1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



581 



ed with tacks to the bottom -board and to the 

 front of thn liive, over the entrance. In the 

 corner of the box. opposite the (Mitranee, I made 

 an opening for the robbers to pass through. 

 Tlie cover was made similar to Mclntyre's, 

 except that I hinged it at one side and secured 

 it with a hool< at the opposite side. I used un- 

 finished sections from last year as bait. The 

 trap worked all right. 

 Iiulp[)i>ndence. Cal. 



A KILLING HOT WAVE. 



»1KS. ATCHLF.Y LOSES NEARLY A1,L HER NUCLEI. 

 Jiy Jennir Atthlcy. 



Dear Mr. Root:— I have just finished reading 

 (4r.EAXiN(js for July I ; and after reading your 

 talk about the condition of the country to sev- 

 eral persons they exclaimed that we Tieeded a 

 whole lot more of such men as A. I. Root. 



Now I have something sad to report to you. 

 We have lost nearly all our nuclei, and came 

 very near losing our lives. It turned so hot last 

 Monday, the 3d, about 11 o'clock, that water 

 came very near the boiling-point in the shade. 

 Our bees were cooked, just as if the hives had 

 been on fire. All the strong colonies were un- 

 injured; but the largest part of our nuclei were 

 badly damaged or killed outright. Shade made 

 no difference. The more the wind blew, the 

 hotter it was. The thermometer registered 114° 

 in the coolest place about the house. Chairs 

 and all the furniture, and, in fact, every thing, 

 would burn to touch it. From noon till mid- 

 night we had to keep the hose running, spray- 

 ing the house, beds, and furniture, and con- 

 stnntly giving water to the children and family, 

 to keep down suffocation. There was no place 

 to seek refuge from the heat. We did not know 

 the extent of damage to onr bees till all out- 

 yards had been visited. The bees were burned , 

 and as brittle as could be; the honey boiled, and 

 the combs melted. The wax and honey, with 

 the bees, were on the bottom-boards. This, I 

 know, seems fishy; but it is all true. See this 

 clipping from the Beeville Bee: 



Monday was, perhaps, the hottest day Te.\as has 

 experienced — at least for several decades, and Bee- 

 ville was, without a doubt, the liottest place in Tex- 

 as that day. In many places in different parts of 

 the State the tliermometer went up to and a little 

 above 100; but in Beeville, about 3 o'clock, it regis- 

 tered from 110 to 11.5. Old settlers say it beat any 

 thing- they ever experienced in their lives. The 

 wind was from the soutiiwest early in tlie morning, 

 but gradually varied to the north, and by noon it 

 was blowing directly from tliat point of the com- 

 pass. The intensity of the heat hegan to increase 

 very rapidly then, and lietween 3 and 4 o'clock it 

 seemed as if the wiiole sphere would ignite from 

 spontaneous combustion. Water in the shade would 

 almost blister one s hand, and every thing touched 

 seemed as though it had been near a furnace. The 

 gentle zephyrs were apparently turned into tiames 

 from that region where they say the inhabitants are 

 never troubled with the laborious task of shoveling 

 snow. Faces were blistered, and it appeared as 



though the green foliage of the trees would be bad- 

 ly scorched to its autumn color. It was after mid- 

 night before the atmosphere cooled enough to be 

 more than barely pereeptil)le. Bv morning, how- 

 ever, the wind was eoniing from (he southeast; and 

 while Tuesday was pretty warm, it was noiliing to 

 compare with Monday, which everybody agrees in 

 saying was the liottest day in their experience. 



We shall try to use our full colonies to start 

 up our nuclei again as soon as possible. We 

 have about 100 untested queens left, out of the 

 whole of three large yards, that we hope to 

 keep our customers supplied with till we get 

 more raised. If the next day had been as hot, I 

 do not think we should have had any bees left; 

 and probably stock and people would have died, 

 as people who did not have water facilities to 

 hold the temperature down had their faces 

 blistered. 



Beeville, Texas. .Inly 9. 



[The winds mcniioiu'd in the above are com- 

 paratively coininrui in California. I did not 

 know, however, that they occurred in Texas. 

 In the vicinity of San Jacinto many apiaries 

 had a tight board fence on the north side in or- 

 der to cut off the hot winds from the Mojave 

 Desert. I laughed at them for shading their 

 hives on the north, when the sun was in the 

 south. They said these hot winds were far 

 more to be feared than the sun itself; and that 

 at times, if this hot wind struck a bee-hive, it 

 would melt the combs down and (eventually de- 

 stroy the colony. We sympathize with our 

 friends at Beevill(\ and trust that such things 

 do not happen very often. The hottest winds 

 are said to sweep down from Death Valley, and 

 it is very likelv the terrible heat that gives this 

 valley its name.] A. I. R. 



THE DUMB-WAITER. 



FULL DIRECTIOXS FOR MAKING ONE FOR HOME 

 PURPOSES. 



By Stephen Luther. 



Friend Root:—Jn Gleaning.s for 1891, p. 364, 

 Mr. Stewart describes a dairy well. In your 

 remarks you say you wonder why somebody 

 did not invent a dummy, or elevator, to run 

 provisions into the cellar. In 1890 I built such 

 an elevator; and it is such a satisfaction to ray 

 family, and as I am a constant reader of Glean- 

 ings, and have not seen any thing pertaining 

 to such an article since, I concluded to send a 

 description of mine. 



To make it I commenced by sawing out a 

 piece of floor the size I wanted for cupboard 

 (14x35K inches). I then took 3 pieces of narrow 

 studding, 14 inches long, and spiked, or toenail- 

 ed, fast at each end, to the joists under the 

 floor, placing them X of an inch below the 

 floor and projecting into the hole ^i of an inch, 

 for projections that are on upper end of the 

 cupboard to rest on. 



There is a board 8 inches wide nailed to the 

 under side of the joists at each end of the hole, 

 in the right place to fasten guides to; also to 

 hang pulleys to. No. 3 shows upper end of cup- 

 board, and the way it is constructed. The cup- 



