1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



651 



Cahuenga I suggested to Mr. Cowan that we 

 make a sort of international alliance, make a 

 sortie on Florence, in the suburbs of the city, 

 and capture bee-keeper C. W. Dayton. I 

 knew we should find quite a number of valu- 

 able improvements here that might be of use 

 to us. 



The British (Mr. Cowan) had command of 

 the artillery, and carried the rapid-fire maga- 



RAMBLER'S JOUNCER. 



zine battery (camera) slung over his shoulder. 

 The American force (that's I) had command 

 of the infantry and the skirmish line. We 

 made a rapid descent on Florence by rail, and 

 captured the station with ease. We deployed 

 our forces up the railroad track, about half a 

 mile, and made an easy capture of the Dayton 

 residence. C. W.'s mother was the only oc- 

 cupant.' We were courteously treated by this 

 lady, and found her to be one of those good 

 American mothers, well posted upon all of 

 the affairs of the day; and from her manifest 

 knowledge of bee-kc ping I have no doubt 

 she could manage an apiar} with almost as 

 much success as her son. She had no objec- 

 tions to our capturing C W., and even gave 

 us the information that he was building a new 

 fortress just a few rods down the street. 



As we deployed our forces under cover of 

 several houses and a fence, Mr. Covv-an thought 

 the capture would be easy, for he saw a man 

 at work on the identical fortress when we 

 were marching up the railroad. 



We made a gallant charge through the fence 

 and field. The British unlimbered the artil- 

 lery ready for action, while the American 

 skirmished ahead. But the man we thought 

 sure to capture had evidently abandoned his 

 fort and retreated. We surrounded the entire 

 fortress, and instituted a thorough search. I 

 glanced into the little shop. The plane and 

 the saw were there, but they were silent. 



There was no pusher behind them. After a 

 further search we were about to withdraw our 

 battallion when I thought it would be a good 

 plan to look into that big honey-tank which 

 was standing a little to the rear. I thought 

 there was a faint noise proceeding from it. 

 The British artillery was again ready for ac- 

 tion. I silently approached, and, getting on 

 my tiptoes, I peered into the tank, and, lo and 

 behold ! 



BULGING OF HONEY IN SECTIONS. 

 What Part does the Separator have in the Matter? 



BY DR. C. C. MILI.ER. 



In a footnote on page 546, Mr. Editor, you 

 say there is bulging at the upper part of the 

 comb if the separator is % inch lower than 

 the top of the section. If I'm not mistaken, 

 in the fence separator the space between the 

 slats is /g of an inch. If the separator comes 

 J4 He) of an inch below the top of the sec- 

 tion, and we deduct from that g'^ the thickness 

 of the wood in the section, which is g\ or 

 more, we have left, as the actual space to 

 effect the bulging, .f-^. of an inch ( less if thick- 

 er sections be used ) . Now if s% will not allow 

 bulging at the middle of the section, will 

 a space ^^ of an inch less at the top cause 

 bulging ? Possibly you may reply that bees 

 are more inclined to bulge at the outer edge, 

 and at any rate you tell me that you have 

 samples before you that prove your conten- 

 tion, audit's hard to kick against actual facts. 



I have wondered just a little whether your 

 samples were not exceptional. I've skirmish- 

 ed around to find what few sections I could, 

 and none of them show signs of bulging at 

 top, although the separator was '4 inch below 

 the top of section. I don't lay very great 

 weight on this, for the number is small, and 

 there might be something exceptional in the 

 case. But I do lay great weight upon the 

 fact that I've had thousands of sections 

 produced with the separator y inch below 

 the top of the section, and there has been no 

 trouble about handling them. You probably 

 know better than I that tons upon tons have 

 been produced by others in the same way. 

 With the plain section and fence, the top-bar 

 of the section comes ^% {^iy of an inch) from 

 the plane of the separator. My old-style 1 7/^ 

 sections have a top-bar 1}4 inches wide ; some 

 of them, l^s wide. That makes the top-bar of 

 the section come respectively ^''^ and ^ from 

 the plane of the separator. That is, my top- 

 bars are practically ^l and ^V narrower than 

 yours. Now, if mine work all right, why not 

 yours? for, according to the figures, mine 

 ought to make the more trouble. Don't tell 

 me that mine are not handled by the narrow 

 part of the top-bar, for they are, and in lift- 

 ing a first section out of a case you can't pos- 

 sibly handle them in any other way. 



Suppose, however, that there should be 

 bulging wherever the separator is lacking 

 opposite the comb, does that make it neces- 

 sary to have the separator go any higher than 

 the comb goes? Surely the bees will not 



