614 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



tend their comb-building upward, even if tbey had 

 plenty of room for this work on empty side frames. 

 Now, why should bees attempt the difficult work of 

 upward comb-building, against the law of gravity, 

 by which their suspended combs are kept in a per- 

 pendicular position, while they have ample side 

 room for building them in the natural way? Why, 

 I say, do they act tlius, unless it is most in accord- 

 ance with their instincts to place their stores above 

 the brood-nest? 



If honey, to have its choicest flavor, ought not to 

 be extracted — as the Dadants and others of our 

 leading apiarians assert — * before it has been cap- 

 ped; and if, when all bet-work is most pressing, 

 more colonies can be taken care of by piling hive 

 upon hive, filled with empty combs — to be emptied 

 when more leisure comes — then the advantages of 

 shallow hives are easy to be seen. 



2. If we do not make the number of frames so 

 small that, to get the requisite comb surface, they 

 must be too heavy for easy handling, then fur 

 cheapness, and other obvious reasons, the fewer 

 frames the better. For this reason, if /there were 

 no others, frames of the Gallup size seem to me ob- 

 jectionable. 



3. Long and shallow frames are more convenient 

 for most of our necessary manipulations. 



(a) In handling them the arms fake a natural and 

 easy, instead of a cramped position. 



(h) Wirh such a frame the eye commands the whole 

 surface of a comb, in senrching for the queen, etc., 

 without that uncomfortable craning of the neck 

 which det'p frames compel. 



(c) As has been already explained, there is less 

 danger of hurting bees in i-emoving or replacing 

 the shallow frames. 



(d) Less motion, and of course less time, is n< eded 

 to take out or put back such frjimes. 



(e) It i* very much e.itier to ninkc such frames 

 hanp true, than deep ones. If their hives had glass 

 on their backs, many who use deep frames would be 

 surprised to see how much "out of true" tbey oft- 

 en are. 



Whatever may be the case wiih bee-keepers, in a 

 small way only, thirse who are manipulating for 

 hours together, in large apiaries, and to whom, in 

 the press of work, time saved means more money, 

 than in any other season of the ye.-ir, will find the 

 above reasons for giving the preference to the long 

 and shallow frame wor'hy of careful cunsirteration. 

 They are submitted, however, in no spirit of dog- 

 matism, and I am far from claiming that the stand- 

 ard Lnngstroth is dcmmistrahhj the best under all 

 conditions, and for all parts of our widely extended 

 country. The time will probably never come when 

 uniformity will be as much insisted on as in the 

 standard weights and measures of the same country. 

 If by a simple \olition I could, without pecuniary 

 loss to any one, or violence to any one's feelings or 

 prejudices, ch>«nge every movable-comb hive in 

 America into the standard Langstroth size, I would 

 will no such change. Let the Dadants, Hethering- 

 lons, and others, have full scope for testing on the 

 largest scale their different forms, only let there be, 

 as far as possible, tmiformity in each sliile. so that 

 any purchaser will know precisely what size, under 



a given name of hive, he is getting. I am sure that 

 Mr. Root, and others, will be willing, when request- 

 ed, to make hives of the standard Langstroth size; 

 and if Mr. Root will call his size of frame the Sim- 

 pUcitu-Lanastroth frmno, there will in the future be 

 plain sailing, at least before all who use the shallow 

 Langstroth frame. L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, Ohio, Sept., 188:3. 



J.4.ITIES FO«N€KOOIi'S PATENT ON SEC- 

 TIONAL HONEY-FKAITIES. 



AND SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS IN GENERAL. 



MS considerable interest has been mani- 

 ^^^ fesLed in this matter, and as a whole- 



' some lesson can be gathered from it, 



I will present the matter to our readers as it 

 now stands. In 1870 a patent was granted 

 to Wm. Gilbert for an improvement in mak- 

 ing boxes of one piece of wood. The cut be- 

 low is an exact copy of his claim, and shows 

 the way in which the strip of wood is groov- 

 ed, that it may be turned up and nailed to- 

 gether. 



* I use the word apiarian both a>! ad.iertive and suhstatiMve, 

 without tlie authoiity of Webster or Worcester, because it 

 sounds niueli liettei- than :iiiiculturi'it, and is repeatedly so 

 used by Dr. Ed\vai-d Devan in his work o7i the honov-bee — than 

 ■whom there is no writer on bee oilture who is liigher author- 

 ity among English-speaking people. 



We make the following extracts from his 

 claim : 



Be it known, that T William Gilbert, of Catskill, 

 Greene County, State of Now York, have inven'^ed a 

 new and useful improvement in the construction of 

 wooden boxes, for service «8 fruit-boxes, salt-boxes, 

 Fpice-boxes, housekeeners' boxes, Ifldies' work-box- 

 es, or for any use where light stronar boxes are need- 

 ed. Mv present object is to save the expense of con- 

 struction-labor in forrainsr the ansrnlar joints at cor- 

 ner's, and making them without a break, in the cheap- 

 est and prompttst mannpr. 



Th"^ sides are prepared bv gettingr out and properly 

 dressing strips. Fie-. 5. of the material, which may be 

 of Mnv kind of wood having toughness enough of 

 fiber for that purpose. 



These strips are made of the proper width for the 

 Fides of the box. * * * The thick- 



ness is from two-sixteenths to three-sixteenths of an 

 in'^h. 



The strip thus prepared is next subjected to a 

 soakiner in hot water, or a stenming, in order to In- 

 .eure tbp bending of the wood without breaking its 

 fiber. The above-described method of construction, 

 it must be manifest, is one which will introduce a 

 better and cheaper article of its class into use and 

 sale, than has been or is now in market; in other 

 words, a new, better, and cheaper article of manu- 

 facture. 



Well, friends, this combines pretty nearly 

 the principal point in Forncrook's honey- 

 box made of one piece of wood ; but in the 

 year 1874 one II. W. Ilutchins, of East Liv- 

 ermore. Maine, got a patent on the idea of 

 dovetailing the ends instead of lapning or 

 gluing them, as Gilbert had done. We give 

 below a cut of the Hntchins patent. 



This effectually disposes of the plan of 

 making boxes of one piece of wood, and fold- 

 ing them up so that the dovetailing ends 

 may lock together, and, of course, all that 

 remains for Mr. Forncrook to get a patent 

 on is the insets to give an entrance to the 

 bees, and the groove for inserting .the strip 



