116 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



the playing of a fountain. The blast of air 

 helps get up the heat; the shavings are 

 blown ill so loosely that they burn very 

 quickly, so the engineer is spared a great 

 deal of hard woi'k, and a great amount of 

 fuel is saved by the extra supply of oxygen 

 furnished. 



Turning again to the left, we come into 

 the machine-shop. Four men are now at 

 work tliere making buzz-saw mandrels and 

 comb-mills. Orders for fdu. mills are com- 

 ing in at an unusual rate, for the scarcity of 

 wax is inducing many bee-men to hold on, 

 or gather up all the wax in iheir vicinity, 

 and then get a mill to make their own. 

 Machinery for hive-making is also in great 

 demand, and never belore were so many 

 buzz saws wanted, and buzz saw mandrels. 

 We now order saws by the hundred, of a 

 single size, and in a few weeks we have to 

 order again. Our buzz-saws are stored in 

 one of the vaults, each size having its appro- 

 priate peg; and as the notions about saws 

 aie almost as diverse as those about hives, 

 we have to keep something like 40 or .50 

 kinds in stock, sizes from 4 to 10 and 18 

 inches. In the same room where the man- 

 drels are made, we make the honey-gates 

 for extractors, tit up the gearing, make 

 smoker-springs, besides doing the usual re- 

 pairing of the establishment. 



A little further along, our gejiial friend 

 Mr. Spafford is crating hives. He puts ten 

 in a package, and keeps doing it day after 

 day. We have something like 4000 Simplici- 

 ty hives now crated, ready for shipment. 

 liut I just told Mr. Gray I didn't believe it 

 would be half eiiough, for we often send out 

 100 in a day. 



(ioing on beyond JSIr. S., we come to the 

 dark-room again, where the railway track 

 and trap-door are, which I have told you 

 about, (ioing up a flight of stairs we come 

 into the packing-room, where our friend 

 Bert has four or live men all the while pack- 

 ing things in boxes, and nailing them up. 

 When inspected and put up, they are run on 

 trucks out of the arched doorway, right into 

 a car that stands close to the platform. 



Adjoining the packing-room is the saw- 

 room, which occupies the wliole tirst story, 

 from the engine-honse up to where you 

 see the horse and buggy hitched. From 15 

 to 20 men are usually employed in this room. 

 Further to the right, where you see the lady 

 with the parasol, is the room containing the 

 large press, and beyond that is the room for 

 storing the paper for printing Gleaxings 

 and the price list. This is now purchased in 

 lots of two tons at a time, and is run on 

 trucks from tJie car right into the double 

 doors, in front of the lady before mentioned. 

 A little further along, where you see those 

 three girls, is the entrance to the lunch- 

 room. The sign reads. "Home of the Hon- 

 ey Bees Lunch-lioom." 



We have now been all through, except the ; 

 upper story. On the corner where you see { 

 the window raised a little, is the printing- i 

 office, and this extends out a distance of ten 

 windows to the right. It is before one of 1 

 these windows, the sixth, counting from the 1 

 left, that I am sitting, dictating tliis item to j 

 the proof-reader, who is a short-hand writer 



as well as a printer and compositor. Be- 

 yond that is the office, where I hear the girls 

 chattering now. 1 i)resume they do not see 

 me anywhere around. Just back of the 

 printing-office is the folding-room, where the 

 journals are folded and cut, and the A B C's 

 are made. In this room we have a paper- 

 cutter that is heavy enough to cut your big 

 Webster's Dictionary all up into little slices, 

 if you should ever" want to do it. Back 

 toward the engine-room is what we call the 

 sample-room, where frames for bee-hives 

 are stacked up in such quantities that we 

 could probably fill an order for 100,000, and 

 have some left then. Here at each side of a 

 long table, several girls are at work tying up 

 goods ready for shipment by mail, express, 

 and freight. They handle seeds, feeders, 

 transferring implements, tinned wire, metal 

 bars, sections, honey-crates, and every thing 

 of that ilk. At the left of this room, in my 

 old office, where we have a small tin-shop 

 for making the inside of extractors, and (it- 

 ting them up together. Our friend Merwin 

 has charge of this room now ; but when he 

 gets crowded, " Jane " has to help him. It 

 is a little funny, I know, but Jane can make 

 more extractors (or, rather, the insides of ex- 

 tractors) in a day, than any man tinner that 

 we have ever found. Jf there is anybody 

 who thinks women are behind in industrial 

 and mechanical arts, he had better come and 

 make us a visit, it is true, we have some 

 w^ork that men can do, and women can not 

 very well do ; but we have a good deal, I tell 

 you. that the women do nicely, and that men 

 could not very well do, if they tried it ever 

 so hard. 



Beyond the extractor-room 1^ the room 

 where the smokers are made, and where w^e 

 keep our seeds. After the tin work is all 

 prepared, and the boards are made, the girls 

 make the smokers for 5 cts. apiece, cutting 

 out the leather, gluing up the bellows, and 

 all that. Some of you who think you can 

 put a smoker together yourselves cheaper 

 than the girls can, had better try it. 



Beyond the smoker and sample room is 

 the paint-room and japanning-room. But 

 before going in there, I want to tell you our 

 seed-room won't begin to hold the seeds, 

 and so we have got a sort of seed- house, or 

 granary, outside, set upon stoneware tiles, 

 so the rats and mice can't bother us. 



I think now we have been all through the 

 factory. Right before the lunch-room is a 

 stone watering- trough, where the horses and 

 dogs can quench their thirst. It is supplied 

 from the old well I have told you about. 

 When the new building was added, we felt 

 bad to think the well stood in the way ; but 

 we finally put the well in the cellar, had a 

 pretty pump attached, with stone pavement 

 around it, and now it is the handiest place in 

 the world for the boys and gij-ls and visitors, 

 or anybody else, to get a drink right from 

 the " old oaken bucket," or, rather, a new 

 chain pump, come to think of it. An ingen- 

 ious arrangement is attached to the pump 

 in the lunch-room, so the overfiow goes into 

 the watering-trough, which keeps it always 

 full, without anybody pumping in. 



Only a part of our lumber piles is shown ; 

 in fact, only a very small part. The track, 



