August, 1907. 



American ^ee Journal 



necessarj', and a barrel or box of suit- 

 able height for the operator to place 

 the board upon. On one side of the 

 board should be tacked 3 or 4 thick- 

 nesses of cloth so the brood and combs 

 will not be injured by being placed 

 upon it. 



Having these things all in readiness, 

 place the whole on a wheelbarrow, to- 

 gether with a lighted smoker and a 

 long-bladed knife, when you will pro- 

 ceed to the colony you wish to trans- 

 fer and blow a few puflfs of smoke in at 

 the entrance to alarm the bees, so they 

 will not rush out to sting you, when 

 the box-hive is to be turned bottom- 

 side up, and the frame hive placed on 

 the stand the bo.x-hive had just occu- 

 pied. 



Now blow a little more smoke over 

 the exposed bottoms of the combs, and 

 place the cap to the hive, or any box, 

 over the bottom of the hive, fixing it so 

 that one side or edge of the box comes 

 in contact with some one side of the 

 hive, so that the bees can crawl up into 

 this cap or box. 



Now, if you are to work further, 

 as was done before the one thousand 

 alluded to above, you will make sure 

 that the joint between the bo.x and the 

 old bo.x hive is bee-tight, by winding 

 an old sheet or cloth around this joint, 

 when you will proceed to take up sticks 

 of stove-wood and pound on the sides 

 of the hive for 10 to 15 minutes, in or- 

 der that the bees may be "drummed" 

 out of the hive up into the box from 

 which they are to be hived upon the 

 transferred combs at the close of the 

 operation. 



But allow me to Say that such tight 

 joint is entirely unnecessary, and the 

 10 or IS minutes pounding on the 

 hive is just so much time entirely 

 wasted. 



Having blown the smoke over the 

 bottoms of the combs and the box set 

 above, proceed to the splitting apart 

 of the old hive preparatory to getting 

 the combs out. Select the side of the 

 hive to which the combs run parallel, 

 if possible, and proceed to pry off the 

 side, using a cold-chisel to cut the 

 nails, if necessary. If there are cross- 

 sticks through the center of the hive, 

 these must be cut off with a saw or 

 otherwise. By this time the bees will 

 all be off the combs next where you 

 are working, when the first one is to 

 be removed by cutting with the long 

 knife next the hive wherever it is at- 

 tached. 



Now lay this comb on the board you 

 have made ready for its reception, when 

 one of the frames is placed on top of 

 the comb, and the comb marked by run- 

 ning a knife just inside of the frame 

 all the way around. Now take the 

 frame off and cut the comb a hair larger 

 than the marks so that it will fit snugly 

 in the frame when it is placed therein. 

 Next, press the frame over the comb 

 until it nicely fills the frame, when the 

 wire-nails are to be pushed through the 

 holes into the comb, so as to hold it in 

 place in the frame when hung in the 

 hive. To take from the board, raise 

 board and all until the frame stands 

 in the position it will assume when it 

 hangs in the hive, for by thus doing 

 there will be no danger of the comb 



falling out in the lifting, as there would 

 be were you to attempt to pick it up as 

 it lay flat upon the cloth-Hned board. 



Now place this transferred comb in 

 the hive, when the bees which have re- 

 turned from the fields will at once en- 

 ter the hive and take possession of it, 

 licking up all drip, beginning their work 

 of repairs, etc. Proceed to cut out the 

 rest of the combs and fit them in the 

 frames in the same way until all -are 

 used, and set in the new hive, always 

 placing them in the new hive in the 

 same relative position which they occu- 

 pied in the old, as nearly as possible to 

 do; otherwise some of the brood may 

 be lost, and the bees work to a disad- 

 vantage. 



If drone-comb to any amount is found, 

 it is well to leave the most of it out. 

 If many pieces of nice worker-comb are 

 made by the combs cutting to disad- 

 vantage, they can be fitted into frames 

 and fine wire wound around to hold 

 them in place. If this is done, the hive 

 must be opened in a few days, as soon 

 as the bees get the combs securely fas- 

 tened and the wire removed. Otherwise 

 the hive needs no opening after the op- 

 eration to remove an\'thing, as the 

 wire-nails will do no harm if they al 

 ways remain in the frames and combs 

 just where you left them when pushing 

 them through the frames into the comb. 



