THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



169 



mills and apiaries, the former to use 

 up the fruit of the orchard for the 

 benefit of humanity, and the apiary 

 or bees to carry the pollen and ferti- 

 lize the blossoms of the orchard and 

 fields, and to gather honey from every 

 open flower which would otherwise be 

 wasted. Both can prosper, and should 

 be had side by side. Since Mr. A. has 

 named the familiar characters of 

 " Jones aud Smith," and made out a 

 case for comparison, let me use the 

 same for a case that came under my 

 personal observation last September. 

 It is as follows: 



Jones owns a home, has nearly 100 

 colonies of bees, has kept his bees for 

 over 15 years, and of late years made 

 a specialty of giving his undivided 

 time to them during the working sea- 

 son of bees, making a comfortable 

 living from them. Last September 

 his neighbor Smith erected a cider- 

 mill not over liOO yards from Jones' 

 apiary ; the mill is of the most im- 

 proved pattern, having a capacity of 

 150 to 200 barrels of cider per day. 

 Jones went to Smith saying, " You 

 will ruin my bees." Smith replied, 

 " I do not want to do that ; I will run 

 the mill and see." The result was 

 that on the first day a few bees got 

 around the mill, the second day a 

 larger number, and the third day the 

 scene resembled that of half a dozen 

 or more swarms about clustering on 

 the mill, going into the grinder, on 

 the pomace, on the flowing cider, etc. 

 Smith being a good sort of a man con- 

 cluded that it was too bad. and 

 stopped operating 1 had he continued, 

 and had " Jones " been Mr. Anderson, 

 the result would have been (at least I 

 think so) that Mr. A's " nearly 100 

 colonies " would have been ground 

 up, drowned, killed and diseased in a 

 very short time. In this particular 

 case Jones used common sense by 

 offering to help Smith, free of charge, 

 to board and screen up the mill, to 

 which Smith consented, and there 

 was no further trouble, except from 

 the pomace. The workmen at the 

 cider-mill, and the neighbors all 

 agreed that Smith did right, and that 

 it he had not allowed or helped to 

 close his mill, Jones and the com- 

 munity would have had to get their 

 honey from some other source, and 

 that Jones' business would have been 

 ruined. Suppose Smith had kept on 

 (as he might have done) and told 

 Jones to " keep his bees on his own 

 premises," what amount of 

 sense " would it have taken 

 the bees at home V 



the right to pasture the fields through 

 which such streams flow. Powder- 

 mills are good in their place, but are 

 not allowed in populous cities. All 

 these and many otlierindustries ought 

 to and do exist, but are justly pre- 

 scribed. 



So cider-mills can and ought to in- 

 terest us enough to want them, but 

 they should be closed and prescribed 

 from doing unnecessary damages to 

 other industries equally as important 

 and honorable. Bees cannot be kept 

 from— and ought not to be kept from— 

 occupying the place nature, or a Wise 

 Creator has chosen for them to oc- 

 cupy, any more than one should waste 

 his time in trying to reverse any 

 other law of nature. 



Burton City, 5 Ohio. 



For trie American Bee Journal 



MMm M ii Winter, etc, 



B. Z. SMITH. 



feet, and are surely in fine condition. 

 How they will come out in the spring 

 of course remains a query, but I can 

 say that I have been quite successful 

 for 6 years in wintering in this way, 

 with the exception of the year we had 

 so much of the so-called bark louse 

 honey-dew, when we lost about 30 per 

 cent, of our bees. 



I believe in wintering bees on 

 their natural stores, and plenty of it ; 

 if sugar syrup is better for them than 

 honey, it surely is better for mankind. 

 Then why produce honey V Of course 

 sugar syrup will be fed to colonies 

 that are scant of stores, when honey 

 is not to be had. 



Tuscola,o* Ills., Feb. 14, 1887. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Tin-Rests in Sumlus Cases. 



