96 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



straight. I never think of it as a trouble. I 

 simply take hold of the end or corner of the 

 zinc as I would a sheet of paper or a duck 

 cloth on top of my hive, and peel it off — never 

 a snap to jar the bees, nor care to prevent 

 breaking the wooden frame. If curved, turn 

 the convex side up, and the super set on 

 straightens it out. My ten-year-old zincs are 

 as good as my two-year-old ones. 



Newhall, Cal. R. Wilkin. 



unfair comparisons; honey in square vs. 

 tall sections. 



Figs. 10 and 11, on page 920 of Gleanings, 

 are not honest diagraphical or pictorial com- 

 parisons of the objects represented. Looking 

 at page 920, no doubt every person would un- 

 hesitatingly pronounce in favor of Fig. 11; but 

 the appearance is deceptive. The Danzen- 

 baker sections are given in your catalog as 4x5 

 inches, and you give four of them the whole 

 width of the page, while four of the 4% -inch 

 sections have a margin on either side. 



Then, speaking of these latter, you say that 

 you had to hunt long and hard for them. Fig. 

 11 you do not mention there; they seem to be 

 there to speak for themselves. 



I have had slight opportunity to test the 

 plain sections, on account of a poor honey 

 season ; but from my limited observation I 

 fail to see the great promise of superiority. 

 Still, time may decide that point. 



H. O. Vassmer. 



Excelsior Springs, Mo., Dec. 22. 



[It may appear to you, friend V., that I 

 meant to compare the two lots of honey, plac- 

 ing those in the old style at a disadvantage. 

 That was not my intention. The two engrav- 

 ings were made months apart, and I had no 

 thought, originally, of placing the two side by 

 side. I would not have done so when I did 

 had I not had a little extra room, and used it 

 by inserting the cut shown in Fig. 11, for you 

 will see no reference to it in the reading-matter 

 on the same page or the next one. Of course, 

 it is not fair to compare a 4 x 5 section with a 

 A%, disparaging either; and if you will read 

 carefully again what I said you will see that I 

 did not do so. In referring to the honey in 

 the old-style section I did say this : That it 

 would ' ' compare very favorably with any I 

 have ever seen in plain sections "— a general 

 statement ; and on page 932, in speaking of 

 the two lots of honey on the same page, I said 

 that it (honey in old-style sections) " looks as 

 nice as the other." So far as the actual speci- 

 mens there shown are concerned, I plainly 

 stated that one was as good as the other. 



But perhaps you object to my statement 

 (p. 932) wherein I said that Fig. 10 was better 

 than the average of fancy in the old styles, 

 and that Fig. 11 was very close to the common 

 run of fancy in plain sections. If this is what 

 you object to, then it is simply a matter of 

 opinion or taste. I gave my opinion, right or 

 wrong. 



With regard to your observations on plain 

 sections you admit that your experience is 

 limited. If you bought honey in ton lots, as 

 we do, I think you would have reason to be- 



lieve that plain-section honey is prettier-look- 

 ing than the other. 



Of course, it is to be assumed that some of 

 us who are enthusiastic in regard to these new 

 things may paint them in too bright colors ; 

 and it is assumed, also, that those who are 

 more conservative, and inclined to cling to 

 the old, will not be apt to give the new goods 

 all the credit rightly their due. — Ed ] 



A PLEA FOR WIDE FRAMES AS AGAINST 

 SUPERS. 



I have been a well-pleased reader of your 

 paper for some years, and especially A. I. R.'s 

 writings. For more than a year I have want- 

 ed to ask why the old-style wide frames for 

 sections were not the best of any thing for 

 sections. I have used both them and Simplic- 

 ity T-tin supers, and, to my notion, the wide 

 frames are far ahead of the supers. I can get 

 more and better filled and cleaner sections 

 with them. If my bees winter well I shall 

 want two or three hundred of them for another 

 year (I have now about 450 of them), unless I 

 find something better, which I very much 

 doubt. Of course I want the best, and my 

 opportunity for learning it is confined almost 

 to the pages of Gleanings. It seems to me 

 I must be away behind the times, as I notice 

 they are hardly ever mentioned in your papers; 

 and when they are, it is with such a hang-dog, 

 disgusted, out-of date expression that I always 

 want to ask wlvy. I can not find them men- 

 tioned in your price list either. 



Now, Mr. Editor, an answer to the above in 

 your paper, or an article on the subject, would 

 be very useful to me and, I think, of much 

 value to a great many of your readers. 



Alfred Atherton. 



Oramel, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1898. 



[I am surprised that you prefer wide frames 

 to T supers. The former have been almost en- 

 tirely discarded, and why? In the first place 

 (for I am talking about double- tier eight-sec- 

 tion wide frames) the sections are in two tiers. 

 If you put a hive or hive-body on top, contain- 

 ing wide frames, you must either give them a 

 whole set of 48 sections, two tiers, or else put 

 in a few wide frames and fill up the space with 

 dummies. Objection No. 1, then, is that, with 

 wide frames, one must give too much room at 

 a time. Objection 2. They are not as easily 

 filled or emptied as the T super. The last 

 named can be emptied en masse. Objection 3. 

 Wide frames are difficult to get out of hive- 

 bodies. When they are once glued together 

 in the hive it is sometimes a big job to get 

 them out, to say nothing about removing the 

 sections afterward. Objection 4. Wide frames 

 are not as easily cleared of bees as the T supers, 

 and, moreover, they require the use of tin 

 separators. Wooden ones may be used, but 

 not satisfactorily. The only advantage they 

 have is that one, and perhaps two, may be put 

 down in the brood-nest; but discolored honey 

 is liable to be the result; and then, as a rule, a 

 colony should have at least all the space it can 

 have in an eight-frame hive for breeding pur- 

 poses. 



We ourselves prefer a single tier topless wide 



