THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



391 



inside of your crate easily, and place 

 it upon the paper so that the paper 

 will project equally on all sides, when 

 the sides are to be turned up all around 

 and the corner pressed over nicely, 

 making a joint like that on a baking 

 tin. Lift out your board and set your 

 paper dish in the bottom of your 

 crate, and you have something which 

 will hold all running honey till it is 

 full. We all know tliat if any honey 

 leaks from the combs that the sec- 

 tions will be more or less daubed upon 

 the bottom of them, and in taking 

 from the crate they are ready to soil 

 everything the touch. To avoid this 

 I saw the ends of the crates 3- 16 longer 

 than the piled up sections are high, so 

 as to give room to lay 3-16 inch strips 

 across the bottom of the crate for the 

 sections to rest upon. These strips 

 I get out % of an inch wide, and so 

 arrange them that the edges of the 

 sections come on these strips, thus 

 leaving a 3-16 space under nearly the 

 entire section. Thus it will be seen 

 that all the leakage is kept inside the 

 crate, and that the sections are kept 

 all clean besides. 



We are now ready to crate the honey 

 by placing the sections in the crates, 

 patting the best side of each grade on 

 the outside ; but do not put any of a 

 lower grade in the same crate. After 

 a crop of any kind is graded, it is 

 always customary to put the best, or 

 face side of said grade out. Having 

 previously weighed the crate, and the 

 weight of it being marked on the 

 same as tare, I now lill it as above and 

 nail on the cover with wire nails, 

 which will drive without jarring 

 enough to crack the combs. I space 

 these nails at equal distances, using 

 three at each end. Over the heads of 

 these nails I drive brass-headed furni- 

 ture nails, which cover up tlie heads 

 of the other nails, and give the crate a 

 neat, tasty, linished appearance. Also, 

 when the crates are tilled up those on 

 top rest on these brass-headed nails, 

 and thus the tops of our crates are not 

 all marred and bruised up. 



Now with a wood-rasp and sand- 

 paper, the corners and all rough places 

 are smoothed off, when the crates and 

 contents are weighed and set down as 

 gross weight above the tare. Draw a 

 line and subtract the tare, setting 

 down the net weight, when the crate 

 is ready for hauling to market. In 

 crating the honey I always place it in 

 the crate the same side up it stood 

 while on the hive, as, from experi- 

 ence I am led to believe it can be 

 transported more safely that way 

 than bottom-side up. In hauling to 

 market, as far as possible I have the 

 combs run crosswise of the wagon, as 

 the motion from side to side of the 

 wagon, is greater than endwise. Get 

 a good platform spring-wagon and 

 load it, so the springs carry tlie load 

 easy and there is little danger of 

 breaking the combs. In loading honey 

 great care should be taken to set it 

 down witliout jarring, and always lift 

 the crate to move it, instead of slid- 

 ing it. I have frequently seen men 

 slide a crate of honey along on the 

 bottom of a wagon or car till the bot- 

 tom struck the head of a bolt or some 

 uneven surface, when every comb in 



the crate would be broken by the 

 wrenching the crate received by such 

 careless handling. If our honey is to 

 go by rail it should be placed in the 

 car with the combs running lengtli- 

 wise of the car, as the coupling of the 

 cars is about all the danger tliere is of 

 breaking the honey when shipped by 

 rail. By placing the crates a foot or 

 two from the front end of the car, and 

 having the combs run as above, tliere 

 is but little danger of breakage if the 

 Railway employees will handle it care- 

 fullv. 



This ends the cabe part of these 

 articles. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



The Wintering Problem. 



JAJtES HEDDON. 



Need I offer any apology for pre- 

 senting this theme again. I believe I 

 need not, when it remains a fact that 

 it is still not miderstood. In this 

 article I wish to take a retrospective 

 survey of the ground I have come 

 over, in an earnest and honest effort 

 to unravel this problem. 



First. It may be in place to hastily 

 survey some of my critics. To me 

 they seem to be divided into about 

 two classes. Among one class are 

 those who feast upon mirth, imagina- 

 tion and ridicule. A sort of " Jack 

 Horner," who stick in their thumb 

 and pull out a plum. Oh ! what a 

 brave boy am I.'' A class who think 

 they see some one going down hill, 

 and so they kick at his sled. Then 

 the other class, whose earnest enthus- 

 iasm for the important truths is their 

 only inspiring motive toward contro- 

 versy. 



