loioa. 



[F.ir the Araericaa Bee Jourua!.] 



Pain d'Epices Prancois. 



{Frenth Giiifferbrea'l.) 



In order to comply with the deeire of my 

 friend Dufteler, I give hereinafter a recipe for 

 the French pain d'epices. 



Dissolve half an ounce of soda in half a pint 

 of milk. On the following day mix up that soda 

 with four pounds of flour, and add enough honey 

 to make a dough a little mellow. Add to this 

 paste one dram of anise, as much coriander, and 

 four grains cloves, all well powdered. Knead 

 that dough the same as for bread, with great 

 care, so as to mix up all the ingredients ; let it 

 stand two hours; tlien bake it in a slow oven, 

 as for biscuits. From ten to twelve minutes are 

 sufficient, if the dough is thin ; it requires some- 

 what more time if it is thick. Before putting it 

 in oven, you can ornament it with almonds, and 

 some slices of sugar-pickled lemons embedded in 

 the dough, or some non-pareil'e boiled with 

 beaten eggs. 



Nearly all the honey of Brittany (buckwheat 

 honey) is used to make such pain d'epices. 

 Sometimes molasses or sugar is substituted for 

 honey. Rye flour is generally preferred ; the 

 pain d'epices is then more brown, but more 

 savory, than when wheat fiour is used. 



Croquets. 



The confectioners of Dijon and Rheims, whose 

 agents travel all over France, to sell their pro- 

 ducts at the fairs, make another sort of pain 

 d'epices, named croquets. 



It is the same dough kneaded with half honey 

 and half sugar, and wheat flour. 



That dough is spread or rolled only one-fourth 

 of an inch thick, and is cut with a cutting punch 

 nearly resembling a glove ( ^W ), with only two 

 fingers. It is then put in the oven to be dried, 

 rather than to be baked. The honey being very 

 apt to absorb moisture from the atmosphere, the 

 croquets, in order to deserve their name {croquer, 

 in French, means to craiincli), are dried anew 

 before eating. 



In France, every country family, in easy cir- 

 cumstances, buys at the fairs a supply of these 

 delicacies sufficient for several weeks. 



Ch. Dadant. 



Hamilton, Ills. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A New Bee Feieder. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to describe a bee feeder 

 which appears to me to be better fitted than any 

 I have yet seen for use, when bees are in winter 

 quarters. 



In one of your comb frames nail a half incli 

 strip lengthwise between the side pieces, so as to 

 divide the frame into two parts, an upper A and 

 a lower B. Then take a piece of coarse muslin 

 or cotton cloth, and tuck it, at its edges, ou one 

 side of the upper division of the frame, drawing 

 it quite tight, and holding it in place by thin 

 strips tacked over the edges at the sides and bot- 

 tom, a, b, c, d. Now, reversing the frame, attach 

 another piece of cotton cloth, in like manner to 

 the opposite side of the upper division. Fit a 

 p-ece of empty comb securely in the lower 

 division B of the frame, and bore a hole through 

 the top bar, to receive a funnel, through which 

 the feed can be passed into the feeder, as re- 

 quired. Now place this frame feeder centrally 

 in your hive, or where the bees are clustered, and 

 they then have their feed just where they want 

 it, as though it had been stored in the combs. 

 A hole should be bored in the honey-board, to 

 correspond with that in the top bar of the frame, 



