1^1, -J 



GLEANINGS IN HEK ClM/rURE. 



83n 



My rxtiacMiir is imt a ipvcrsiblc niafliiiic, as 

 you know, and I am not disposed to say any 

 tliini? of till' r('V('i>ilii(' inaoliincs. any nioro 

 tluin tiiat I liavo ihvim' had Ihoni do work so 

 satisfai'toi'v for ine ;i- the non-reversitdo oik^s. 

 1 iiavc used tun dillrri'iit makes; one 1 owned, 

 and t lie other I did not. Tliere is just as much 

 ditTf'renoe in extracting honey witli my exti'acl- 

 or run by sti^ani. and iind(Mlaking to do tlie 

 same work witli a iiand machine, as there is in 

 sawing wood witli a bucksaw, or doing the 

 same work with a uood steam outfit. I have 

 pi'o)iably tui'ued an extractor to tlii'ow out 

 about as mucli iiom.v as most nu'ii: but 1 don't 

 want any nutreofii. I am perfectly willing to 

 let some one else have that pleasure and 

 honor. ' 



OSBUEX .S MAMMOTH HONEY - EXTKACTOR — IN- 

 •SIDE VIEW ONLY. 



Now in relation to the cheapness or the cost 

 of the two; i. e., steam or hand power, to 

 operate. To run my e.xtractor properly, say 

 from 7 in the moriniig till 4 in the afternoon, 

 will take not to exceed 40 cents' worth of coal; 

 oil, .5 cents, and in that time you can throw out 

 10.000 lbs. of honey if you have it to throw out. 

 But suppose you have but ;30(X) lbs. to get out. 

 Is it not much pleasanter to do it by steam 

 powiM' than by hand'.' Was not the first ex- 

 tractor ever made a great improvement over 

 the boy's way of getting the honey out of the 

 comb by swinging the comb fastened to one 

 end of a string over his head. Any man will 

 say yes. I will figure the cost of the two meth- 

 ods, steam or^iand power, from our standpoint 

 here, where, in the best localities, hundreds 

 upon hundreds of colonies can be kept in one 

 apiary, and such a plant as 1 have, is' so far 

 anead of hand machines that there is no com- 

 parison between the two. I will let you figure 

 the cost in your coimtry, where only small 

 apiaries can be kept in a place, and hand power 

 and small machines are always used. 



A. W. OSHURX. 



Hunta Brava, Cuba. W. I., Oct. 19. 



[Very recently we built a mammoth honey- 

 extractor, for a party] in Cuba, the same con- 

 structed after the manner of the one used by 

 . A. W. Osburn. Aft^r it was completed we took 

 a photo of it. with a workman standing beside 

 it; and the result given above will give the 

 reader some conception of its size. The engrav- 

 ing shows the internal arrangement for extract- 

 ing ','1 combs at a time. Altliough Mr. OsbUrn 

 does not say so, we presume the same is set up 



in a large wooden tank, the upright shaft being 

 .socketed to llu^ ceiling, and to a substantial 

 blearing in the bottom of thr> tank. A pulley Is 

 supposed to lie put on the end of the horizontal 

 shaft, or about when^ the man stands. This 

 pulley is then connected with tin; engine direct. 

 The other pulley, just below the bciveled gear, 

 is d(>signed to receive the brake, as so large a 

 machini', when in full motion, would not stop, 

 probably, under a minute or two, unless braked 

 down. The upright shaft is 3 inches, and the 

 horizontal '3,',; in diameter. The suppoi'ting- 

 arms are rods of steel ■/( inches squan^ making 

 the whole insid(i reel 7 feet IS inches in diameter, 

 and the bev(il(>d gear is 13 inches in diameter. 

 The combs are held in a perpendicular position 

 by an inside ring midway between the bottom 

 and top of the reel and two inches from the 

 wire cloth. To reverse. th<^ combs must be 

 lifted out in the good old-fashioned way, and 

 set in again the other side to. 



Mr. Osburn is probably correct in regard to 

 this machine's freedom from vibration. Other 

 things being equal, the larger the reel the less 

 the vibration due to any slight eccentricity. It 

 seemed to ns it was strong enough and heavy 

 enough to hold a man's weight at its periphery, 

 and we have no doubt that it will do its work 

 perfectly. Of course, such a large extractor as 

 this will be useful in only a very few localities 

 in the world — such localities as would furnish 

 nectar-bearing flora for live or six months in 

 the year. W(! doubt whether it would be prac- 

 ticable in many places even in California. For 

 the great majority of bee-keepers, the two- 

 frame extractor is sufiBcient; and even four and 

 six frame reversible extractors have a capacity 

 ample for the needs of the most if not all of the 

 largest extracted - honey men in the United 

 States.] 



SOMETHING FURTHER ON THE INTRODUC- 

 ING SUBJECT. 



FREELY GIVE, FREELY' RECEIVE. 



Well, well! it seems that Doolittle's article 

 on page ()17 was read with a "relish" by Dr. 

 Miller; and if my correspondence is any crite- 

 rion to go by, that article was read with much 

 "relish" by many others. It is "kinder fininy" 

 that, when a "man is down," folks will all "prick 

 up their ears "and be more interested in his 

 being douyn than they an^ in the man. or in all 

 he has done for the good of the world in all of 

 his previous life. Let a minister of the gospel 

 fall into an error, and how the newspapers of 

 the land will jiublisli it. so that all eyes will see 

 it, while all of his life may have been spent in 

 doing good up to that time, without a single 

 word of encouragement, or words of cheer being 

 said to help him bear the burdens the Master 

 has enjoined upon him. or so that he might 

 have sl'uinned the pit into which he fell, or been 

 of still greater usefulness in the world. What 

 I have to say in this article is not said in a 

 fault-finding spirit, but with the hope that we 

 as bee- keepers may be led into a broader plain, 

 and up to a higher elevation along the line of 

 what shall be the "greattiSt good to the great- 

 est number." 



Soon after that article, on my failure to in- 

 troduce a queen, appeared in print, I began to 

 be showered with letters, and I almost wish it 

 were the proper thing to give all of those letters, 

 with the names attached to them, in the col- 

 umns of Gleanings. It would seem that 

 many — yes. very many — have forgotten the 

 great doctrine of the "brotherhood of man," 

 and the one desire which, taking possession of 

 the hearts of many of the people, seems to be to 



