318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



Ye microscopic sinners, ^o 

 Wliere ye belong— that is, below. 

 Haunt us no more foi-erer, please, 

 Tliou Russian, Frenchified disease. 

 La Grippe. 



After all, I like best the poems which show 

 his tender side. I think the right kind of a 

 heart never grows old, and Eugene Secor's heart 

 seems to be of that sort. The poem, "A Love 

 Letter," finely shows this tender side, with a 

 quaint touch of the humorous. No proper idea 

 can be had from any short quotation; but after 

 a description of his anxiety to meet again his 

 loved one. that involuntarily pictures to your 

 mind the ardent young lover, he ends up: 



For love is in the present tense, no future doubts can 



chill; 

 Besides, the one who longs for me, 'twixt anxious 



hopes and fears, 

 Has bef n my wife and true love, lo! these five and 



twenty years. 



While you smile at the neat little trick that 

 has been played upon you, on discovering that 

 it is a grandfather, and not a youth, who is 

 talking, the whole effect is such that tears are 

 very near the surface. 



If room permitted. "My Sweetheart" (his 

 sweetheart was the baby), "Papa, Come Home," 

 and others, might be mentioned. But I can 

 not forbear the mention of just one more, 

 '"Father, Hold my Hand." After picturing a 

 little one tucked in for the night, with her 

 many odd questionings, finally ending with the 

 request, '" Papa, will you please hold my hand?" 

 the poem ends: 



When I lay me down for that last long sleep. 

 And bid all mj^ loved ones good-night, 



Shall I my sweet faith in the Fatlier still keep. 

 And trust liim to bring me to light ? 



Shall I rest my liand in my dear Savior's own. 

 And all my vain questionings cease? 



Or shall I go out in tlie silence alone, 

 When deatli doth my spirit release ? 



But to the last question I am sure the poet 

 would make answer: 



Ah, no! I shall not go in silence alone. 



Spare in form, somewhat above medium 

 height, iron-gray hair and beard, Mr. Secor's 

 whole appearance impresses you as belonging 

 to a man of force; but in another respect the 

 face belies the man, for it gives the impression 

 of inflexible sternness, with no hint of the 

 genial, kindly nature that lies back of it. Mod- 

 est and quiet in demeanor, you might be with 

 him for some time without finding out what he 

 was. 



Mr. and Mrs. Secor seem proud of their two 

 daughters and two sons; but the latter, al- 

 though men grown, have been so sadly neglect 

 ed in the matter of accomplishments that nei- 

 ther of them smokes cigarettes nor belongs to a 

 base- ball team. 



A bee-keeper of twenty years' experience, Mr. 

 Secor's many other duties forbid his going be- 

 yond the number of about 7.5 colonies, and these 

 he has mostly in eight-frame Langstroth hives. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



AUTOMATIC SWARMERS, AGAIN. 



pkatt's veky late.st. 



Bro. Root: — I send you by this mail a model 

 of another application of the swarmer. The 

 sketch above will illustrate how it is applied to 

 any loose-bottom hive. No. 1 is the hive con- 

 taining the colony expected to swarm. No. 3 

 is an empty super or honey-case set on a rim of 

 any width, which is shown at A. This rim has 

 one of its ends removed, and a piece of exclud- 



ing zinc covers the opening and forms a very 

 widf^, light entrance. 



The super and rim rest on the bottom-board 

 exactly as a hive-body would; and the board 

 having the triangle bee-escape is placed (zinc 

 down) on the super — just as you would apply a 

 bee-escape board to any hive. The apex to the 

 escape should point to the front of the hive 

 toward the entrance. Over all is at last placed 

 the colony expected to swarm. When they do 

 swarm, the queen will be trapped in the lower 

 apartment, and the returning swarm will join 

 her there, after missing their queen. ^--^-"^ 



This arrangement does away with the extra 

 hive and stand, and is nearly as cheap. The 

 only drawback to it is, that it can not be applied 

 to a tight-bottom hive; but perhaps the men 

 using these hives would be willing to cut two 



pratt's latest automatic swarmer. 



or three auger-holes in the bottom-board of 

 them for the sake of checking swarming, or 

 they could shift the combs up into the upper 

 story and use the old hive to catch the swarm 

 in. A zinc honey-board, first placed on the 

 bottom-board, and the super to catch the 

 swarm placed over this, will answer the same 

 purpose as the rim with one end covered witli 

 zinc as shown at A, but there would not be 

 depth enough to hang in frames for the bees to 

 work on. 



If one has a surplus of hive-bodies they can 

 be used to catch the swarm in, and the zinc 

 honey-boards will work in well for them. 



My patent lies in trapping the queen in a new 

 hive and causing the swarm to join her by the 

 entrance they have become used to working 

 through many days before the swarm issues. 



Beverly, Mass. E. L. Pratt. 



[We believe that the swarmer above illus- 

 trated is considerable of an improvement over 

 the one formerly presented to our readers by 

 Mr. Pratt, good as it was. The feature of the 

 latest one is. that both hives are supported by 

 the same bottom-board, and this makes it un- 

 necessary to level up an extra bottom-board in 

 direct line with the other. The plan seems to 

 be specially adapted to the Dovetailed hive. It 

 is well known, that two of its supers make an 

 equivalent to one body, and that the same can 

 be used for holding the ordinary brood-frames. 

 All we need, then, is a perforated escape-board 

 situated between Nos. 1 and 2 as above, and an 

 extra super with one end open, covered with 

 perforated zinc. While we have not tested 

 either one of Mr. Pratt's devices, from a theo- 



