1891 



GLEANINGvS IN BEE CULTURE. 



341 



know tliat you arc feeling well enough to send 

 us this message. 



I-OOK OUT FOIS them! 



SoMio time in November last we received the 

 following: 



Mr. A. I. R()ot:~Please send us ten copies of A 15 

 C of Strawberry Cuitui-e, by Terry, at yoiu' earhest 

 convenience, and at lowest rate. 



Our CouNTuy Home. 



88 Pulton St.. New York, Nov. 13, 1890. 



Along with it came a very neat-looking rural 

 paper, styled Our Coimtry Home, affirming that 

 they had a guaranteed circulation of over 100,- 

 000 copies monthly. W(^ therefore tilled the 

 order. Sinc(> then we have sent repeated state- 

 ments, and tinally drew on them, as a last re- 

 sort, telling them that we should publish them 

 unless they settled up their little account of 

 $3.05. As they do not even yet so much as "peep" 

 by way of reply, we think best to give this cau- 

 tion. Perhaps we might add. that neither Dun 

 nor liradstreet quotes any such institution. 



NO MOUE HELP WAMTED. 



Please do not write us asking what the 

 " chances " are for employnuuit in our estab- 

 lishment if you move to Medina. It is not pos- 

 sible for us to give places to a quarter of the 

 applicants right here at home, and I have re- 

 peatedly so stated in oi'ir county papers. Not- 

 withstanding, people do move here and bring 

 their families, sometimes waiting a year, and, 

 in one or two cases, even two years, for a possi- 

 ble vacancy. Then they move away, and I 

 fear tlit^y sometimes feel hard toward me. In 

 view of this it seems to nie the kindest thing I 

 can do is to tell you that we have quite a book- 

 ful of applications all the tiuK;. If these [)eople 

 who apply for places were skilled mi'chanics in 

 almost any line of trade, the prospect would 

 not be so poor, lint I believe that skilled work- 

 men in any department usually have plenty to 

 do, with good pay. I do not know what is go- 

 ing to happen to our people if this matter of 

 serving an apprenticeship and learning a trade 

 is to be abandoned entirely. 



THE MICHIGAN FARMER, ON BUCKAVHEAT. 



An exchange says: 



The Michigan Farmer says tliat " it is very appar- 

 ent tliat Japanese l)uckwlieat is not ^oin^- to take 

 tlie place of American varieties." Tliis conchision 

 is based, in part, on tlie ex])erience of a correspond- 

 ent wlio says. "The flour is dark, and will not bake 

 g-t)Od cakes;" and he can "sell it only for chicken 

 feed." He adds: "I have raised it for tlu-ee 'years, 

 but am tlu'oug-h now." 



In commenting on the above, friend A. C. 

 Bugbie, of Lochiel. Ind., asks us: 



What do you think of thisV I liave raised about 

 1500 lbs. of buckwheat flour this winter, raised from 

 the Japanese variety, and it is of prime quality. 



Well, friend B., I will tell you what I think 

 the corresijondent of the Mkldgan Fanner had 

 better do. I think a change of cook for three 

 years, rather than a change of buckwheat, 

 would change his mind in the midst of these 

 changes. The Japanese flour has been used, 

 not only in our lunch-room, but all over Medi- 

 na, for two winters past; and, besides that, we 

 have reports from it from almost all over the 

 world, and it certainly is not true that the Hour 

 made from it is in any respect inferior to the 

 common. 



A VISIT FROM MR. PARKS, OF THE G. B. LEWIS 

 MANUFACTURING CO. 



We have just had a very pleasant call from 

 Mr. Chas. E. Parks, who is manager and largest 

 stockholder in the G. B. Lewis Co. at Water- 

 town, Wis. He has just been on a business trip 



to New York. On his r<'turn iiome he stopped 

 at W. T. Falconer's, in .Jamestown. N. Y., and 

 after making them a call he dropped in upon us 

 unexpectedly. Mi-. Parks is a man of busin(^ss. 

 and a hustler. We were somewhat surprised 

 to learn that they were turning out fi'om lOO.OOO 

 to 120,000 sections a day. These are all sawed 

 on four automatic machines, tin; first of which 

 cost the comi)any •■^:i()()(>, and the next three 

 about half as mucii each. They probably make 

 twice as many sections per day as any other 

 firm. Our out])ut is fi'om 40,000 to 7.5,000 per 

 day. But the G. B. Lewis Co. make hives, 

 frames, sections, and shipping-cases only, those 

 being their specialties, while the rest of us who 

 make a smaller number of sections per day are 

 making every thing used by the bee-keeper, 

 whether wood or metal. The company now em- 

 ploy about 135 hands. We are glad to add that 

 the sections made by them are second to none in 

 the market. 



FOUL BROOD SPREAD FROM COMB FOUNI).\TION; 

 IS IT A CAUSE FOR AI,ARM ? 



On page 447 of the Airiericnn Bee Journal, 

 Mr. S. Cornell, of Lindsay, Out., Canada, holds 

 the opinion that the disease may be spread in 

 that way. He gives some interesting figures, 

 showing the temperature at which spores and 

 fully matured microbes may be killed. He says, 

 it has been ascertained that the death-point of 

 the most resistant fully matured microbe is llO- 

 degrees, and that the spore of said mjcrobe 

 could not be killed under a temperature of 3.57 

 degrees. Wax, he says, melts at a lower point 

 than 145 degrees, and he adds that, in sheeting- 

 it for foundation, the wax is kept at a temi>era- 

 ture as near the congealing-point as possible; 

 and he concludes by saying, "There is good 

 reason for believing that foundation has been 

 sent out which has never been heated up to 1!K), 

 much less to 357. It is highly probable that 

 such foundation would contain germs of foul 

 brood, if made from the wax of foul-brood 

 comb." On the face of things this appears to 

 be a pretty serious state of affairs; but, happi- 

 ly, the facts come to our rescue, and prove that 

 there is no cause for alarm. 



We have melted th(^ worst kind of diseased 

 combs in our large heating-tank, made founda- 

 tion, and put it in our own yard, but no trou- 

 ble ever came. And there is not wanting tes- 

 tiinony from other experimenters to prove this. 

 But if INIr. Corncnl's theory be true, would not 

 foul bi'ood have been universally spread all 

 over the land with the advent of comb founda- 

 tion, years ago ? 



Now, fi-iend Cornell, we do not wish to dispute 

 you point blank, so we will explain why the 

 disease will not propagate with foundation. 

 All our wax is melted by steam, in a large vat 

 holding over a ton. This vat is inclosed in an- 

 other, and is thei-efore siu-rounded by water. 

 We have just been down, and found that the 

 temperature of this surrounding water was 300 

 degrees. After the wax in the inner vat is 

 melted, this temperature is allowed to go down 

 to about 180. We aim to keep the wax itself in 

 the melting-vat at about 170 degrees, and this 

 temperature is maintained for days. The sup- 

 ply of wax is kept up by putting in cakes at a 

 time, and it is dipped out as fast as we want it. 

 As Mr. Cornell himself admits, a long-contin- 

 ued high temperature is equivalent to a much 

 higher temperature for a few minuti's; and not 

 only the microbes but fhe si^ores themselves 

 have got to succumb. A few hours of 170 de- 

 grees, we know from long experience, will kill 

 all sorts of germ life. While the wax in the 

 rneltmg-vat is kept at 170, that in the dipping- 

 tank is kept very near the congealing-point, 

 140, sometimes as low as 130. But before it has 



