652 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



bulge the top-bar, and if the separator comes 

 ^vithin y^ inch of the top of the section that 

 ought to satisfy all your fears. Great stress 

 is laid upon having spaces in the separator 

 for the sake of freer communication. Please 

 don't fail to have as free communication as 

 possible at the top as well. 



I had hoped to settle this question and some 

 others by experiment, but the utter failure of 

 the honey harvest prevented. 



ARE FENCES MORE E.^SILY CLEANED THAN 

 PLAIN SEPARATORS ? 



A footnote, p. 546, says that all that needs 

 to be cleaned in the fence is the cross-cleat, or 

 that part of the fence that comes in contact 

 with the section. I remember when that idea 

 first came to me, and I was very much pleased 

 with the thought that only the part that 

 touched the section needed cleaning, making 

 it easier to clean than a plain separator. After 

 some time it dawned upon me that it was also 

 true that, in the plain separator, only that 

 part needed cleaning that touches the sections 

 — same cleaning in each, leaving the question, 

 "Is it easier to clean a given amount on a 

 plane surface, or on a surface raised at inter- 

 vals?" Lay a plain separator on a table, and 

 •with the same sweep of the hatchet you strike 

 two or three of the places to be cleaned ; 

 whereas, with the fence each cleat comes in 

 for separate treatment. I suspect when you 

 try the two kinds side by side, as I have done, 

 you'll think you can clean plain separators in 

 less time than the others. 



ARE FENCES CHEAPER IN THE LONG RUN 

 THAN PLAIN SEPARATORS? 



"I believe the doctor once said he threw 

 away his separators every year. Now, if he 

 buys new ones I can not see but they cost a 

 good deal more than fence separators that 

 would have to be bought only once." That's 

 what you say, Mr. Editor, on page 546, and I 

 can hardly see how you could say it if you 

 had carefully read what I said about fifteen 

 lines higher up the page. Let me repeat : "A 

 uses plain separators, and cleans them every 

 year. B uses fences, and cleans them yearly. 

 Plainly, A has the more economical plan of 

 the two. Now, if I can do better than A by 

 buying instead of cleaning, and A's plan beats 

 B's, how under the sun can B's plan beat 

 mine?" You pay no attention to the ques- 

 tion asked, but merely repeat what you had 

 said more than once before, that it must cost 

 more to buy plain separators every year than 

 to buy fences once for all. 



Let me make just one more effort, putting 

 the matter in a little different form. I can 

 not clean separators of either kind for less 

 than $2.00 a thousand. I can buy plain sep- 

 arators for less than $2.00 a thousand. Which 

 will cost more, to clean fences every year, or 

 to buy plain separators every year? 



THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD "SECTION." 



A while ago I insisted that the word " sec- 

 tion ' ' could be properly used as meaning the 

 piece of honey contained in the section box. 

 Months ago I wrote the publishers of the 

 Standard Dictionary, asking them to expunge 



that definition, and have been intending ever 

 since to recant in these columns. " A pan of 

 salt " and other things were thrown at me to 

 make me change my view, but such things as 

 were said had really little bearing upon the 

 subject except the plain statement that the 

 word was not properly so used; and when all 

 who said any thing about it said the word was 

 no^ correctly used in that way, that settled it. 

 I had no right to take a local use of the word 

 as against all the world. But, as I have said, 

 the kind of argument used had little bearing. 

 You can't always decide by reasoning how a 

 word is used; you must simply take the usage 

 itself. Because the word "pan" does not 

 mean salt when I say "a pan of salt," it does 

 not follow that, when I say "a lot of land" 

 the word " lot " may not mean " land," for it 

 does, as when you say "a city lot, " or " a 

 wood lot," and the dictionaries, ancient and 

 modern, will sustain such definition. The 

 same kind of reasoning would rule out the 

 common use of the word section among bee- 

 keepers, and insist that it must always be 

 called "section box." But it is right to call 

 it section, just because that has become uni- 

 versal usage. It would be a good thing, how- 

 ever, if a little more reasoning were used in 

 establishing usage. 

 Marengo, 111. 



[My footnote was based largely on two or 

 three small lots of honey in old-style sections, 

 that had come from Mr. R. C. Aikin, of Col- 

 orado, some of which was in the original 

 crates just as it came from the hive. I noticed 

 that his separators dropped down '4 inch, and 

 that in many instances combs were bulged 

 beyond the wood near the top edge of the 

 section. In addition to this, even in our own 

 lipiarv years ago I noticed that honey was 

 inclined to bulge out this way. Accordingly, 

 separators in our hives for the trade for the 

 last two or three years have been made to 

 come flush with the top edge of the section. 



I believe this bulging over the top of the 

 separator, where it drops down '4 inch, is 

 largely a matter of locality and season. But 

 the point I tried to make was this: That there 

 were certain conditions (when separators are 

 dropped '4^ inch) under which bees would 

 bulge comlj honey over the top of the separat- 

 ors, and that, therefore, we should have our 

 separators so arranged that there could be no 

 bulging at any time under any conditions — 

 that is, if we could do so just as well. What 

 might not be any serious annoyance in and 

 around Marengo might be quite a serious one 

 in other localities; and when plain sections 

 are considered, this becomes a very important 

 point. 



The doctor raises the point that, if the bees 

 will not bulge the honey opposite the spaces 

 between the slats of the fences, why should 

 they do so in the small space just above the 

 separator dropped down X inch? The condi- 

 tion here, doctor, it seems to me, is not quite 

 the same. Bees are more inclined to bulge at 

 the point of attachment above than elsewhere. 

 See? 



There, now, doctor, you have brought up 



