1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



883 



kind of a chance is there to j^^el the first sec- 

 tion out of a case when all the space is filled 

 up, and no rooui to stjuee/.e j-our thumb nail 

 between the tops of the sections ? 



[Doctor, you haven't read all of Glkanings. 

 On pai^e S2S you will find the cost of the new 

 fence stated. While it is true it will cost more 

 than the old-style plain separator, it will last 

 longer and will be as cheap or cheaper in the 

 end. It is also st'onger and more durable. 

 But right here you stick in a question-mark. 

 The oriiinary plain sawed separator is made of 

 one strip of wood less than ,',. inch thick and 

 4 '2 wide. There are no cleats — in fact, there 

 is nothing to stiffen it ; and the constant 

 handling of these, in and out of supers, has a 

 tendency to break more or less of them ; and 

 the entire lack of stiffening causes some to 

 curl and warp, rendering them useless. The 

 new fence will be stronger than the old sep- 

 arator, just as a panel door is stronger than 

 one wide door of the same width and length 

 of one board, or as a cable made of strands of 

 wire is stronger than a rod of iron of the same 

 diameter. The new fence is made up of four 

 slats and eight cross-cleats. If there is a 

 slight tendency in one slat to twist or warp, 

 that tendency will be counteracted or correct- 

 ed by the next slat, and by the cross-cleats 

 binding the whole four together. 



With regard to the matter of scraping or 

 cleaning, that will be much simpler with the 

 fence than with the old separator. All that is 

 necessary is to scrape the cross-cleais — an op- 

 eration that needs to be done only once in two 

 or three years, if I am correct. 



As to the third point, regarding corner holes 

 where j'ou alsj raise a question mark, I might 

 say that I looked over a thousand pounds or 

 so of Morton's honey — that is, I picked up 

 sections at random from different supers and 

 different places; and the remarkable part of it 

 was that there were not any corner holes in 

 any of the honey, so far as I can remember. 

 This seemed to me very significant; and after 

 I arrived home I fell to thinking about it more 

 and more, especially when friend Danzenbaker 

 showed me some of his slat- separator honey. 

 I looked over quite a lot of it, and in appear- 

 ance it was about the same as Morton's. 



With regard to the better appearance of the 

 honey in plain sections, I am rather of the 

 opinion that, if you will place that same hon- 

 ey, one lot in one shipping-case and one lot in 

 another, behind glass, your women-folks will 

 detect the difference. I have shown, to quite 

 a number, the two cases that were illustrated 

 in Gleanings, and the verdict has been every 

 time that the honey in the plain sections looked 

 better; but for what reason the observers could 

 not say, as they were not experts in judging 

 honey. 



So you do not see any weight in my sixth 

 point, namely, the advantage of the plain sec- 

 tion in point of scraping and stain ? The best 

 way to convince )Ou would be to take you 

 through York State with me, where propolis 

 is smeared over every thing. There are some 

 localities where honey has to remain on the 

 hive for a considerable time, because the flow, 



while continuous, is very moderate. It is un- 

 der such conditions that the insets of tlie old- 

 style sections are badly stained. 



While the matter ol scraping may not be of 

 any great importance with you, I am sure 

 that, with 1)9 other bee-keepers, it means much. 



We expect to be able to furnish fences for T 

 supers and every other sort of super; but in 

 the case of irregular or odd sized ones, of 

 course a corresponding price will have to be 

 charged. 



With regard to j-our last paragraph, I grant 

 it seems as if the new plain section would be 

 more difficult to remove from shipping-cases; 

 but the fact is, all shipping-cases should be 

 provided with a follower and wedge, both for 

 safety in ship])ing and for convenience in tak- 

 ing irregular sizes of sections. For example, 

 our regular 24-pound shipping- case, by the use 

 of the follower and wedge, or by the omission 

 of either one or both, is adapted to take either 

 7 to the foot, 1>^, or 1% sections, or even two 

 inches. W^ell, then, when the grocer receives 

 his cases of 1 % sections, all he has to do is to 

 remove first the wedge, and then the rest is all 

 easy ; and speaking of wedges reminds me 

 that twisted paper stuck in between the side of 

 the super and the follower is the very best form 

 of wedge that can be devised. It answers as a 

 very nice cushion as well as a wedge. — Ed.] 



BEAN HONEY A\D BEAN-GKOWIXG. 



BY C. A. HATCH. 



To the average bee-keeper of the Eastern 

 States, bean honey seems to be a myth — one 

 among the many conjured up in the fertile 

 brain of a Pacific-coast resident ; and talk of 

 bean-fields suggests to him only the garden- 

 patches of his neighbors, or possibly a field 

 of an acre or so grown b}' some ambitiovis 

 one ; but to think of a farmer putting his 

 whole farm into beans, and ■ lima beans at 

 that, is unheard-of rashness. But here in 

 California a good many things are possible 

 that in the East would be quite impossible. 

 Not only do farmers plant their whole farms 

 to beans, but very large farms at that. One 

 ranch near \'entura has lUOO acres, mostly in 

 beans. The crop of this one ranch was 11) 

 carloads one year. I saw 10 two-horse teams 

 cutting, and 2') men shocking beans on their 

 ranch this year, at one time. 



How would it seem to see rows of lima 

 beans one mile long? Impossible I you say; 

 can not get poles enough for so many. But 

 there are no poles used, and the large running 

 lima is the kind grown, too, mostly. Some 

 few Burpees are grown, but the large kind 

 give the best satisfaction. 



Ventura is called the bean county, and 

 rightly, for three-fourths of the beans grown 

 west of the Rocky Mountains are grown with- 

 in her borders. Other parts of the State grow 

 other kinds, but \'entura stands at the top for 

 limas. 



Thirty thousand acres is about the amount 

 planted this year, which is 10,000 acres less 

 than last year. The crop last year amounted 

 to 1700 carloads. One thousand pounds is 



