386 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



■danger of the belt getting gummed up — at 

 least that has been our experience, and we 

 have cleaned hundreds of sections, all of 

 which looked, after cleaning, as though there 

 had never been propolis or stain on them ; and 

 that honey sold right at home for fifteen cents 

 per section, while much other honey went 

 begging, and is begging yet. 



So, Mr. Root, when the machine arrives we 

 shipped to you, get some sections containing 

 propolis on them (not great hunks, though), 

 and set them in a warm room until they are 

 warm ; then apply them as I have stated, with 

 the belt revolving at a good speed ; and if 

 there is any gumming of the belt, please tell 

 the beekeepers all about it. 



THE T VS. THE IDEAL SUPER. 



GOLDEN'S I.ATEST SECTION-CLEANER. 



Why do we talk about cleaning sections 

 when the propolis is soft and sticky ? We 

 always preferred propolis hardened before 

 cleaning. I believe it was Dr. Miller who, in 

 Gleanings two or three years ago, said he 

 preferred propolis to become hard before 

 cleaning; that he did not like the sticky stuff, 

 and that's about the way we look at it. 



There, Mr. Editor, I shall expect to hear 

 you say that you are sorry you ever solicited 

 a further acquaintance with the writer in the 

 pages of Gleanings ; but I am sorry Mr. 

 Rambler (page 249) has requested you to stop 

 his paper. But tell him to sing that little song 

 he composed for Alfaretta : 



The night is stormy and dark ; 



My lover is on the sea : 

 Oh ! let me to the night winds hark, 



And hear what tVey say to me. 



Then I think he will order his paper contin- 

 ued. 



A General Discussion of the Features of Both ; TaH 



Sections, and the Editor's Opinion of them 



Misquoted ; is it Desirable to have 



Comb firmly Attached to the 



Wood of the Sections ? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I've got one of those Ideal supers, and it 

 mixes me all up. For years I've been looking 

 for something better than a T super. The 

 editor of a certain bee-journal has more than 

 once hinted very broadly that there was some- 

 thing out of whack in my thinking machinery 

 because I couldn't see the great superiority of 

 the section-holder. And I've thought that, if 

 he'd handle a lot of T supers for a single sea- 

 son as they ought to be handled, he might 

 change his tune. First he believed in wide 

 frames — wide frames with top-bar, bottom- 

 bar, end-bar. For a time, if I'm not mistaken, 

 he believed in T supers, and then he went 

 back to wide frames just a step nearer T supers 

 than the old wide frames by leaving off the 

 top-bar, and called them section ■ holders. 

 Now he's gone another step toward the T 

 super, left off the end-bar, and dubs it Ideal. 

 If he'll go still another step and leave off the 

 bottom-bar, perhaps he'll stand square in line 

 with me. 



Honest Injun, however, if I had to start all 

 over I'd want to do some thinking and some 

 testing before I'd decide whether I'd use the 

 Ideal or the T. //"fences are to be used, I'm 

 a little inclined to the opinion that the Ideal 

 has the best of it. The difference in depth, 

 making the Ideal use the tall section, is a 

 matter aside, for the Ideal could be made 

 shallower, and the T can be made deeper. 

 But that reminds me that it's a little queer 

 how some of your ideas, Mr. Editor, have got 

 mixed up in traveling north. You are repre- 

 sented as claiming that the tall section is bet- 

 ter filled out than the sqtiare one, and that 

 there will be fewer pop-holes because the comb 

 comes out nearer the surface. Well, don't get 

 mad. It's good training for you. It's the old 

 story of the bo}' and his bull-pup. He asked 

 his father to get down on all fours and play 

 he was a big dog. When he did .so the pup 

 grabbed him promptly by the ear, and held 

 on after the manner of his kind, and the old 

 gentleman called lustily for the boy to take 

 him off. "Bear it, father, bear it," said the 

 boy, "it's the makin' o' the pup." But in 

 this case it may be the " makin' " of you in- 

 stead of the p — the people who worry you. 



As compared with section-holders, it seems 

 to me the Ideal is a distinct forward step, 

 fence or no fence. The only loss in making 

 the change, if it can be called a loss, is that 

 the outside row of sections can't be jumped to 

 the middle, and vice versa. But to those 

 practical bee keepers who considered this only 

 an advantage in theory — one of those advan- 

 tages that didn't pan out in practice, that loss 

 can be sustained without tears. Instead of 

 the topless wide frame, it is hard to believe it 

 is not a material improvement to substitute 

 the less expensive plain stick or bottom-bar. 



