KSIC 



(;i.i;.\M.\(is IN HKH cui/riJiM'j. 



:.'43 



Hut tluTc is a limii. cvcii lu ihr pnwns of dui- 

 I'iiliforiiia sprinjis. so don"! try tlicm ino far. 

 Mr. Root, i)l(<tsi\ 



Say. Mr. Kditor. if I Ui'cp on i<ickiii^r iiioiiiui 

 in llic apiary in this nianniT. dismrhinK lli<' 

 liivt's, ril 1)1' Kfttiiijj pnity l)adly stnnn. and 

 siTvc mo riglit— diirnt'd fool. 



Tln'.s(> sundries hclonij to what Mr. Doolittlt' 

 terms '"thi' fun" pari our " itrofcssion." and 

 I'm ;ioini; to sec wiiat licronics of them Ix-foic 

 comniitlin;; any iudit to tli(> tender eare of an 

 editor. 1 don't take mueii st(K'l< in editors: 

 they (h)n"l tn>at me well. <xenerally: but as you. 

 Mr. Editor, are young in the business (having 

 been at it only live years, and not a few weeks 

 only, as Mr. Hilton seemed to imagine), you 

 have probably not become callous and hard- 

 hearted, and so 1 may perhaps obtain more 

 gentle treatment at youi' bands: l)utifyou kill 

 nie. do it quickly. Now I'll stop. Hut wiiat a 

 lot of paper it takes when one is allowed to u.se 

 only one side! but it's your loss. I could have 

 written twice as much if I used both sides. 



fNo name was signed to the above ; and. as a 

 rule, we reject all communications without a 

 signature: but we shall have to break our rule 

 this time, because — well, because the subject- 

 matter is quite •"available." Come again. Mr. 

 What's yer Name, but only let us kno<v who 

 you are.] 



<ets 



THAT COWAN EXTRACTOR. 



HOW TO KI-;VKKSK THI': KASKKTS AVHILK IN MO- 

 TION WITHOUT REVKHSING THE CKANK. 



Just why I should be very much interested in 

 extractors 1 hardly know, seeing I use one so 

 little: bttt any thing new in that line always 

 excites my interest: and when Ernest told me 

 about the Cowan extractor on my last visit 

 there, it was not long before I was amusing 

 myself tryi"? its capabilities. And then I 

 made what Ernest is pl(-ased to call my "'dis- 

 covery." that the comb-l)askets could be revers- 

 ed without entirely stoi)i)iug the motion. 



THE INSIDE OF THE COWAN EXTKACTOU. 



The trick is a very simple one. While the 

 right hand is in use turning the crank, with 

 the left give a push aLrainst one of the baskets 

 to cari"y it V^eyond tln' center, when centrifugal 

 force will take it the re-t of the way, and then 

 treat the other basket the sam<' way. You 

 must ■' slow up " to do this, for the left hand is 

 not quick enough to do it under full motion. 

 Still, with a little practice I found that I could 

 make the proper push with the left hand with- 

 out slowing up so ver\ itiucIi. A piece of plank 

 was in each basket, making it work about the 

 same as with a pair of heavy combs. I was really 



snrpri-ed at the ea-e w it h w lijcli the 

 coulil l)e reNcrsed. 



I am not very well posted in all kinds of ex- 

 tractors: but from what little I have tried au- 

 tomatic extractors. I should prefer- the Cowan. 

 I know tiiat the thought is likely to be. that an 

 automatic machine works itself, and cons(^- 

 tjtiently requires just so much less labor. Hut 

 if two machines that do the same kind of work 

 are compared. I think we shall i)refer the one 

 that, on the whole, works l)est with the least 

 labor. In any automatic extractor that I have 

 tried, tiie automatic part is iiardly automatic 

 in the strict sense of the word, for it requires 

 care and some skill on the part of the operator 

 to accom|)lish the reversing. True.it is done 

 with the hand that turns the crank: neverthe- 

 less, it is a fact. I think, that, in the liands of 

 an inexperienced jjerson. the simple act of re- 

 versing the motion does not of necessity reverse 

 the baskets. I think it requires le.«.s skill to run 

 the Cowan, and that one learns to run it in less 

 time. Moreover, it requires less time to reverse 

 the Cowan. The automatic must come to a 

 dead stop, and the motion must be reversed. 

 The Cowan does not stop— merely ""slows up" 

 for the left hand to do its part, then resumes its 

 former speed. 



1 can not say how it may be with others, but 

 for lue it is much easier to turn a crank that 

 moves in the direction of the hands of a clock 

 than to run it in the opposite, or what might be 

 called backwafd, direction. In running the 

 automatic, wlu II the baskets ar<' revi'rsed the 

 motion is reversed, and of necessity you half 

 the time turn the crank backward. With the 

 Cowan, no change of motion is made: and. no 

 matter how many times you reverse the baskets, 

 you continue to turn the crank all the time 

 forward, unless you prefer to turn it all the 

 time backward. 



Possilily. if I were more familiar with the 

 matter my views might undergo some change; 

 but it setmis to me that the main i)rinciples 

 which I have mentioned would remain much 

 the same. Hut it must be remembered that the 

 Cowan runs o'i'y two combs at a time. To 

 make a four-comb Cowan. I think the can 

 would have to be very much larger than that of 

 a four-comb automatic. 



CONTKACTION IN HAKVEST. 



A correspondent from far-off " bonnie Scot- 

 land" wants me to say whether I have come to 

 any settled conviction concerning matters men- 

 tioned on page <)tj. in "A Year Among the Bees." 

 I can hardly say that I have come to any set- 

 tled belief as yet: btit I became so little satis- 

 fied witli any' vacant space under the super, 

 that, for some time, I have left eight frames in 

 .the hive the year through. Aside from any 

 thing els(\ there is one vf^ry serious objection to 

 haviiig any thing like a vacant space under any 

 part of the super. The bees positively refuse to 

 do as good work above any thing except brood- 

 combs. I have tried it having all closed up 

 carefully iindei' the part thai contained no 

 brood-comlis. and I liave tried it with an open 

 space under: but for some reason the sections 

 directly over the brood -combs are worked the 

 best: and I should want a good deal of advan- 

 tage in some other direction to balance this. 



Moreover. I don't feel so sure as I did. that." 

 in tlie long run, there is any gain in limiting 

 the laying room of the queen. 1 know what 

 some will reply, and I can reel yon off a very 

 pretty theory about not having a lot of idle con- 

 sumers reared whicli will have nothing to do, 

 but I haven't been able to .«ee that the bees 

 gav(! as much respect to the theory as they 

 should, and it's a good (h^al less trouble to keep 

 the same number of frames in th(! hive the 



