THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



127 



above method will lie quite clear to 

 those who are familiar with the in- 

 stincts of the bee, it will be further 

 understood that the proper manipu- 

 lation of the details is an important 

 part, and can only be gained by expe- 

 rience. The success of this plan we 

 know by experience, and its strong 

 points are that it can be safely, surely 

 and practically manipulated without 

 hunting queens, or queen-cells, or even 

 opening a hive. It only needs to be 

 properly executed to be thoroughly 

 appreciated. 

 Dowagiac, Mich. 



For tbe American bee Journal. 



Robbing the Inventors. 



DR. B. B. SOUTHWICK. 



I notice in the Journal much talk 

 about the " one-piece section," sug- 

 gesting ways and means to get rid of 

 paying the man that has introduced 

 them, anything for his time and money 

 spent in bringing them before the 

 public, which is always more trouble 

 than getting it patented. Prof. Cook 

 also suggests that bee-men club to- 

 gether and have a friendly law suit, 

 to see if the originator can hurt them 

 if they do rob hiiu. (I thought better 

 of the Professor than that.) 



The action of these men remind me 

 of the boy that stole the apples. He 

 saw a basket of nice apples in the 

 corner of the fence. He saw no one 

 near. He had nearly filled his pock- 

 ets when a man, near by, asked what 

 he was pocketing those apples for. 

 The boy said he not know whose they 

 were. The man replied, "you know 

 whose they are not." So with all 

 these men ; they know that they have no 

 right; the introducer lias the right 

 that is allowed to all nations, the 

 right of discovery ; and no man has 

 any moral right to the thing, unless 

 by agreement with the one that dis- 

 covered it and brought it forward. 



Suppose you unite and have a 

 friendly (V) law suit, and beat; you 

 will have the pleasure of congratulat- 

 ing each other on having the longest 

 purse, being able to hire the biggest 

 lawyers to pull the wool over the eyes 

 of a jury. But that will be the pleas- 

 ure of tyi-ants, in grinding down their 

 subject's, because they have hired sol- 

 diers to do it. 



I have no interest in, and I sincerely 

 hope I may never become so insane as 

 to desire to use the one-piece section. 



Tliose who wish to manufacture or 

 use the section, should take the advice 

 of a man (who is not a Christian, but 

 believes in doing right, because it is 

 right): unite together and give Mr. F. 

 a small royalty (say 25c. on a thousand 

 more or less), for all that are manu- 

 factured in the next five years. That 

 would give him a fair remuneration 

 for time and money spent. How much 

 better yon would all feel if you were 

 using a section that you knew had no 

 dishonesty or injustice connected 

 with it, anywhere ; and that you were 

 not liable to be drawn into a suit that 

 would cost ten times what your sec- 

 tions were worth V 



Mendou, Mich. 



For tbe American Bue JournaL 



Bees in a Cellar Flooded with Water. 



HARRIS PEARSON. 



For the benefit of those who have 

 wet or damp cellars to winter their 

 bees in, I will give my experience. 

 On Nov. 1.5, 1880, 1 put 40 colonies of 

 bees into my cellar, which is very 

 damp, with water standing in places 

 around the bottom. The hives were 

 put into a room 13x8 feet, and were 

 raised from the ground 16 inches. The 

 cellar is ventilated by a 3-inch tile 

 drain, running 3 rods to its mouth, 

 and a m inch pipe passing from the 

 bee room through the top of the cellar 

 wall and up 12 feet on the outside of 

 the house. The cellar was damp tliro' 

 Dec. and Jan., and I feared the result. 



About the middle of February we 

 had a heavy rain storm, which caused 

 all low places to fill up with water. 



The mouth of the cellar drain is 

 near a sluiceway, which crosses the 

 highway, which, being frozen up, the 

 water could not pass through ; conse- 

 quently it backed up, the cellar drain 

 filling the cellar to a depth of 16 

 inches, reaching to the bottoms of the 

 lower tier of hives. 



After about .30 hours the sluiceway 

 thawed out,and the water disappeared, 

 leaving the cellar as wet as it could 

 possibly be. The hives remained 

 standing as when put in, until April 

 15, 1881, when I carried them out, and 

 found all colonies in good condition 

 but two, and they had been destroyed 

 by the mice. 



