126 



glea:nings in bee culture. 



Feb. 



I am sure, friend C, that we are very 

 mucli obliged indeed tor the very full and 

 complete manner in which you have dis- 

 cussed this matter of the temperature of the 

 eaith. In regard to your caution, however, 

 at the close of your article, it seems to me 

 that carbonic acid is not common enough at 

 a depth of from three to five feet to make it 

 nect ssary for us to go to the very great ex- 

 panse of either iron pipes or burnt sewer- 

 pipes with cement joints. I confess that I 

 liave never before understood how it was, 

 that carbonic acid came to ,be present in 

 wells and mines.— There is one point, and 

 the one tliat concerns us most, in regard to 

 this matter of the temperature of our earth, 

 and I think it has hardly been touched upon. 

 It is this; for protecting bees or other do- 

 mestic animals, it is not necessary for us to 

 go into tiie ground so far that we have an 

 absolutely unvarying temperature. A very 

 little banking of earth makes quite a'differ- 

 ence, I have discovered, and all we need to 

 do is to make our cellars or outdoor caves 

 with their sub-earth ventilating-tubes deep 

 enough to get pretty nearly the temperature 

 we desire." If I understand you correctly, 

 the temperature I gave of Mammoth Cave 

 was not to be taken as a guide to the mean 

 temperature of old Mother Earth in all lo- 

 calities, but simply the mean temperature of 

 that part of Kentucky. 



A HONEY-KNIFE FOB ONLY A DIME. 



SO.METHING FOR BEEKEEPERS WHO HAVEN'T MUCH 

 MONEY. 



'OW often do we Hnd a tool, worth only 

 a few cents, that will do the work of 

 one that has cost a dollar or more ! I 

 have sometimes had such an experi- 

 ence, and felt out of patience with 



myself to think it never occurred to me that 



a cheaper form would answer every jmrpose. 



Below is a picture of a honey-knife that 



illustrates the point. 



OUR TEN-CENT HON K Y-KNIFE. 



The blade is made of a thin slip of steel, 

 in the form shown above, 2xii inches. The 

 handle is made of nuilleable iron, securely 

 riveted to the blade. The blade is so thin 

 that l)ut a very few strokes of a whetstone, 

 oilstone, or even a scythestone, will give it a 

 keen edge, for there is so little steel to grind 

 away tliat the sharpening can never be a 

 laborious process, and yet the quality of the 

 steel is so perfect that it seems almost im- 

 possible to bend or injure it. You can 

 sharpen it on one side or both sides, as you 

 choose. You can use it for uncapping, or 

 for cutting up combs in transferring ; and 

 for the latter it is, in my opinion, superior 

 to any other knife made, at any price.' ' Yox 



scraping off wax from honey-boards, tops of 

 frames, shipping-crates, or even wide frames 

 and sections, no other tool has been brought 

 out any thing like it. The wide-pointed put- 

 ty-knives we liave sold so extensively for 

 the purpose come pretty near it. But this 

 answers every purpose of the putty-knife, 

 besides being a honey-knife that may be 

 equal to any. The sharp point will be found 

 to be very convenient for a great variety 

 of purposes ; and after all, if you leave it out 

 in the rain, or forget it, you are only ten 

 cents out. A good many times I would give 

 ten cents for a new one, rather than go after 

 the old one, when it happens to be some lit- 

 tle distance away. It seems to me it w^ould 

 pay almost every "bee-keeper to have three or 

 four of these handy little implements; that 

 is, if he has a good many hives. We notice 

 the cut is marked '-patented." This was 

 done by the inventor, who intended it for a 

 knife to use in the kitchen. But if you pay 

 the ten cents, you can use it in the kitchen, 

 or out among the bee-hives, just as you 

 choose. I shouldn't wonder if it would pay 

 vou to get one for your wife also. Price 10 

 cts.; 5 for 4.5 cts.; 10 for 80 cts.; or 100 for 

 $7.50. If wanted by mail, add 5 cts. each 

 extra for postage. 



REVEKSIULE BEE-HIVES AND BEVEBSIBLE FRAMES. 



Since tlie description ot Heddoii's hive and ar- 

 rangement, so many letters liave come in, describ- 

 ing hives and various arrangements for reversing 

 hives as well as frames, it begins to be almost be- 

 yond my strength to go through the desci-iptions 

 and give an opinion of them. The greater part of 

 them are nothing particularly new. Years ago, Dr. 

 Contilin, of Delaware, Ohio, sent me a hive to try, 

 which had frames perfectly square, and set in the 

 hive so one corner of the frame was down. These 

 frames could be used with any one of the four cor- 

 ners down; but all the time I used it, it never oc- 

 curred to me to take advantage of the ease with 

 which these frames could be reversed. At the Ohio 

 State Fair last fall, Mr. A. C. Benedict, of Benning- 

 ton, O., had the hives on exhibition, with such 

 frames. He has used these frames, 1 believe, for 

 twenty or thirty years; and although they can be 

 placed one side up just as well as another, he has 

 never practiced reversing them. He says he does 

 not want them reversed. Is it not a little singular, 

 how progress and improvement and fashions re- 

 volve around, and once in about so long a time they 

 come back to about the same old thing again? 

 Even shallow sections, and hives used one above 

 the other, have been in use for years, and have 

 been it peatedly patented. Our old English works 

 give pictui'es of them now; and before the advent 

 of movable frames it was customary to have shal- 

 low hives with just the same depth of comb that 

 Heddon uses, and these were worked two tiers, 

 three tiers, and even four tiers high. Some of 

 them used slats to induce the bees to build their 

 combs regular, so that the owner might hold these 

 shallow sections up to the light and look thi-ougl} 

 them. A good many are woi'king at a plan for. 

 movable frames that may be lifted out, no matter 

 which side up the hive happens to t^e. I don't be- 

 lieve, friends, I would waste very much tiiij^ op 

 money oq thl§ niatter jugt j^e^, 



