191)0 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



1607 



kind that Uncle Sam puts the stamp on. and 

 every one of them l)ore fruit; and for the 

 benefit of our bee-keeping friends I shall in- 

 sert them. 



The first is from (."alifornia: 



Dear Sir:— A former partner and I talked of a simi- 

 lar derrick over ten years ago. but never made one. I 

 have needed it badly a few times. I would not make 

 a roller to raise the rope — its too slow. 



I think the general idea is good, to raise heavy hives 

 for loading on wheelbarrows and sleds, and possibly 

 on wagons. For lifting supers I doubt if it is neces- 

 sary for any one who is able to do other work in the 

 apiary. I guess I'll make one, and see if it is as good 

 as it looks. W. A. H. GrLSTRAP. 



Ceres. Cal., Sept. 10, 1906. 



Then along came this: 



Bear Sir: — The hive-lifting device would be of no 

 practical advantage to me — too much like trying to 

 carry yourself by your boot-straps. I have never tried 

 one, and probably never shall. C. A. Hatch. 



Richland Center, Wis., September. 1906. 



The third one is from New York, from 

 Coggshall. the renowned lightning operator: 



Dear Sir:—1 think you are an exception to the rule, 

 to send card with stamp. The way I lift a super from 

 hive is by main strength and awkwardness. 



It will take more strength to lift the device than to 

 do the work. I have got about through doing mission- 

 ary work. Traveling bee-men have to raise honey for 

 8 to 10 cts.. and undersell me by 4 to 6 cts. I get 13 to 

 15 cts. wholesale. I'm off the subject. I would not 

 have one of those lifters at all. I might use it for a 

 step-ladder. N. Y. Coggshall. 



He seems to be blue about something, and 

 I should like to say something that would 

 cheer him up. Coggshall. haven't you had 

 glory enough'.' Are you like Alexander — not 



" The way I lift a super is by maia strength and 

 awkwardness." 



that Alexander who lives somewhere in the 

 buckwheat regions of New York, but the one 

 who lived a few years ago: and who cried 

 because he had got to the end of his string. 

 and his "glory" stopped coming m': So it 

 was, is. and shall be. "The glory of man is 

 as the flower of the field." So don't cry, but 

 just put on a longer string, and to-morrow 

 there'll come a ])reeze of wind that will take 

 your kite up higher than "them other fel- 

 lers'," so be ready. 



Last, but not least, comes one from Indi- 

 ana, down at old Vincennes, from Smith — 

 Jay Smith. Hoosiers are nothing unless 

 generous, so he sends a whole letter, full 

 measure, well shaken, heaped up, and pi-ess- 

 ed together. Indiana is a great .State — next 

 to the greatest in the Union — the only State 

 with a Wabash River, along whose lianks 



corn and horseweeds grow, and the syca- 

 more's crooked branches show the way the 

 river goes. Indianians are a cheerful lot. al- 

 ways looking out and up. If you find (me 

 plowing corn in weeds higher than his head, 

 he'll sit down on the plow and brag on Indi- 

 ana; so I'll just give you his letter: 



Mr. Fran.'. J/c&/rtr/«;— Your letter asking about the 



elevating dumuckings " is received. I feel hardly 



qualitied to speak about something I don't know any 



thing about. Nobody but a politician could do that. 



" I had thought of inventing a sort of hay-rack'attach- 

 ment to slip over the shoulders." 



Great minds run in the same direction— sometimes— 

 and sometimes in the opposite. In the matter of lift- 

 ing-devices this is the case. For our Indiana crop, and 

 the hives as they are with me, I had thought of in- 

 venting a sort of hay-rack attachment to slip over the 

 shoulders to pile the hives on so I could get a load 

 Now the other fellows are racking their brains to find 

 some way to handle— not a hive— but just supers. Ii 

 their crop is as big as that, it would take so many der- 

 ricks and horsepowers to handle it that it would cost 

 so much they would have to go out of the business, 

 like a man I did not know, who had so much monex 

 that, when he bought a pocket-book to hold it. he went 

 broke. 



But, say,, don't you think locality makes the differ- 

 ence — not that those fellows produce so much biggir 

 crops, but that "this locality" (Indiana and Ohio) 

 produces so much better men;- My curiosity is up to 

 the spilling-over point to know how you happened to 

 write to me for my opinion. I had thought a little 

 later to write an article on " Twenty-tirst-centurv 

 Bee-keeping," in which I would set forth some of the 

 advantages that will be enjoyed by our great-grand- 

 children, owing to the intellect of the present genera- 

 tion. Jay Smith. 



Vincennes, Ind. 



I think the kind of lifter that would suit 

 me the most would be a good healthy mule 

 — one with long eax's. It would be easier 

 moving it about. 

 Then it could be 



taught to do a ^^^^ ^ ^^ /^ 



good many fine .^^^S / v ^ 



" stunts." which 

 would take much 

 of the extra ar- 

 duous strain off 

 from some of us 

 overworked bee- 

 keepers. It could A portable hive-lifter, 

 soon be taught to work faster on the ap- 

 proach of a shower, then the sound of a good 

 healthy " hee-haw" (« la Maud), early in 

 the morning, would put us all in a merry 

 mood for the dav. 



