466 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



f 35.00: and I hope the readers of Gi.eaxings 

 will enjoy assisting in the work according to 

 their means, that onr good friend Tommy 

 Stringer may be emancipated from his pool' 

 dark prison life in the same way that our 

 young friend Helen Keller has been taught to 

 read and write. Contributions may be sent to 

 friend Goodhue or to us, as the friends choose. 

 We will send the ^3.5.(X) right a,long, and other 

 installments will follow as fast as the amounts 

 will wari'ant sending a check; and who knows 

 btit that Tommy may ere long give us a letter 

 of his own. expressing his thanks for what we 

 hope to do for him? If any of the readers of 

 Gleanings are curious to know how this won- 

 derful thing is accomplished, they can get a 

 hint of it by turning to our back volumes, 

 where they will find a description I gave of the 

 methods employed at tiie Deaf and Dumb Asy- 

 lum in Columbus. 0.1 A. I. R. 



THE CLARK SMOKER. 



FUEL FOIJ SMOKER. 



Friend Root: — I've just been reading your 

 latest " Directions " that go with the C^lark 

 smoker, and will indulge in a few comments. 



I agree entirely with you as to rotten wood. 

 As to the planer shavings, I have used them a 

 great deal, with and without sawdust, and I am 

 strongly of the opinion that I'd rather leave the 

 sawdust out. It's all right to have the material 

 you have, sawdust and all. but you can't get 

 that at a common planing-mill. The material 

 you call excelsior is excellent. I got some of it 

 from you a year or so ago. and like to have it on 

 hand "all the time. It is easily lighted, and lasts 

 well. But it isn't excelsior. The article com- 

 monly called excelsior makes very poor smoker 

 fuel. Possibly, combined with something else it 

 might do. You say, "Use wet sawdust mix- 

 ture." For this locality I'd rather have it dry. 



Pine cones, where they are plentiful, are 

 good, but they fill up with creosote rather too 

 much. Sound dry wood makes excellent fuel, 

 but it is not easily used in a Clark, and for the 

 Bingham it is so expensive that I prefer planer 

 shavings. I don't mean the wood itself is so 

 expensive, but it is so much labor to pre- 

 pare it. 



Of all the fuel I have ever tried, nothing suits 

 me so well as turning-lathe shavings of hard 

 wood; and of all woods, osage orange is the 

 best I have tried. It is exceedingly hard, and 

 makes the very nicest mallets, tool-handles, etc. 

 If you have none of it about Medina, you would 

 do well to have me ship yoti a few sticks, unless 

 you c an get it nearer. 



HOW TO HOLD THE BEI-LOWS. 



You may be right in saying that the valve 

 will be gummed up more if it is held valve up- 

 ward, but I doubt it. If any one has fairly tried 

 both ways, so as to know which way is best, I 

 wish he would arise and so state. 



HOW TO CLEAN OUT THE SMOKER. 



Y'ou say, " Cut a slender sprout the size of a 

 leadpencil. Trim its surface so it will be 

 smooth. Ram it through the blast-tube, back 

 and forth, until it is cleaned." I don't like that. 

 If the sprout is of a size to go through easily, it 

 is likely to break off in the tube, and then there 

 is a state of affairs. It's some trouble to get and 

 prepare the sprout each time. Sometimes you 

 are where you can't get one; but the worst of it 

 is, that every time you clean it out in that way 

 you push a good-sized chunk of creosote into the 

 bellows. Better have a permanent cleaner that 

 will pull the creosote out. Get a piece of heavy 

 wire, perhaps an eighth of an inch thick; bend 

 it into about the same curve as the blast-tube; 



hammer it at one end into chisel shape, bending 

 up the chisel end about an eighth of an inch or 

 more at right angles, and then you will have a 

 good tool always ready to use. It's just the 

 same as one you used to send out with each 

 smoker, only bent more, and heavier wire. 

 Marengo, 111., May 10. C. C. ^NHller. 



[All right, fiiend M. We will try turning- 

 lathe shavings. Great quantities of them are 

 burned in our boiler-furnace. But we will stop 

 and investigate, right away. Our turning-lathe 

 shavings ai'eall from hard wood. Our apiarist, 

 Mr. Spafford, howevei', hangs to the excelsior 

 sawdust that comes out of the hand-holes of 

 hives for smoker fuel. He is now using it with 

 excellent success in the new Hill smoker. Now 

 about that blast-tube. I suspect you I'ake it out 

 too much. I don't believe we clean oui'S out 

 more than four oi' five times a season. Eveiy 

 time you rake it, the worse it makes your bel- 

 lows. The old small blast-tube we formerly 

 had got filled up. and had to be cleaned nearly 

 eveiy day. The cleaning-implement which you 

 sugge^t might pei'haps be better: but we get 

 along veiy nicely by using a heavy wire, curved 

 at the right arc; but as a wooden sprout of the 

 right size does neai-ly as well, we thought that 

 it would answer for the great multitude who 

 buy the Clark smoker— about 30,000 a year.] 



LASIES' G0N¥ERSilZ18NE. 



PUTTING FOUNDATION INTO "WIRED 

 FRAMES. 



EMMA WILSON TELLS US HOW TO USE ARTIFI- 

 CIAL HEAT FOR IMBEDDING THE WIKES. 



In the division of work in our apiaries it has 

 been my lot to fasten the foundation in brood- 

 frames. When this work is to be done, and I 

 have bent the nails and wired the frames, then 

 I am ready for the foundation. I have usually 

 selected a sunny spot, and spread out my sheets 

 of foundation where the sun could shine direct- 

 ly on them, as a good deal depends on having 

 foundation in just the right condition. It 

 should be quite warm to work nicely. If too 

 cold, the wire will not adhere to the foundation 

 well. If too warm, there is danger of the wire 

 cutting its way clear through the foundation, 

 and then the bees are likely to gnaw holes in it. 

 Especially is this true if the foundation is 

 given at a time when they are not very busy. 

 It is not necessary to have your wire imbedded 

 deeply in the wax. If it adheres firmly, that is 

 sufficient. 



We formerly cut our foundation smaller than 

 our frames, leaving a space at the sides and 

 bottom. We found that the bees would not fill 

 out that space, especially at the bottom, leav- 

 ing a place for the queen to hide, which \vas 

 very annoying. We now have the sheets a lit- 

 tle larger than the frame, they being just the 

 same length, but a little wider, so that we can 

 crowd them in, pressing the edges firmlv along 

 the top and bottom bar; for even if you leave it 

 so that it just touches the bottom-bar, the bees 

 will be pretty sure to make a space, which we 

 want to avoid. In this way we get beautiful 

 frames, and lean not see that reversible frames 

 have any advantage, so far as solid combs are 

 concerned. 



One cool cloudy day I was obliged to prepare 

 some brood-frames. As I could not have the 

 heat of the sun, of necessity I was forced to 

 find some other way of heating my foundation; 

 so I carried it to the gasoline-stove. I heated 