1 have now 65 colonies in my cellar ; 

 they have been in since Nov. 15 ; they 

 are all quiet, and wintering finely. 



Gouverneur, N. Y., Feb. 26,1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Sweet Clover not a Noxious Weed. 



L. H. SCUDDER, 63-148. 



At the Northwestern Convention at 

 Chicago, last fall, it was stated that 

 the laws of Illinois made it a penal 

 offense to introduce or plantinelilotor 

 sweet clover, and after some discus- 

 sion in regard to the matter, Mr. M. 

 M. Baldridge and myself were ap- 

 pointed a committee to investigate, 

 and if we found any such laws in ex- 

 istence to try and secure the repeal of 

 the same during the present session 

 of our legislature. 



I do not understand that any formal 

 report was required of us, certainly 

 not until the next meeting of the So- 

 ciety, therefore I will report what 

 action I have taken in the matter, and 

 will ask Mr. Baldridge to give us, 

 through the Bee Journal, the re- 

 sults of his investigation. 



I have examined the statutes of Illi- 

 nois carefully and cannot find the 

 name mentioned. There are only two 

 plants named, viz. : Canada thistles 

 and castor beans, which, by the laws 

 of Illinois, are declared "noxious 

 weeds." It is true that the law seems 

 to imply that there are other noxious 

 weeds and fixes the same penalty for 

 introducing as those above named It 

 is evident that the burden of proof 



would rest on the complainant, and if 

 he failed to establish the fact of the 

 noxious character of the plant, tlie 

 case would fail. Therefore, I con- 

 clude that if sweet clover is as valu- 

 able as we believe it to be, we should 

 have no hesitancy in giving it a fair 

 trial. I have not been able to find any 

 conclusive evidence to convince any 

 one that the introduction of sweet 

 clover could be objected to by any 

 reasonably disposed person. 



The Farmers' Practical Encyclope- 

 dia speaks of it as a good honey plant, 

 but " spreading as a persistent weed." 

 If that is the worst that can be said of 

 it, let us raise as much of it as we .see 

 fit, trusting that the good will over- 

 balance the evil, enough to make all 

 feel friendly towards it. 



New Boston, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal* 



Comb Honey Rack. 



JOHN T. SMITH. 



I send to the Bee Journal a sam- 

 ple of my improved honey rack for 

 holding the 4^x414 sections. I send 

 two racks ; they cover one hive ; one 

 full of sections in place, and one, 

 empty. 1. I can use one rack at a 

 time on light colonies or box hives ; 

 2. I can tier up, one upon another, on 

 strong colonies, without adding more 

 than one at a time ; 3. By having each 

 tier J4 inch apart I can get the honey 

 off as fast as it is finished, as I can 

 work in between the other tiers ; 4. 

 By taking off honey as fast as finished 

 the combs are nice and white, the bees 

 keep at work all the summer, and do 

 not get the rack completed, but have 

 partly finished ones to keep them en- 

 couraged ; 5. Tiie shape of the rack is 

 such that the bees cannot glue the 

 sections fast or soil the same ; 6. By 

 being J^ inch inset for sections to set 

 in the rack, separators can be used 

 resting on the top edge of the rack, 

 leaving % inch space below the sepa- 

 rators, for bees to pass through ; 7. 

 By using the rubber cord to hold the 

 sections in place it holds all tight in 

 dry weather or damp, and the cord is 

 not in the way when tiering up; 8. 

 I can take the sections out of the 

 rack and turn one of the racks upside 

 down on the top of the hive, for winter 

 use, that forms the best of winter 

 passage over the top of the frames. I 

 like it as well as " Hill's Device " for 

 that purpose ; 9. In taking out and 

 replacing sections, the bearing is so 

 small that I do not kill as many bees 

 as with other racks, where the bearing 

 comes on the entire bottom of the sec- 

 tion. In tiering up I do not raise the 

 rack, but raise one tier, 6 sections, at 

 a time ; putting the empty ones at the 

 bottom, and partly filled ones on top. 



I have 83 colonies of bees in winter 

 quarters ; part of them are packed in 

 chaff, on the summer stands, and part 

 are in the cellar. I used the rack on 

 them last summer with the best of 

 satisfaction, as have all the bee-keep- 

 ers in this vicinity. 



Bellevue, Mich. 



[The rack is placed in the Museum 

 for the inspection of visitors.— Ed.] 