On page 70 and 72 of this year's 

 Gleanings, these two classes are faith- 

 fully represented in our " cold hard 

 fact," "box-elder" novelist, and the 

 well known extensive observer and 

 honey producer, George Grimm. 



After thanking Mr. Grimm for his 

 splendid compliment, one that • from 

 its source settles deeply into my feel- 

 ings, I feel it a duty, and an act that 

 may be productive of good, to argue 

 with him upon the few points of 

 difference between us. I hope that 

 his fair, earnest and scientific spirit 

 may act as a contagion between us. 

 But first I want to hastily review the 

 ground I have come over in trying to 

 get nearer to the solution of this far- 

 off problem. All who had reasoned 

 publicly upon the subject, had, as is 

 usual, reasoned from the center to 

 the circumference. As all had failed 

 to find what to me seemed reasonable 

 causes for the effects that had come 

 under my observation, I resolved to 

 try the method of reasoning the other 

 way, from the outside toward the 

 center. This plan often very easily 

 solves problems that the other method 

 leaves only in deeper obscurity. Let 

 me illustrate : Years ago I saw a 

 gentleman hand another a three- 

 jointed foot-rule, and ask him if he 

 could open it just three times and 

 no more and open all, and from him 

 every time. I saw him puzzle over it 



many minutes, when he handed it to 

 me. Though I had never thought of 

 the puzzle before, the thouglit struck 

 me, that the converse of the proposi- 

 tion must also be true, viz, that the 

 rule would shut three times toward 

 me. I thought I would try that first, 

 and see how matters look through the 

 other end of the telescope. You 

 know the result : Simplicity simpli- 

 fied. 



Once more. After astronomers had 

 searched the solar system for more 

 planets, and with their best glasses 

 could find'no more, Mr. Leverrier, the 

 celebrated French astronomer, said 

 " there is another planet beyond the 

 orbit of Uranus." Now, instead of 

 saying I will look for it, he said I will 

 look for its effects upon Uranus, and 

 by so doing he theorized a chain of 

 facts in regard to its size, period of 

 revolution, etc. Though having seen 

 nothing, lie felt that he knew right 

 where the body of matter would be 

 at a certain day and hour; so he 

 wrote to Dr. Galle, of Berlin, to look 

 for it with his better instrument at 

 that particular time, and in a certain 

 locality, which he did, and which re- 

 sulted in the immediate discovery of 

 the now well known planet of Nep- 

 tune. 



Whether right or wrong in my de- 

 ductions leading to my lately written 

 opinions upon the subject of bee 

 cholera, dysentery, or diarrhea, or 

 whatever name you may choose to 

 call these effects, I reasoned in this 

 way : 



1st. Evolution is now denied only 

 by the ignorant, egotistic or preju- 

 diced. The third law of evolution is, 

 substantially, " Nature is at war with 

 itself," each organism is warring for 

 the ascendancy over some other ; one 

 being can live because another dies. 

 One is the nutrition for the other, 

 from man back to the lowest form of 

 a bacterium. All three of the king- 

 doms feed upon each other. 



Many higher forms of animal 'life 

 live only upon high forms of animal 

 life, including man, as either the con- 

 sumed or consumer. Many higher 

 forms live on a mixed diet of both 

 animal and vegetable. It is not only 

 true that higher forms devour lower 

 forms of life, but the converse of the 

 proposition is also true. Very low 

 forms of both animal and vegetable 

 life feed upon the highest type of 

 animal life, man, as well as upon 

 lower forms. In the face of these 

 demonstrated facts, is it unreason- 

 able to look somewhat in this direc- 

 tion for the cause of bee dysentery, 

 when we know that an attack of these 

 germs produce similar symptoms in 

 other animals ? But we realize that 

 there is a peculiar condition with 

 bees during winter. We know that 

 to void in the hive is dangerous ; we 

 therefore believe that bees can sur- 

 vive in this climate, where they are 

 for a considerable time closely con- 

 fined to the hive, only because of this 

 peculiarity, which is, that they as a 

 rule eat a food that after the nutritive 

 and heat-making elements are ex- 

 tracted, the residue can be passed off 

 by sensible and insensible transpira- 

 tion. May it not be that the excep- 