As soon as all the combs are in, 

 close the new hive, and hive into it the 

 bees which are in the box, the same as 

 any swarm would be hived, when the 

 job is done. 



If a scarcity of honey exists at the 

 time of transferring, so that robbing is 

 liable to occur, a bee-tent to set over 

 the hive and operator is a good thing. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Parcels Post and Technical 

 High Schools 



BY PROF. A. .T. COOK. 



There are very few improvements that 

 have come with such benefit to a large 

 class of our most deserving citizens as 

 the Free Rural Delivery. Said one of 

 our brightest farmers to me the other 

 day, "Greatly as I prize the telephone, 

 and much that it gives to us of comfort 

 and time-saving, yet it is no comparison 

 at all to the rural . delivery as an aid 

 and convenience to us farmers." He 

 added, "But we might get vastly more, 

 and at an actual saving to the country, 

 could we have a cheap rate on parcels up 

 to 25 pounds. This is sure to come, 

 as we need it, and deserve to have it, 

 and could get it in a very short time 

 if we would all pitch in and demand it." 



No doubt my friend is right. We are 

 behind all the peoples of Europe, and 

 even Mexico is ahead of us. This all 

 comes because the express companies 

 have their grip upon us, and wish to 

 grow rich at the expense of the people. 

 The railroads stayed off the Panama ca- 

 nal for years, greatly to the Nation's 

 hurt, and now the express companies 

 are playing the same shabby game. 



We now can send 4 pounds in a sin- 

 gle parcel, and must pay 16 cents per 

 pound to do this, whereas we should 



be able to send any weight, and at never 

 more than 5 cents per pound. 



The salary of the carriers has been 

 increased, and is surely none too much. 

 I believe that we do this work at an an- 

 nual loss of about $30,000,000. It is 

 certain that with a parcels post, and no 

 limit to the weight, the whole thing 

 could easily be made a source of profit, 

 with no harm to any one except the 

 men who are at the head of the express 

 companies, and they have fatted quite 

 long enough at the expense of the peo- 

 ple. 



The loss to the people in the rural 

 districts, from not having cheap rates 

 on packages with no limit to weight, is 

 said to be $100,000,000 a year, and, with 

 such a system, the Government would 

 have a fine profit instead of a deficit. 



A cabinet member told me the other 

 day that no one could be more heartily 

 in favor of cheap parcels post than was 

 he; and when asked if the President 

 was in favor of it, he replied, "Of course, 

 he favors anything that helps the peo- 

 ple; and what would be of more benefit 

 than a parcels post, such as they have 

 in all parts of Germany and most of the 

 other countries of Europe?" And is not 

 that emphatically true? 



The National Grange is also working 

 with all its great influence to secure ac- 

 tion by Congress, that will give us this 

 greatly-needed postal improvement. A 

 writer in the last New York Outlook, 

 who seems to have given this subject 

 much study and attention, says that with 

 a rightly-managed equipment, all mail 

 could be sent for one cent a pound with 

 no weight-limit except in case of let- 

 ters, and be self-supporting. Even if it 

 did cost more than was secured from 

 selling stamps, for a time, it would be 

 a wise outlay, as nothing could be more 

 of an educating power than this would 

 be. 



I believe that nothing could be more 

 serviceable to our people than this, and 

 in the Pacific States, so wide from the 

 East, it would come with added bless- 

 ing. We ought all to urge it on all oc- 

 casions, to write for the papers in its 

 behalf, to get others to do so, and fairly 

 to flood our congressmen with petitions 

 in favor of a parcels post, as liberal 

 and well-managed as the best in the 

 world at the present time. It is bound 

 to come soon, and it will be our fault 

 if it is not forthcoming very soon. 



Technical High Schools. 



Congressman Davis of Minnesota has 

 a bill before Congress which should in- 

 terest all of us. It promises as much 

 for our people as has come from the 

 Morrill Bill which passed in 1862, and 

 which by donating lands to the several 

 States secured the .Agricultural Colleges, 

 that have raised Agriculture in our 

 country to a a degree that is hard to 

 appreciate. 



This Bill has the hearty support of 

 the Secretary and Assistant Secretary 

 of Agriculture, the Master of the Na- 

 tional Grange, and will very likely pass 

 at the very next session of Congress. It 

 surely will if we all do our part to urge 

 its merits and importance upon Con- 

 gress. 



The Act proposes to appropriate to 

 each State, from the funds of the Gov- 



