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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



A WORD ABOUT TRUCKS 



Notes on the Beekeeper's Requirements 



for Outyard Work 



By E. F. Atwater 



Many beekeepers who operate a 

 number of apiaries use the Ford 

 truck, and its very low first cost, 

 most moderately priced repair parts, 

 and light tire and gasoline expense, 

 all combine to make it a very good 

 truck for those, at least, whose yards 

 are near home and on good roads. 

 But hereabouts the beekeeping pur- 

 chasers of Foi'd trucks usually find it 

 necessary to equip with oversize tires 

 and shock absorbers, and very desir- 

 able to add the self-starter, when, 

 with all these added, the cost is not 

 so low but that the man whose yards 

 are on rough, hilly, or sandy roads, 

 and perhaps long distances, from 

 home, may consider paying more and 

 buying a truck which can make better 

 time on the road, and with more sur- 

 plus power to pull through sand, mud, 

 or up steep grades. 



Hereabouts, the Ford truck is 

 about third in popularity, with the 

 most extensive producers, and these 

 men of many yards are some of 

 them devoted to the Olds, and others 

 to the Reo, with the Maxwell used by 

 one or two. The Olds and Reo are 

 both sturdy, amply powered, speedy 

 outfits, for their size and price. 



One of our own outfits is shown in 

 the cut, with trailer, both occupied 

 with empty 5-gallon honey can?. 

 When loading the trucks with cans or 

 empty supers of comb, "the sky is 

 the limit." 



Our other truck is a small Repub- 

 lic, and after one or two more seasons 

 will likely be converted into a one- 

 ton, four-wheel trailer. Both trucks 

 are equipped to haul trailers, to be 

 used when necessary, which is very 

 often, indeed. All trucks should be 

 equipped with spring trailer hitches, 

 to save jerking, which is very hard 

 on a truck or car, and the springs 

 should take up both pull and thrust. 



The truck body should be of con- 

 venient size, and after the use of a 

 top over each of your trucks, tops 

 covering seat and entire body, we cut 

 oflF the tops, so as to have cabs onl>', 

 as it is an intolerable nuisance to 

 have a top when loading or unload- 

 ing, a veritable back-breaker, as one 

 cannot straighten the back between 

 lifts. Along the sides of the body 

 heavy hooks should be bolted, so 

 ropes can make the load secure. 



We always carry shovel, axe, tow- 

 ing cable and a powerful lever pull- 

 out machine, so as to be ready to get 

 out of a mud hole; also a broom to 

 sweep out the body before loading 

 bees or honey. 



Where the roads are rough, spring 

 breakage can be materially reduced 

 by the use of a good set of rebound 

 snubbers, or shock absorbers of some 

 kind. 



The two-wheel trailer is fairly sat- 

 isfactory, but the four-wheel trailer 



is in some ways much better, as it can 

 be readily loaded or unloaded while 

 uncoupled from the truck, while the 

 two-wheel trailer must be blocked up 

 if loaded or unloaded while not con- 

 nected to the truck. Our small trailer 

 body is about 45 inches wide by 84 

 inches long inside, and takes 10 ten- 

 frame bodies, or 12 of the eight- 

 frame size, on the floor. The trailer 

 tongue must be twice as strong as you 

 think necessary. We thought ours 

 was amply strong, but one day when 

 we had a load of extracting supers of 

 empty comb, about si.x stories high, 

 and were going about twenty-five 

 miles an hour, it broke. The front 

 end of the trailer went down, struck 

 the ground, and the entire trailer 

 and load turned over in the air while 

 making a clear jump of about a rod. 

 The damage was considerable. We 

 use a larger and stronger tongue now. 

 The local blacksmith suggested a 

 stick eight by eight inches, but it is 

 not quite so large. 



With as much care as bees require 

 here, the automobile expense is one 

 of the heavy items involved in com- 

 mercial honey production, which it 

 scarcely seems possible greatly ta 

 reduce, as with often rough roads, the 

 gas, oil, tires and repairs run into a 

 large sum each year; yet can we af- 

 ford to use slower, cheaper trucks 

 when, with a crew of several men, we 

 would then waste much more time on 

 the roads? 



The seat of the truck as shown, ac- 

 commodates comfortably three men, if 

 none is large, while for a fourth man 

 we have a folding auxiliary seat 

 which attaches to the outside end of 

 the seat, on the opposite side. When 

 we must carry six men, we use cush- 

 ions between the fenders and hood, 

 and a man sits on each side, on and 



leaning against, a cushion. When 

 the bees have given up their attempts 

 at swarming, we need not carry cio 

 large a crew. 



We hope some day to have two 

 sliding bodies for the truck, then 

 when we arrive home, the entire load 

 will be slid into the extracting house 

 and a waiting load on empties slid 

 onto the truck, ready for a trip to 

 other yards. 



Idaho. 



WHAT YOU GET FOR YOUR 



MONEY 



By Frank C. Pellett 



In these days of price readjust- 

 ment we feel that a statement of 

 conditions as they confront the pub- 

 lisher is due our readers. We are es- 

 pecially pleased with the number of 

 letters received paying compliments 

 to the quality of the American Bee 

 Journal. For every one complaining 

 of the subscription price, we receive 

 several of commendatory tone. 



We have recently figured our ex- 

 penses and find that it costs us 20 

 cents per copy for every number of 

 the Journal as now published. Of 

 this the advertisers pay 8 cents for 

 the privilege of placing the merits of 

 their goods before our readers. Af- 

 ter deducting the money received 

 from advertising, it still costs us 12 

 cents per copy, or $1.44 per year for 

 every subscription filled under pres- 

 ent conditions. It will be seen that 

 the profit to the publishers is only 

 one-half cent per copy, or six cents 

 per year per subscriber. 



There has not been a time within 

 recent years when it was possible to 

 get out a trade journal of the quality 

 we are now sending out for less than 

 $1.50 per year. When the recent de- 

 cline in paper prices came we added 

 eight pages to the size of the Journal. 

 This equals 16 pages of the size of 

 most of the bee magazines, which we 

 have added to our former output. 



Judging from the letters received 

 from our readers, we believe that the 

 great majority of them prefer a high- 



