680 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Sept. 



prfifer, out of many that I have used or seen. Two 

 opposite corners are halved together and securely 

 nailed. The other two, like Foster's, are mitered 

 but not nailed, being- joined by a sort of hinge clasp 

 made of heavy hoop iron. A piece about six and a 

 half or seven inches !ong, bent in the center to a 

 right angle, and pierced close to one end with a i% 

 hole, and at the other with a slot fj^ wide by H long, 

 as shown in the cut at the corner of the super 

 shell A. 



BYRON WAI^KER'S ADJUSTABLE CASE, WITH 

 CLAMPING ARKANGEMENT. 



Two wire fence-staples, small size, complete the 

 device. The one is used to hinge the clasp to one 

 corner of the super, at the end pierced with a fg 

 hole; the other is driven into the side of the super, 

 in the right position to receive the slotted end of 

 the clasp when hinged to the corresponding end. 

 It should project about i\ of an inch. A small gim- 

 let is required in putting in these staples to avoid 

 splitting. Seven-eighths-inch stuff is the right thick- 

 ness for the super, in order to have the staples 

 clinch nicely. When the clasp is put on right, there 

 will be about #, of an inch play at the corner. A 

 six-penny wire nail is used to secure the clasp when 

 the crate is filled. The crate rests on a honey-board 

 having a bee-space on its upper side. The sections 

 are supported at the ends of the super in the usual 

 way. but U tins are used instead of T tins— the U 

 tins, by the way, resting upon the slats of the hon- 

 ey-board. As these U tins are kept in position by 

 means of wire nails pressed between the rows of 

 sections, the super can be readily reversed. By 

 using one separator through the center of the su- 

 per, I have also a very handy arrangement for re- 

 versing sections so as to bring unfinished ones to 

 the center of the super, and at the same time coun- 

 teract the tendency to bulge the outside sections. 



The clamping arrangement is essentially as fol- 

 lows: The bolted blocks, D D, etc., are each parallel 

 to the one opposite and at right angles to those adja- 

 cent, and far enough apart to inclose the super 

 shell, and allow % - inch play. The two beveled 

 blocks, C C, are made of hard wood, as are also the 

 beveled wedge pieces, D I), and all have the same 

 bevel, % inch. The inside dimensions of the super 

 are, of course, a little less than the surface covered 

 by the sections intended to till it; and as the wedges 

 are ',4 inch thick at the thinnest ends, there is about 

 •s inch to wedge upon. The blocks must be short 

 enough not to interfere with the strap-iron corner 

 fasteners while clamping. By making the inside 

 length of the honej'-boards % inch less than that of 

 the super, the end tin supports can be dispensed 

 with (I find they hinder rapid work in filling su- 

 pers); but in tiering up it is necessary to use a bee- 

 space support at one end of the upper super, the 

 other end resting on that of the one beneath. 

 Perhaps the chief objection that can be urged 



against the use of this style of super, you have al- 

 ready mentioned— that arising from the variation 

 in the width of sections. I find that, if the sections 

 are pressed close together after the super is filled, 

 by using the side-wedge the sections that cause the 

 trouble (commonly but few) can be readily detect- 

 ed. These can usually be so interchanged as to 

 make every thing tight; but it is a good plan to 

 have a portion of the sections previously assorted 

 as to width, by passing between two parallel strips 

 fastened securely at the proper distance apart. 

 Sometimes it is only necessary to exchange or 

 plane down one or more sections of an outside tier. 

 In this connection I would say that I find it very 

 desirable to have my sections glued at all corners, 

 and put together on a section-former. By using a 

 lamp stove, three persons can put them together 

 as fast as two can without gluing, and it pays in 

 more ways than one. Byron Walker. 



Capac, Mich., July 10, 1888. 



Accept our thanks, friend W".; but if you 

 will tiun to page 514, you will see that we 

 do not say a new open-side section, although 

 perhaps bur language may imply it. We 

 find by referring to the catalogue you send, 

 that you made the same or very similar sec- 

 tions as long ago as you state. It may seem 

 a little strange to you that we overlooked it; 

 but with the hundreds of price lists that 

 come to us annually it is almost impossible 

 to scrutinize them carefully, and to note the 

 new improvements that they may contain. 

 If you sent samples at the time, we presume 

 we failed to appreciate their point. Your 

 surplus arrangement is somewhat of a com- 

 bination of the one recently brought out by 

 D. A. Jones, and the one recommended by 

 Oliver Foster. The U tins may be better 

 than the T tins in point of propolis, in that 

 they form a knife-edge contact for the sec- 

 tions which they support ; but they do not 

 and can not, like the T tins, support separa- 

 tors independently of the case itself. These 

 U tins, however, allow the sections to come 

 in contact end for end. This is quite an ad- 

 vantage, indeed a necessity, with open-side 

 sections. You say your case allows of an 

 eighth of an inch play. Before us is a T su- 

 per of sections. When the latter were put 

 in they just filled the case, without any 

 room to spare. After a lapse of about two 

 weeks the six rows have so shrunk as to al- 

 low a quarter of an inch plav. If your case 

 allows but an eighth of an inch, it seems to 

 us that sometimes you would be bothered 

 with shrinkage of at least an eighth of an 

 inch, no matter how yon manipulate, and the 

 sections would be as loose as in an ordinary 

 case. As long as basswood sections will 

 shrink to such an extent, will not such 

 shrinkage largely if not altogether defeat 

 the object of compression? and if it does, 

 why go to the expense of making side and 

 end compressing cases? It is true, such 

 cases may facilitate the removal of sections, 

 but we doubt if such removal can be effect- 

 ed any quicker than from the T super, a la 

 Miller. These suggestions are not made for 

 the sake of argument or for the sake of 

 proving that the adjustable side case is of 

 no practical utilitv, but to get at the truth. 

 Perhaps friends Walker and Foster will 

 prove we are all wrong. 



