1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1601 



you are homesick, don't despair. Go back, 

 it's no disgrace, but shows a heart and affec- 

 tions. The real Hoosier is born, not made 

 How they do love to bi-ag on Indiana! Last 

 spring, after the earthquake in San Francis- 

 co, hundreds of the people came east. They 

 were on all the trains. One day a man and 

 wife sat in front of me for a 100 mile ride. 

 They attracted my attention by their actions. 

 They eagerly scanned the landscape like 

 children. I spoke to them and learned they 

 were "quake" victims who escaped with 

 their lives and were going back to the old 

 homestead left 30 years ago. He tried to tell 

 me how good it was to see an oak-tree once 

 more. Tears filled his eyes, but he was not 

 ashamed, nor I of him. 



Three men met one day down along the 

 bank of the Grand Trunk Railway, and were 

 talking about the land of their births and 

 were telling where they would rather have 

 been born if they had not been born where 

 they were born. The Englishman said he 

 would rather have been born in France if he 

 had not been horn in England. The German 

 said he would have preferred Italy. The 

 Irishman said, "Be gorra, ave oi hadn't bane 

 bawrn in Indiany oi'd bae ashamed ave me- 

 silf." 



So, kindly allow a Buckeye to present these 

 few remarks as a token of esteem for my 

 fellow bee-keepers in "Indiany." 



Frank McGlade. 



«»y^ ♦v^^ r^yu- 



TRADE NOTES 



BY E. R. R OOT. 



A NEW QUEEN EXCLUDER. 



Something that will not Impede the Pas- 

 sage of the Bees, and that has 

 no Burr Edges. 



In punching holes out of metal there is al- 

 most sure to be a very slight burr edge. 

 While this can be reduced, by having sharp 

 dies and puches, to almost a minimum, still 

 there will necessarily be a slight edge. True, 

 it can be burnished off, yet in case of per- 

 forated zinc the very process of removing it 

 would have a tendenc^y to turn it in, thus re- 

 ducing the size of the perforation, and, in- 

 stead of eliminating, it would actually ag- 

 gravate the very difficulty we seek to over- 

 come. 



Within the last year or so, certain bee- 

 keepers have complained that they thought 

 bees did not go through perforated metal 

 without some hesitation; and some went so 

 far as to claim there would be less honey 

 produced above it. But as to this last point, 

 we believe that reports frtjm bee-keepers 

 generally go to show that, from comparative 

 tests that have been made, the use of the 

 metal does not reduce the amount of honey 

 stored. Then the question arises, "Does the 



slight burr edge shorten the actual working 

 life of the bees by wearing their wings?" We 

 must say we do not know; but some six 

 months or more ago Mr. F. H. Marbach, a 

 practical machinist, and a die-sinker as well, 



FIG. 1. — ACTUAL SIZE. 



conceived the idea of spacing straight wires 

 the correct distance apart. He argued in 

 his own mind that these round bars or wires 

 would have perfectly smooth edges, and pro- 

 vide an easier means of passage than the 

 narrow slots punched out of metal having 

 more or less of a burr edge. 



FIG. 2.— ACTUAL SIZE. 



First he took some strips of metal and bored 

 holes in them the right distance apart. In 

 these he inserted wires of the same caliber 

 as the holes. He then had what might be 

 called a metal fence with a distance between 

 the bars of xVVo- When he first showed this 



FIG. 3.— THE MARBACH IMPROVED ALLEY 

 TRAP. 



idea to us we felt somewhat skeptical, be- 

 cause we felt that the distance between the 

 holes might vary. But he (luickly corrected 

 us by saying they could be punched so as to 

 be exactly right. Then we interposed the 

 objection that it would be difficult to feed 

 these wires through '"^"'^ holes, and that the 