N. N. BETSINGER. 



common 

 to keep 



I agree with the Editor of the Bee 

 Journal, that "class legislation is 

 undesirable except in rare cases," but 

 I think that this is one of the " rare 

 cases." I also believe that we ought 

 to be interested in cider-mills, and 

 that every man has a right to build 

 and operate cider-mills, cheese fac- 

 tories, chemical works, dye-factories, 

 powder-mills, etc., but I do not believe 

 (and legislatures have shown by wise 

 laws that they do not believe) that 

 these industries should have the right 

 to contaminate the air, and poison 

 pure streams of water to the destruc- 

 tion of health, and the killing of 

 farmers' cattle that by nature have 



"Why is it that so many of our best 

 apiarists claim that noise above a bee- 

 cellar will make no difference with 

 our bees V They say, put them under 

 the kitchen where the children romp 

 and play; while they may winter 

 there, 1 prefer a cellar separate from 

 anything else. 



My bee-cellar has two coats of 

 plastering 4 inches apart, over-head, 

 then one row of brick (as it is a brick 

 cellar under ground), and then the 

 sills of a honey-house, shop, or what- 

 ever I care to use it for. The other 

 day, as I wanted to do some work 

 in the shop, I thought it would be 

 best to see if noise would molest the 

 bees. So I quietly slipped into the 

 cellar, after engaging my brother to 

 strike on the floor, and found that the 

 bees, on entering, very quiet, but 

 alas I the very lirst stroke raised a 

 loud hum, and the longer the noise 

 continued the worse they were, until 

 they began to fly from the hives quite 

 often, about as we have noticed them 

 doing in March, at a very warm time, 

 when they are generally breeding, 

 and very warm weather causes great 

 uneasiness. 



I am quite certain that none of the 

 hives touch the wall, as I was very 

 particular about this when placing 

 them in the cellar. I am also very 

 sure that no more noise was made 

 than five or six boys would make 

 when romping in a kitchen over the 

 bees. I have some knowledge of this 

 as I was brought up in a family of six 

 boys. Is it not quite certain that 

 such noise or jarring vibrates the air, 

 walls and everytliing in close con- 

 nection y I am led to wonder whether 

 or not nearly all bee-keepers would 

 not prefer a cellar where there would 

 not be any disturbance in the least. 



My cellar to-day is at 45°, with 

 some water on the bottom, which is 

 pure, as it comes from a sand vein and 

 passes right out at the tile, which is 

 8 inches, aud is also the ventilator. 

 The entrances of the hives are all 

 wide open, ond the lids are raised 

 about }4 of an inch. There are 150 

 colonies in a room about of 1,000 cubic 



I wish to show the advantages in 

 the use of tin-rests. In a surplus ar- 

 rangement space is its greatest value, 

 and when it is occupied by wood or 

 taken up with bulky substances to 

 accomplish its object, it is in that 

 proportion deficient. In my experi- 

 ments in producing comb honey I 

 have found the nearer the sections 

 come to the brood, the sooner they 

 were occupied by the bees ; therefore 

 tin for section-rests are infallible. 



The strengthening of tin- rests is 

 considered as yet imperfect, and. with 

 I many, an unsettled question. Where 

 I metal separators are used and so ad- 

 justed as to come in contact with 

 the tin-rests, they can be very 

 securely fastened by means of solder- 

 ing, which makes a section support in 

 strength second to none, and yet 

 maintaining the same advantage 

 found in any other more cumbersome 

 section-rest — of admitting the sections 

 longitudinally in a solid line. 



There is also another advantage in 

 the tin-rests that cannot be found in 

 any other ; that is, where tiering-up 

 is desired, just bee space can be given 

 between the upper and lower case, 

 and not allow the section supports of 

 the upper case to come in contact 

 with the top of tlie lower sections, 

 which will, of course, greatly alleviate 

 the difficulty caused by propolis on 

 the sections, and also prevent the 

 union of the two cases. Further, the 

 danger of crushing bees in tiering 

 the cases is greatly lessened, without 

 the necessity of using an extra rim 

 for such a purpose. 

 Marcellus, ©N". Y. 



Dr. Ifllller's Book, "A Year Among 

 the Bees," and the Bee JonKNAL, for one 

 year, we will club for $1.50. 



Tlie Western World Guide and Hand- 

 Book of Useful Information, contains the 

 greatest amount of useful information ever 

 put together in such a cheap form. The 

 printing, paper, and binding are e.xcellent, 

 and the book is well worth a dollar. To any 

 one sending us two new subscribers besides 

 his own, with $3.00, for one year, we will 

 present a copy of this valuable book. 



