346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



ing herself down in quick succession in a way 

 that seemed as if she would pound herself to 

 pieces soon if she did not die from the stings. 

 Indeed, no one expected she would live; and 

 one of the neighbors, who had once seen a 

 horse stung so it died, said she would die in 

 half an hour or so. I thought I could at least 

 do something to alleviate the pain. One of 

 my neighbors helped me, holding her down 

 when she threw herself, and I applied boiling 

 hot water as it was brought from the kitchen 

 stove, just bathing the parts where stings 

 were thickest, and sopping the rag on and off 

 so as not to scald the flesh. Well, in two 

 hours or so, with this treatment, all could see 

 she was better; as she stopped throwing her- 

 self when we let her up, we quit using the 

 hot water then. She could not eat or drink 

 much for a day or two, as her lips were swollen 

 away from her teeth. She was verj- stiff for a 

 week, and had the farcy for a month, caused 

 by the strain, I suppose. Where stings were 

 thickest it broke and ran, thus getting the 

 poison out of her system. It was over a 

 month before I thought her well enough to 

 use at all, ard four months before she would 

 lie down at night or bad regained her flesh, 

 and was apparently as well as ever. 



Brother bee - keepers, give the hot-water 

 cure a trial, and I have no fear of your verdict 

 in comparison with cold water. I fear the 

 use of cold water, in that it would retard cir- 

 culation and so drive the pain into some vital 

 part, while hot water would promote circula- 

 tion, and tend to draw it to the surface. 



Oberlin, O., April 9. 



[I believe you are right, friend Fowl 5, and 

 that the time will come when hot water as a 

 remedial agent for aches and pains, as a drink 

 (in copious draughts) for clearing out sour or 

 disordered stomach, and as a substitute a la 

 Dr. Hall for physic, will be better recognized 

 than at present. Indeed, if I am correct, the 

 schools of medicine now recommend Iwt water 

 for sprains, bumps, and bruises, rather than 

 cold applications. In the case of bad sprtiins 

 the doctors usually advise water almost scald- 

 ing hot, and the sooner applied the better. 

 When my wife sprained her wrist some two or 

 three months ago, we applied hot water at 

 once. She could hardly endure the pain with- 

 out the water ; but with it, frequent renewing 

 of the cloths made her wrist very comfortable. 



Many another time have I applied hot-water 

 cloths to her forehead when she had those 

 hard neuralgic headaches. While they didn't 

 cure, they alleviated greatly the throbbing 

 pain. Several times when my boy has had 

 sudden attacks of congestion of the lungs we 

 applied rubber bags of hot water to the chest 

 and back. The effects were almost magical. 



With regard to stings, I do not know that I 

 was ever stung badly enough to need special 

 treatment ; but my experience as above given 

 would give me great faith in hot water. Hun- 

 dreds and perhaps thousands of others who 

 read these lines may see the time when the 

 "simple instructions given in this article may 

 not only afford great relief, but actually save 

 life. Hot water applied to a part stimulates 

 and assists circulation ; but cold water causes 



contraction, congestion in the part, and a re- 

 tarded circulation. — Ed.] 



PLAIN SECTIONS VS. OLD STYLE UNDER THE 

 SAME CONDITIONS. 



BY S. T. PETTIT. 



Dear Editor: — Evidently, touching the 

 matter of plain sections, fences, and dividers, 

 we don't quite unrlerstand each other. But, 

 first, I will say I regret the terms I used in 

 the Canadian Bee Journal, and beg pardon. 

 But still I can not think, all things being 

 equal, that a plain section will be filled any 

 better than a bee-way section. This is zuhai I 

 mean: give the bees "free coiuiHunication in 

 every direction,'" with both tcinds, and the one 

 "cvili be filled just as wqU as the other. I 

 can see no reason why it will not. It is the 

 passageway .separator — "the free communica- 

 tion in every direction" — that does it, and 

 not the sf ciion. In your footnote on page 257, 

 you criticise the divider I sent you, and call it 

 a fence, and seem to think it was iiitended to 

 be used as a separator. Now, that is all a 

 mis'ake. No, friend Ernest, I beg your par- 

 don; but the ;/4 -inch vertical slats are not too 

 thick. I have tested hundreds, and this sea- 

 son I intend testing a large number with ver- 

 tical slals i\ inch thick. But in other respects 

 it was not a success ; a-nd, as I have told you, 

 I am using those with ^/g-inch holes in prefer- 

 ence. I admit it was poor workmanship, and 

 certainly it was necessary to call attention to 

 it; but it was made by hand to be used in ex- 

 perimeniiiig, and that is my excuse. How- 

 ever, to-day I s^nd you a separator made this 

 winter, and I hope you will agree that the 

 "workmanship" should pass. You will see 

 that I have frith in free conununication in 

 passageway separators. You will obst rve that 

 the holes are ,% inch. But I believe your 

 fence is all right for separators used with plain 

 sections; but I can not hope that it will give 

 good results when used as a divider. Nothing 

 less than ^4-inch vertical slats should be used 

 outside the divider for best results. There 

 must be room for a nice company of bees in 

 shape to be comfortable and contented. 



Belmont, Ont., Can. 



[Wh3% friend P., we agree to a dot ; and 

 especially do I agree with that sentence of 

 yours that I took the liberty of putting in 

 italics. Any one who would try to take a 

 contrary view would be, to say the least, 

 hardlj' in his ri^ht mind. 



When I referred to poor workmanship I did 

 not have in mind your divider, perforated with 

 holes — I meant only the one having horizontal 

 slats nailed on cross-cle.its, which, to a certain 

 extent, is the principle of our fence, but lack- 

 ing in the essential features that I named. 



No, friend Pettit I do not think less of a 

 man, especially one of about your size, if he 

 should differ wi h me regarding the value of 

 the plain fence and section when used together. 

 When one is fair in the statement of his dif- 

 ferences, and does not accuse me of question- 

 able scheming or of dishonesty, I respect him 

 the more because of his honest and frank 

 statement. — Ed.] 



