1883 



GLEA]SriNGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



385 



I am always £?lad to have my sales decreased 

 when it results in a public good. Wooden 

 utensils for honey have, I believe, been most- 

 ly laid aside, however ; and although a bar- 

 rel, or a half-barrel, will do very well for 

 holding the machinery for an extractor, of 

 late years they have rather gone out of use. 

 Very likely, a temporary extractor might be 

 rigged up in a few hours, on a plan such as 

 yours, so as to save a crop of honey that 

 would be lost while waiting to have an ex- 

 tractor sent from a distance. By all means, 

 tell us about it. 



HAND-POWER BUXX-SA^VS, ETC. 



BELTS 0[l COa-WHKELS; WHICH IS BjiTTEf!? 



/^%y^ page 243 you ask the question, "Di we want 

 ^IJm a belt on a hand-power buzz-saw?" Friend 

 ^"^^ Bradley also says, "Tell friend Kingrsley to 

 throw his belt away, and fasten the saw to the shaft 

 that the fly-wheel i3 on." AVell, it does seem that 

 theory would tench us that this would be best; but I 

 should like to alHrra, that in this case there is a great 

 difference between theory and practice. I have 

 tried bi^ way exactly, but must say that it does not 

 do as well as the way I have it. Why? Well, the 

 faster your saw turns, the faster it will cut, and the 

 better the work it will do; and again, with the belt 

 pulling one way on the fly-wheel, and the cog-wheel 

 the other, there is almost no friction on the shaft- 

 bearingp, the cog-wheels being near the fly-wheel. 



I think friend B.'s 12-iuch saw a little improperly 

 arranged, to not cut over 3?4 inches. I have made 

 some of mine to cut 3 in. with a T-in. saw. There is 

 much to be gained in getting as great a depth as 

 possible, especially for a ripper. The job is very 

 incomplete when we simply turn the nuts true, and 

 place the sawljetwcen them. For example, I use Pi- 

 inch mandrels, but use saws with 1-inch hole, and on 

 the first nut (octagon), I turn a place that will just 

 fit the saw. 



BLACK LOCDST. 



I see in friend Wiitse's talk about honey-plants. 

 May number, he reports black locust as producing 

 no honey. I must confess that I was a little sur- 

 prised at that ; and if you, Mr. Root, or anybody else, 

 could sit in this upstair room with a large locust- 

 top just out the window, and see the golden-banded 

 fellows alight upon a blossom, and begin to swell, 

 and keep swelling until one drops off and stumbles 

 away to his hive, I say you'd be surprised too. I 

 think it safe to say, that each strong colony is to-day 

 carrying in locust honey at a rate of from 5 to 8 lbs. 

 per day. You may judge how full the trees ai'e of 

 bloom, by the bunch 1 send you. 



Greeneville, Tenn. Chas. Kingsley. 



* O mu . 



"J. K.," AND THE WAY HE TRANS- 

 FERS BEES. 



AS NARRATED BY HIS BROTHER. 



fiHE other evening my brother, " J. R ," gath- 

 ered up his " tricketi " and said he was going 

 out to the railroad to transfer a hive of bees 

 for the section boss. I had never seen any trans- 

 ferring done, so I thought I must go along; and I 

 thousrht sinco reading Iho A B C, on stings, I could 

 stand a fow at any rate. We reached the place, and 

 the first thiqg tlje womsa salcj was, they were "very 



bad to sting," and did sting every time they went 

 about them. " J. R." did not pay any attention to 

 that. While the rest of us stepped back he got 

 every thing ready. The women wanted him to be 

 sure to have every thing that he would need before 

 he began, for they were going to get far away. " 1 

 am too!" echoed around from some half a dozen 

 who had gathered there; but "J. R." picked up his 

 smoker (or what is left of one), and walked up to 

 the old box hive that the had bees were in, blow a 

 little smoke in at the entrance, and thumped the 

 hive and picked it up, and laid it down on the 

 ground, and in a few minutes had it all to pieces, 

 and the comb cut out, and put into a nice hive and 

 frame's, and without their stinging either. I asked 

 him why he did not get a now smoker. He said he 

 did not have the money. I told him I believed that 

 Bro. Root would send him one, for he has quit chew- 

 ing tobacco for one year. Now will you not send 

 him a good smoker? and if you want pay for it, or 

 you do not feel like sending him one for doing good 

 to himself in quitting the use of the filthy tobacco, 

 he will send it soon. He also is talking of sending 

 for Gle.A'^ings, though he has sent off his money 

 for hives, and has not got them yet, and no word 

 why they are not sent, so he has much on his mind, 

 and is wearied sometimes about not getting his 

 hives. He says Root doesbusinessmoi'e to suit him. 

 Georgetown, HI., May 21, 1833. C. V. Lindley. 



I am really afraid, friend L., that he gives 

 " Root " more credit than he deserves just 

 NOW. AVe have sent him the smoker. 



■^►^■•» m 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S FIRST YEAR'S 

 EXPERIENCE. 



TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS, AND SUCCESS. 



gpk^'NTS, year ago last May I took a strange notion 

 mMj to try bee-keeping. I had a brother who had 

 ^""^ tried it enough to be an enthusiast on the 

 subject. But he found better employment— he went 

 to pi-eaching; and the fall before, he had left quite a 

 stock of hive material, section boxes, etc., with us. 

 We had ten colonies of black bees, and, having all 

 this stock on hand, through his earnest persuasion I 

 decided to make the attempt. It was only a trial, 

 for I had no faith in the business as a matter of 

 prolit. It was also a very trying ordeal; for, though 

 we had kept bees on the place for a number of years, 

 I had scarcely attempted hiving a swarm; had nev- 

 er taken off a box of honey, much less doing any 

 thing else with them, and I dreaded to "tackle" 

 them as I would a herd of wild cats. But other 

 reasons, added to my brother's entreaties, goaded 

 me on to make the attempt. 



Of our ten colonies, five were in the eight-frame 

 Langstroth hives; two were in box hives; one in 

 what was intended for a movable-frame hive, but 

 had by mismanagement been made the most im- 

 movable and unprofitable of all, and two were in 

 small cracker-boxes. I made no effort to transfer; 

 but one of the last two named absconded. The other 

 one did the same about a week later. I decided to 

 have that one, so I put it into an empty L. hive. 

 But mere hiving was of little avail. They would 

 come out for one to put them tjack, as often as four 

 times per day. I then tried feeding a little liquid 

 honey wo happened to have, and afterward some 

 sugar syrup; but as soon as I ceased feeding, they 

 ftl33conde4 from tlje hive to that same old peagli» 



