1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



33 



name besides his own ; in this case. SI. 50 pays 

 for the two names. At least one-half of the 

 names must be new. 



THE COMBINATION HIVE. 



A NEW bee-journal, under the caption of 

 The Queen Bee, is just out. It is edited by 

 E. L. Pratt. Beverly. Mass. In the editorial 

 leader the Combination hive is described as 

 simply the Dovetailed hive with an outside 

 winter-protecting shell, or Alley winter case. 

 Jivo. Pratt speaks very highly of both, and the 

 two he calls the Combination hive. He says: 

 " We are all aware that the New Dovetailed 

 hive is a well-made, cheap, and excellent hive, 

 but is not adapted to wintering out of doors in 

 cold climates. We have adapted the Alley 

 case to this hive, and can guarantee them per- 

 fect winterers when arranged in this manner." 



MEDALS OF AWARD. 



There has been, for a couple of years back, a 

 provision in the constitution, entitling affiliated 

 societies in the North American Bee-keepers' 

 Association certain privileges, among which 

 was, that said .societies shall be entitled to the 

 services of a judge to award premiums at bee 

 and lioney shows, and that they shall also be 

 ■entitled to receive two silver medals, to be of- 

 fered as prizes, open for competition to all their 

 members. So far. the national oi-ganization 

 has conferred neither of these privileges. 

 While on the sleeper, en route for Chicago, just 

 as we left Keokuk, this matter was brought up 

 by Mr. R. McKnight. One of tiie executive 

 committee of the soci(!ty was present, and a 

 couple of the ex-presidents — Mr. T. G. New- 

 man and Dr. C. C. Miller. We all admitted this 

 matter had been overlooked so far, and that 

 something ought to be done. After consulta- 

 tion, the executive-committee man present (E. 

 R. Root) agreed to bring the matter before the 

 other ofhcers. and the same is now under con- 

 sideration for more definite action for the fu- 

 ture. 



IS THE USE OF FOUNDATION PROFITABLE TO TIIE 

 BEE-KEEPER? 



On page 313 of the Bee-keepers' Review for 

 Dec. 10, friend Hasty uses the following words: 



"Tlie foundation business is a big busin&ss; and it 

 would be reduced very seriously if the truth were 

 g-enerallj' known." 



There is more on the same subject, but the 

 above will be sufficient. I fear that friend 

 Hasty has been staying at home so long he is 

 becoming a little " hasty." I trust, however, he 

 is not getting uncharlUihle as well, toward his 

 fellow bee-keepers. Had he been present at the 

 Keokuk convention he would certainly have 

 written differently. I expressed a fear at that 

 convention that bee-keepers were purchasing 

 and using more foundation than was really 

 profitable, and I asked the president to call for 

 a large number of rising votes on the matter. 

 I expected that many present would give us 

 facts to show that so much foundation is not 

 needed. Now, I hope that friend Hasty will be- 

 lieve me, even if some who do not know me so 

 well will not, when I say that I have felt really 

 troubled to see orders come in, especially during 

 the past season, for such enormous quantities 

 of foundation, especially for the brood -chamber. 

 I like to do business where I can furnish my 

 fellow-men with something they really need 

 and that will be to them a profitable invest- 

 ment; but when it becomes necessary to keep the 

 truth from being generally known, in order to 

 push sales, I do not ivant to do business any 

 longer. If friend Hasty is better prepared to 

 give us the truth in regard to the matter than 



were the veterans at the above-mentioned con- 

 vention. I will gladly give him space in Glean- 

 ings, and also pay him well for his time in writ- 

 ing it up. I can not believe that our journal 

 would have reached its present circulation, nor 

 otir business its present magnitude, were it true 

 that myself or any in my employ had tried to 

 build up business by repressing the truth in re- 

 gard to the things we have to sell. Ever since 

 foundation began to be used by bee-keepers, 

 there have been certain prominent writers who 

 have been experimenting. and writing to the ef- 

 fect that it does not pay to use it largely; and 

 the matter has been under experiment and close 

 scrutiny for at least ten or fifteen years. Our 

 friend Doolittle has been prominent in this line. 

 Now, if it is not profitable, especially for novices 

 in the business, to invest so much money in this 

 commodity, by all means let us have the truth 

 out before another season opens. 



A simple way of getting an adjustable 



SPEED ON printing-presses OR OTHER 



machinery. 

 The ordinary way of doing the above is by 

 countershaft and cone pulleys. One of our boys, 

 however, three or four years ago, arranged a 

 belt-shifter, so that he could, with his foot, 

 throw the belt partly from the loose on to the 

 tight pulley. By holding this belt-shifter 

 where he placed it with his foot, he found he 

 could get a very slow speed, and gradually in- 

 crease it at any given point, clear up to the full 

 normal speed of the press, simply by sliding the 

 shifter a little further. We recently purchased 

 an Armory press — a good deal larger than the 

 one allude"d to above: but he succeeds just as 

 well in regulating the speed of this large press 

 by the same cheap and simple device. In fact, 

 his invention, if so it may be called, has saved 

 us a set of cone pulleys that would have cost us 

 $27.00. and the cheap arrangement is much 

 simper and easier. One advantage is, that a 

 green hand may run the press very slowly, 

 while he is learning to feed, and then he can 

 gradually give it a little more speed as his skill 

 increases. I have wondered why this arrange- 

 ment has not been used and mentioned before. 

 If it has been. I have never heard of it. I in- 

 vite the attention of our typographical period- 

 icals to this labor and money saving device. 



BURDENSOME NOMENCLATURE ; GIVING CREDIT 

 IN A NAME. 



Mr. Heddon wishes to know why we do not 

 give him credit by calling the Dovetailed the 

 Dovetailed-Heddon hive. In the first place, it 

 would make confusion with the New Heddon 

 hive. More than that, to be fair to others we 

 should have *^o call the hive the Langstroth- 

 Blanton-Heddon - Danzenbaker - Hoffman-Hall 

 Dovetailed hive. Life is too short to go through 

 with all this. When the hive was brought out 

 we gave credit, to all four of the first named ; 

 and would any of our customers desire us to 

 hitch on such a long-tailed appellation? We 

 borrowed as much from INIr. Blanton and Mr. 

 Danzenbaker as from Mr. Heddon, and more 

 than all from Mr. Langstroth. Surely Lang- 

 stroth's luxme should be attached if any. Eve- 

 ry feature of the hive is old, and we do not 

 claim for it any novelty in invention. The 

 dovetailing has been in use for twelve years in 

 liives, and the new hive itself is simply a com- 

 bination of the old features that bee-keepers 

 recognize and demand. In this connection I 

 have always thought that the name of a well- 

 known article, the Bingham & Hetherington 

 uncapping-knife (a most excellent tool, by the 

 way) was too long for convenience. Again, 

 there used to be a hive sold which bore the 



