July 1. 1911 



397 



WHITE-CLOVER FIELD IN TEXAS. — SEE BEE-KEEPING IN THE SOUTHWEST, LAST ISSUE. 



ing-pan. The knife should be held so that 

 the beveled edu:e is i)arallel with the surface 

 of the comb, thus throwing the lower edge 

 away from the comb, and separating the 

 cai)pings that are cut loose from the uncap- 

 l)ing surface below. The combs should be 

 tijiped over to the right, or toward the knife, 

 so that the top of the frame will be about 

 three inches out of perpendicular. In this 

 position the cappings as loosened will fall 

 clear of the uncapi)e(l surface. A common 

 fault of the beginner is to hold the comb so 

 nearly perpendicular that most of the loosen- 

 ed cappings fall back on the uncapped sur- 

 face. It usually takes up more time to scrape 

 off these loose particles than it took to un- 

 cap the whole comb in the first place, and 

 the cells are not left in as good condition to 

 extract after being thus fussed over with the 

 knife. It is important that not a single 

 particle of loose capping falls back on the 

 comb below the knife. 



As the engraving shows, we use the long 

 improved Bingham knife. The shank is 

 wide so as to give a firm hold for the thumb 

 and first finger. The knife should be grip- 

 ped close to the blade, the first finger and 

 thumb extending down on the shank to 

 give more leverage. When the knack of 

 holding the knife in this way is acquired, 

 the work is much easier than if the handle 

 alone is held. 



Some, when uncapping, begin at the top 

 of the comb and cut down. We have never 

 followed this method enough to become very 

 expert, so I will describe only our own way. 

 We start the knife at the lower end of the 

 comb, and, by means of the long blade, un- 

 caj) the whole width at one oj)eration. As 

 the blade is only half an inch longer than 

 the width of the comb, it is evident that. 



were we to push the knife rapidly, and take 

 I'ing strokes, some i)ortions of the comb at 

 each side would be missed. Instead of tak- 

 ing long strokes, therefore, we work with 

 quick short strokes, and uncap the whole 

 comb the first time over. 



At two of our yards last season we tried 

 the Ferguson uncapping-machine, invented 

 and manufactured by T^. R. Ferguson, Har- 

 vey, 111. With suitable frames this machine 

 does not clog any more than an ordinary 

 knife. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 show that the work 

 is well done when conditions are favorable. 

 When the honey is at the right temperature 

 to extract well, the combs run through this 

 machine as if greased, both sides being un- 

 capped at once. We set the knives an inch 

 apart, this thickness being just right. The 

 uncapped surface of the combs is much more 

 even, as will be seen in Figs. 2 and 3, than on 

 those uncapped by hand. An inexperienced 

 student that we had with us last season, 

 with this machine uncapped about the same 

 amount of honey as could one of us having 

 experience with the Bingham knife, and 

 did a rather better job besides. 



The majority of our extracting-frames are 

 of the vinspaced kind. The top-bar is }i 

 inch square, and the end and bottom-bars 

 also ^ wide. These frames have no projec- 

 tions at any point; thus, when the uncap- 

 ping-machine is set so as to leave the comb 

 an inch thick, the knives miss the frame 

 by yV inch. AVe had no trouble in uncap- 

 ping combs in frames with thick top-bars, 

 for we simply removed the upper knife on 

 each side, the rest of the knives being left 

 to uncap the comb as usual. If desired, 

 the upper knives on each side might be spac- 

 ed a little wider. Some of the combs uncap- 

 ped in the machine broke loose along the 



