274 



GLT<]ANINGS IN BKE CULTUIIE 



May 1 





ONE OF E. M. GIBSON'S APtARIES IN CAl.IFOBNIA IN WHICH THE HIVES STAND ON 



BENCHES. 



ping-knives. It is certainly a question of 

 locality; and if any cold-knife advocate does 

 not believe it, let him come down here and 

 put one of his sharji cold knives into one of 

 our well- ripened combs of alfalfa honey; 

 and when he gets it pulled out by sitting 

 back on it good and hard, and then goes 

 over and looks in the extractor and sees 

 honey hanging to the sides of the extractor 

 in ropes of silvery silken-looking l breads 

 that merge together only very slowly into a 

 solid mass, and then go rolling down the 

 sides of the extractor in great balls, catch- 

 ing the baskets here and there, he will nev- 

 er go home and write an article on the use 

 of a cold knife, for New Mexico bee-keep- 

 ers at least. This fall, when we were doing 

 our last extracting, I sat down by the gate 

 of the extractor and touched the honey as 

 it crept out, and it was so thick that it did 

 not stick to my finger at all. How would 

 you like to uncap that sort of honev with a 

 "sharp" cold knife? So in regard to the 

 steam-heated uncapping-knife. I say they 

 area "go." If you have thick honey, get 

 them. They deliver the frames to the man 

 at the extractor, and they deliver them in 

 better shape. 



Fig. 1. of this series shows my partner, H. 

 Tj. Parks, picking up a comb to uncap. In 

 Fig. II. he is seen using the uncai^ping- 

 knife to assist his left hand in placing the 

 comb with the end of the top-bar in a one- 

 inch hole in the cross-piece which extends 

 across the uncapping-can. There is a similar 

 hole in the other end for the other uncapper 

 when two are at work. This little trick of 

 using the knife to assist the left hand in 

 placing the comb enables the operator to 

 place the comb quickly without putting 

 down the uncapping-Vnife. In Fig. III. he 

 is seen uncapping one side of the comb, and 

 in Fig. IV. he has swung the comb around 

 so as to get at the other side. The way we 

 jerk combs around and jab them down 

 when we get in a rush would split end-bars 



all to pieces if we tried to use the nail-point 

 to pivot them on. 



Fig. V. shows how the uncapper who 

 works on that side of the uncapping-box 

 must reach over with his left arm to deliver 

 the comb to the comb-box next to the ex- 

 tractor. This is the only unhandy move 

 an operator has at our uncapping-outfit; 

 and the man who works on the near side 

 does not experience that, for the comb-box 

 is on his left, and he can set his stack of 

 combs to be taken up and uncapped right 

 under his left hand. 



Mesilla Park, N. M. 



FINDING LOCATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



Will 



1 Greater Number of Bee-keepers Lessen 

 the Average Production per Colony? 



BY E. M. GIBSON. 



Mr. p. C. Chadwick, p. 23, Jan. 1, thinks 

 I am unfair when I say there were scores of 

 bee-keepers who did not produce a pound of 

 honey, but it was not the fault of the sea- 

 son or the bees. Then he adds, "the im- 

 plication is that it was the fault of the bee- 

 keepers." Most assuredly that is what I in- 

 tended to imply. Perhaps I did not go into 

 detail as much as I should; but no doubt all 

 contributors try to express themselves in as 

 few words as possible; for in these days of 

 cheap and good literature the prosy fellow's 

 writings are going to be passed by. I did 

 not produce enough honey for a full car- 

 load, and the railroad company asked more 

 to ship what I had by local freight than 

 they wanted for a car. I wrote to several 

 producers to see if I could buy enough to 

 fill a car. From some I received the reply: 

 "Not a pound of surplus this year;" from 

 others that they had "a few cases," the 

 amounts i,rangingj from^^six to thirty-five 



