1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



859 



tions are placed on the hives. The other 

 parts are simply placed on the hive close to- 

 gether, with the openings downward. They 

 can be put on to any of the common cases in 

 use, so as to handle them all together if you 

 choose. Of course, a strip of foundation, or 

 enough to fill the whole section, is to be put 

 in to make the bees build their combs 

 straight. When tlie sections are ready to 

 come oft' the hives, slip on the covers that 

 were laid away, and they are ready for ship- 

 ment. When you wish" to exhibit them to 

 customers, slip oft' the bottom of the l)Ox in- 

 stead of the top, and you have exposed to 

 view that portion of the section that has 

 never been exposed to the labors of the bees 

 at all. It is as bright and clean as when it 

 left the buzz-saw, for it has always been 

 boxed up until this very moment. It is 

 true, the bottom part of the box has been 

 exposed to the travel of the bees, and may 

 be somewhat gummed ; but the ordinary 

 lithographic labels, such as are used on our 

 pasteboard boxes, will cover this bottom 

 completely ; and when they are placed on 

 the shelves or counters in the grocery, the 

 bottom can be viewed instead of the top of 

 the box. The top of the box will be nice 

 and clean, of course, for it was never expos- 

 ed to the bees at all; in fact, these covers 

 should be shut up in a dark box, to keep the 

 sun from fading the fresh color of the wood. 

 Now, then, the thought comes up, this is 

 all very wtII in theory, but who has ever 

 tried it to know whether it will work or not? 

 Well, here is what friend Gould reports : 



We have run our bees entirely for comb honey. 

 We started this spring- witli 18 swarms; we have 

 now 3-t swarms, and have taken about 14U0 pounds 

 of honey. The clover season was good, but I don't 

 think we g'ot a drop of basswood honey this year. 

 We have had in the same yard this year, blacks, 

 Syrians, Italians, and the Bellinzona strain; but the 

 blacks have surpassed them all. The Bellinzona did 

 nearly as well as the blacks, but they are so ug-ly it 

 is more than it is worth to handle them. One swarm 

 of blacks g-ave us 4 good swarms and ^5 pounds of 

 honey. The Syrians don't get ready to work till 

 clover is all gone, and tlien there is nothing to do, 

 and they take to robbing-. 1 believe they had rather 

 rob weak swarms than to get honey honestly. The 

 fall Howers have been verj' good here. 



Ralph E. Gould. 



Now, dear friends, you know all about it 

 1 do ; but the arrangement is so exceeding- 

 ly ingenious that 1 have decided to give 

 friend G. this free advertisement. The price, 

 too, for a section with a case to put it in is 

 very reasonable. The only difficulty I see is 

 the extreme accuracy of the workmanship 

 required to have them fit exactly ; and I am 

 afraid there will have to be some scraping 

 done when the boxes are taken from the 

 hives, so as to allow the covers to go on. 

 The sample sent us is also a little frail, and 

 I should be afraid the moisture of the hive 

 might cause the glue, used in putting the 

 boxes together, to let go its hold. Friend 

 Ilutchins. however, is a large manufacturer, 

 or, at least, I have been told so ; and as he 

 has been many years in the business, he 

 probably knows how to make and ui-e mate- 

 rials that will stand even dampness, 



THE WEBSTER JPUMIGATOB. 



^OMETIIINO FROM THE INVENTOR. 



T MUST thank you very much for your evidently 

 l^p unbiased expression of opinion on my fumiga- 

 ^r tor; but I must " pick you to pieces" a little 

 ^'*- over the matter, and endeavor to set you right 

 on one or two items. You take exception, in 

 no small degree, to its smell, and also to its making 

 your hands dirty, with what you call the " sticky " 

 matter. All these effects are due to one cause; 

 namely, improperly filling the sponge. Now, there 

 is no " sticky " matter whatever used in the 

 " agent," so that nothing sticky can possibly come 

 from it; but the sponge, being improperly filled, 

 the " agent " is blown on to the varnish of the bel- 

 lows; and the varnish, being partially dissolved 

 b.v the carbolic acid, so becomes sticky. Just try 

 this: Pour a little of the agent on your hands. It 

 will wash off directly with soap, and I know you 

 can't feel any stickiness in it. If the sponge was 

 properly filled, this would not happen; and, no por- 

 tion of the agent having escaped, your clothes could 

 not possibly smell of it. 



Of course, there is a right and a wrong way of 

 charging a smoker, and there is also a right and a 

 wrong way of chai-ging a fumigator. You'll say, 

 " You ought to have told me this before." So I 

 ought; but then, we are not exactly ne.xt-door 

 neighbors. 



I always, after charging the sponge, take a piece 

 of old rag and squeeze the sponge in it, not remov- 

 ing it from the hooks; the rag prevents the acid 

 getting on your hands, and takes up the surplus 

 that escapes; after which there is no chance of any 

 of the agent being forced out at the cap on your 

 hands, clothes, or bellows. 



I do not know whether the American bees are less 

 amenable to the fumes of carbolic acid; but here in 

 England I can handle them better with such than 

 with smoke. On first using- the fumigator one feels 

 that it can't be of much use, the same as you did 

 before trying it, as nothing is seen coming from it; 

 whereas bee-keepers have been used to seeing vol- 

 umes of smoke issuing from the smoker. During 

 three weeks I examined over 200 stocks, and on no 

 single occasion used smoke; in fact, I never use 

 any, and am handling bees every day during the 

 season. Now, you mustn't take the above as a 

 " pufl:' " on my invention, as, in America, such is of 

 no use to me in England, in a monetary sense I 

 mean, you being able to make and sell them as 

 cheap, without sending here for them. My object 

 is simply to lay before bee-keepers an appliance 

 that will economize labor, and help to make the 

 pursuit of bee-keeping more pleasant to its vota- 

 ries. We are all aware that the smoker is one of 

 the most unsatisfactory tools we have to use. 



Wokingham, Berks Co., Eng. W. B. Webster. 



Thanks, friend W. Although you are not 

 strictly a " near neighbor," yet even if the 

 Atlantic does intervene, I feel as if I could 

 reach your h.and just the same. After pour- 

 ing a little of the agent upon my fingers, as 

 you directed, I find that it is not sticky. 

 Tour supposition, that I got a little of the 

 liquid upon the varnish of the smoker bel- 

 lows, is correct ; and hence, not recognizing 

 that the varnish was tlie real factor that 

 caused the stickiness, I reported that the 

 agent was "sticky." J3ut as regards the 



