10J9 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



145 



CELLAR WINTERING UNDER AN EMPTY HOUSE. 



"Hello!" 



"Is that Mr. Doolittle?" 



"Yes. Wwo is speaking ?" 



' ' Alpine McGregor. ' ' 



"What! 'way down here from 'frozen 

 Canada'?" 



"Yes; only, perhaps, we are no more froz- 

 en than parts of York State." 



"Well, 1 guess you may be right; for it is 

 cold enough here to satisfy almost any one. 

 But never mind. We have a good fire in the 

 house, or in the shop— which shall we go to?" 



' ' Perhaps the shop, for we shall be the 

 least likely to be disturbed there. ' ' 



' ' All right. Enter. Here, take this big 

 easy-chair, for you must be tired from your 

 long journey. What can I do for you ?" 



"If you have time I should like to have a 

 little talk with you." 



' ' All right. Time is one of the most pre- 

 cious commodities I have; but it may be fully 

 as precious to me when talking with you 

 along bee-lines as when used in any other 

 way. In fact, the time spent with and 

 about the bees always seems to render more 

 value to me than any thing else except time 

 spent in the service of the Master. What 

 is the 'little talk' to be about?" 



"I want to know how to fix my house or 

 bee-cellar, or both, so as to secure the same 

 temperature where the bees are to be kept, 

 when no person is living in the house, as 

 now when a fire is kept going night and day 

 in the room above the bees." 



"This is quite a problem; but before we 

 tackle it allow me to ask, why this question?" 



"Because I expect scon to live in the city 

 during the winter, when the house will be 

 empty and the bees in the cellar." 



' ' Yes, I see. Have you thought of any 

 plans to secure the satisfactory results you 

 wish to obtain?" 



. ' ' Yes, I have thought of two. First, nail 

 boards on the under edge of the joists, or 

 sleepers, thus ceiling the top of the bee- 

 room." 



"How wide or deep are your sleepers ? " 



' ' They are twelve inches wide or deep be- 

 low the floor. ' ' 



' ' That is a greater width than is generally 

 used here in this State, and will be a help to 

 you in your plans. What besides the boards 

 nad you planned using? Or is your idea 

 that of having only a dead-air space between 

 the floor and the boards ?" 



' ' I propose to fill this space with dry saw- 

 dust as tne boards are nailed on; and when 

 I come near the finishing end I will put in 

 bags of sawdust so it will not run out, or 



take up a floor board and fill in from above 

 so that the whole space may be completely 

 filled. Which do you think would be prefer- 

 able?" 



"If the floor board can be easily taken up, 

 the filling in with the loose sawdust will be 

 better; for with the bags there would be li- 

 able to be more or less open spaces without 

 sawdust; and this would be against the ob- 

 ject you are aiming at." 



' ' My second plan is to make four large 

 sacks, similar to the mattress for a bed, the 

 same being of a size so that the four would 

 just cover the floor above. These are to be 

 filled with chaff or cut straw. And I will 

 also make a long narrow one which will 

 just fit in the hallway, which is slightly to 

 one side of the bee-room below. ' ' 



"Yes, I see— any thing else?" 



"Yes, I had thought of one other way, 

 but consider it too dirty for practical use, so 

 have dismissed it entirely." 



' ' Well, if you have dismissed it probably 

 you may be right. But it often happens 

 that the thing we discard proves to be just 

 the thing that would have been the better. ' ' 



' ' Possibly that is right. The thought was 

 that of covering the floor above the bee-room 

 with loose cut straw, chaff from oats, or al- 

 sike- clover chaff." 



' ' I see. But what is there dirty about this 

 cut straw or chaff?" 



' ' I thought it would destroy the paper on 

 the lower part of the wall, and make the 

 house unfit to live in during the summer." 



' ' I am not so sure about that. Surely all 

 you have mentioned are clean substances — 

 only, perhaps, the dust, and dust we always 

 have, even with the most particular house- 

 keepers. Just set some boards up edgewise 

 about the room to keep the chaff off the 

 paper; and, if you feel that way, put news- 

 papers over the boards, then fill in the chaff 

 to the depth you wish it, and you are all 

 right. Of course, you will take up the car- 

 pet before putting in the chaff. When spring 

 comes, and you wish to live in the house 

 again, take out the chaff, the same as the 

 straw is taken out with those who use it un- 

 der carpets, and sweep the floor a couple of 

 times, and you have nothing dirty left if I 

 see things correctly." 



' ' Then you prefer the loose chaff to mat- 

 tresses?" 



"I certainly should. Where sacks, bags, 

 or mattresses are used, there are spaces 

 where the air can pass through rapidly; and 

 thus a sort of draft is made at these places ; 

 but with the chaff evenly distributed over 

 the whole, such do not appear except as one 

 great whole, and thereby we can secure a 

 greater evenness. But do I understand that 

 you will leave the sawdust below the floor 

 out of your plans, if you adopt the chaff 

 above?" 



' * Yes, that was my calculation. What do 

 you think?" 



' ' I certainly would use both, for I have 

 found that the best protection you can use, 

 with an empty house above a cellar, is none 



