4SS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



on the brick question, onlj' I prefer Concord 

 grapevines to any sort of shade-board. 1 

 am very glad to know that somebody is 

 making' intelligent use of swarm-boxes on 

 poles of different lengths. The rigging for 

 lioldiijg the pole and box right up in the 

 cluster is tiptop. I used to try to stick the 

 pole iu the ground, so it would stand; but 

 when the swarm got on the end of it, it 

 would always tip over and make trouble. I 

 agree with you. friend, R., in substituting 

 kerosene for that other article of commerce. 

 Don't let us have the smell of it around any- 

 where, where it might tempt any one wlio 

 has once had a taste for it. Your cork 

 stools are also a good suggestion. This 

 spring we have been keeping barrels of wa- 

 ter right beside our beds of celery-plants, in 

 order that we may dampen them "often when 

 the sun is hot. \Vell. the bees seem deter- 

 mined to drink out of our water-barrels ; 

 and so many get drowned that the boys 

 liave already'been trying the many different 

 kinds of floats. 



A NEW FOUNDATION FASTENER. 



GOING BACK TO THE OLD PLAN Or MELTING WAX. 



fHE fastener desci'ibed herein is the most per- 

 fect machine I have ever used for the pur- 

 pose. It is fiir superior to any press, and is 

 away ahead of any other system of melted- 

 wax fastening that I know of. It works 

 easily and rapidb', is perfectlj' accurate, and costs 

 but a trifle to make. 



Its construction is made plain by the accompany- 

 ing: illustration. rn 



The frame. X X X X, sup- 

 ports the swing-ing- frame, 

 A A, which caries the iron 

 plate B. This plate is kept >^ 

 hot by means of a common 

 kerosene lamp having- a 

 "Leader" burner. The |A 



lamp is so placed that the 

 top of the chimney is about miller's fastener. 

 .T inches below the iron. The wide piece C, of the 

 frame X X, is for the section to rest on, two small 

 pieces of iron'or tin being nailed to the back of it, 

 to prevent the section from sliding too near the 

 plate. 



The plate B is inserted In saw-cuts made near the 

 top of the swinging frame, and is fastened in place 

 by a couple of wire nails. The plate is made of 

 light-weight sheet iron. 



The top of the front edge is beveled with a file, 

 and rubbed smooth with emery cloth. The under 

 side of the front edge is slightly rounded and pol- 

 ished. 



To adjust the machine for use, place it on a table, 

 or rack having a hole through it as large as the in- 

 side of frame X X, and fasten it securely. The 

 shelf beneath the table for the lamp to rest on 

 should be adjusted in /rout of the swinging frame 

 A, so that the frame will just touch its edge when 

 hanging plumb. Adjust a "stop" beneath the 

 table and bach of the frame A, at such a distance 

 from it that, when it Is pushed back, the front edge 

 of the iron, B, will be just at the middle of a top- 

 bar of a section placed on C. 



The frame A, after being pushed by the foot, re- 

 turns to its perpendicular position by means of a 

 piece of rubber band attached to it and to the lamp- 

 shelf. 



To fasten the foundation on a section, place the 

 section on the block C, snug against the two little 

 "stops;" hold the foundation about where wanted, 

 and with your foot push the bottom of the frame A 

 from you as far as it will go. This will bring the 

 hot iron plate B forward until its front edge is just 

 at the middle of the top of section (which is now 

 bottom up on C), and at the same time strike the 

 edge of the foundation, melting it ; immediately re- 

 move your foot and let the iron fly back. At the 

 instant the iron leaves the top bar of section, give 

 a slight downward pressure to the foundation. 



On picking up the section, the foundation will be 

 found to be securely fastened, exactly in the middle 

 of the top-bar. By allowing the thumb and first 

 finger of each hand to encircle the sides of the sec- 

 tion when holding the foundation, it will be found 

 easier to manipulate it. 

 Do not use copper for the plate B, as there is 

 I something about melted wax that acts upon it,turn- 

 j ing the wax green. Arthur C. Miller. 



I Drownville, R. I., Mar. 33, 1888. 



Friend M., your arrangement is quite in- 

 genious : but it is a good deal after the 

 fashion of one exhibited first at the Mich- 

 igan State Convention at Saginaw, and aft- 

 erward at the convention in Utica, N. Y., 

 only with your machine the hot plate is 

 operated by the foot, leaving both hands 

 free to manipulate the sections. I was so 

 much pleased with the way the operator 

 worked it at the last convention, that I paid 

 5^-5.00 for the machine i but our folks put it 

 away with the other relics in a very few 

 hours. The first objection was, that it was 

 much slower than even the Parker machine. 

 The second was that the whole apparatus 

 got so hot in the comse of an hour or two 

 that things melted before we got ready for 

 them to melt. Has your machine been used 

 right straight along for a day at a time? I 

 like the way the foundati(tn hangs when put 

 in by these machines, and it also holds so 

 substantially that you may tear off pieces of 

 it without loosening it in anyway. 



SECTIONS. 



.\ defense of the folk-piece. 



AM much surprised that so few of those who re- 

 ply to the queries in Gleanings should prefer 

 the four-piece dovetailed section (see Q. No. 27). 

 Again, recently the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal said that the four piece section had 

 become obsolete. Such is not the fact. I can point 

 out to Mr. Newman men who produce from ten tons 

 of honey upward, who use nothing else. In fact, 

 Vermont producers, as a rule, prefer them. Mr. 

 Muth says, " The four-piece sections are of the 

 primitive order," and gives, as his reason, that 

 " the fact of their being dovetailed makes them too 

 limber." This is the very ground on which the most 

 of us who prefer the four-piece, condemn the V- 

 groove. Let those of the fraternity who are unde- 

 cided, or prefer the V-groove, send to almost any 

 of our Vermont supply-men and get a sample; or. 



