GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTtJBE. 



?95 



Friend M., I was probably as much 

 surprised to find that you can fold only 100 

 one-piece sections per hour as you were to 

 learn that we thought it no difficult task to 

 fold 1000 in the same time. Perhaps we 

 can discover why it is that there is such a 

 great difference in the speed. In the first 

 place, you sandpaper your sections. This 

 we never do. We thought we made them 

 smooth enough— at least, we think we have 

 in later years, to render such work unnec- 

 essary. In the second place, we rarely 

 have occasion to moisten the folding cor- 

 ners. The climate of California is very dry 

 —so dry, indeed, that it is not practicable 

 to use barrels or kegs for the storage and 

 shipment of honey, because of the shrink- 

 age of the staves, and this may account for 

 the breaking of your sections. When the 

 sections have been sawed for some time, we 

 occasionally find it necessary to dampen the 

 corners to prevent breaking ; but even then 

 our girls can fold even 500 per hour. To 

 make sure that I made no mistake, be- 

 fore I reported 1 timed one of the wom- 

 en when she was folding sections, and by 

 the watch she turned out 25 per minute. 

 This would make 1500 per hour. This rate 

 is the very best she can do, but she could 

 not, of course, keep it up through the whole 

 hour; but she says she has repeatedly fold- 

 ed 1200 in an hour. To be on the safe side, 

 I thought I should be perfectly within 

 bounds to say that the girls consider it no 

 difficult task to fold 1000 one-piece sections 

 per hour. If you will turn back to the 

 Juvenile Departments in Gleanings you 

 will find that the little folks in two or three 

 instances folded at this rate. As a general 

 rule, I believe that a good smart woman 

 can do light work more rapidly than a man. 

 If you have ever been in a match-factory, 

 and have seen the girls put the matches in 

 boxes, and attach the stamps on each pack- 

 age, you have doubtless been greatly sur- 

 prised at the rapidity with which their 

 hands move. I have seen some girls 

 work so rapidly that it was very difficult in- 

 deed to follow their movements. The se- 

 cret of their speed was, they were working 

 by the piece. Our girls fold sections by the 

 piece. We pay 3 cts. per 100. Your rate of 

 speed, 100 per hour, would fetch you only 

 30 cts. a day; but if you were folding sec- 

 tions by the piece, perhaps you could make 

 $2.50 per day. Now, friend M., I am in- 

 clined to believe that the dryness of your 

 climate has a great deal to do with the 

 breaking of your sections ; and while it does 

 not account entirely for the difference in 

 speed, we think it does so very largely. 



In addition to what Ernest has said, I 

 would suggest that the bees, if allowed, 

 will clean the fuzzy matter from basswood 

 sections very nicely, and we have been of 

 the opinion that they do it cheaper than the 

 bee-keeper can. Some specimens of bass- 

 wood lumber, when seasoned just right, 

 and the saws are in excellent trim, will give 

 us sections almost entirely free from this 

 roughness. I think, however, that sections 

 that are a little fuzzy will, as a rule, fold 

 with less danger of breakage, for this very 

 thing indicates that the lumber was not 



thoroughly seasoned when worked. Per- 

 haps, friend M., you are a little more par- 

 ticular with your sections than bee-keepers 

 are generally. I know very well our dove- 

 tailing has not always been done as perfect- 

 ly as it should be, and we are now arrang- 

 ing our machinery with the view of making 

 it mipossible to have the plank go through 

 the macliines with defective dovetailing. 

 We are much obliged to you for your hints 

 and criticisms in regard to making sections. 



THE CLANDESTINE CUT- WORM MOTH. 



ANOTHER TEST OP TRUE HIBERNATION. 



T HAVE just received from Mr. T. Rothwell, Aus- 

 ^P tinville, Pa., three dark, almost black moths, 

 ^[ which are an inch long, and expand -that is, 

 "*■ measure from tip to tip of wings when these 

 are spread— an inch and three quarters. He 

 finds them in his honey-house, and wonders if he 

 should kill them. He adds: " Please tell us of them 

 through Gr.EANiNGS." 



These are among our most common cut-worm 

 moths. They are wont to come into our houses, and 

 hide by day behind shutters, curtains, or in any 

 dark place. Hence the specific name, Clandeslina. 

 [t is known to science as Agrotis Clandestma. It is 

 so common that everybody who uses his eyes must 

 have seen it over and over again. They usually en- 

 ter houses in the evening, attracted by the lamp- 

 light. 



It is lamentable how ignorant some of our well- 

 informed people ai-e in reference to these most 

 common and familiar insects. Thus one of my lady 

 acquaintances, of rare culture, always supposed 

 that these moths, which she often saw in her house, 

 were the clothes, or carpet moth, and so always 

 crushed them at great labor and pains when she 

 saw them. The clothes moth is a very small orange 

 or gray moth, beside which this one is a veritable 

 Jumbo. 



While these moths do no injury to the bee-keeper 

 or his products, their immature forms (the larvae, 

 or caterpillars, so-called cut-worms) (there are sev- 

 eral other species of cut-worms) often do immense 

 damage to corn, cabbage, tomatoes, and other gar- 

 den and field crops. Thus to kill them aids our 

 farmer friends; yet not very greatly, as what we 

 could kill would be only a drop in the bucket. 



YELLOW SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. 



Mr. C. L. Fischer, Crete, Nebraska, sends me the 

 caterpillar of our large yellow swallow-tailed but- 

 terfly, Papilioturnug. This caterpillar is large at its 

 head end, and tapers toward its opposite extremity. 

 It has eye-like spots near its head, and when dis- 

 turbed it pushes out quickly some horn-like organs 

 which are really scent organs. If we may judge 

 from the horrible odor which this gives off, we may 

 welj regard these scent organs as defensive. The 

 butterflies which will come from these next spring 

 are large yellow species, and are often seen on the 

 lilac-blossoms. The long tail-like projections to 

 their posterior wings make their identitication easy. 

 Tbis species illustrates the strange and interesting 

 law of dimorphism— two forms. Though this but- 

 terfly is yellow north, as we go south a black form 

 of the same insect is common. 



I am surprised to know that this insect feeds on 

 the tulip— let us stop calling tulip " poplar." I 



