748 



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^■»-*--^*— -■*'^*^*^*-^ *ifc*< 



An expression alter the meaning of the 

 words. For this reason, and to secure 

 •a mutual interchange of thought be- 

 tween countries, it is pi-oposed, and we 

 hope to succeed next j-ear, in having 

 the grandest bee-keepers' convention 

 ever held, in which representatives 

 from several European countries will 

 take part — a convention from which 

 ■every one can go home not onlj' bene- 

 fited, but enriched. 



Article III. What about life mem- 

 bers ? Are we going to make figure 

 heads of them ? We do not allow 

 them to vote, hold office, etc., unless 

 they give us another $1.00 each year. 

 This is wrong, and should be corrected, 

 ■or the life memljership clause struck 

 ■out. 



Article VI. The time is to be fixed 

 •at the previous meeting. Is this wise, 

 ■or had the executive better decide this 

 as circumstances may direct. 



Article VIII of the BY-LAWS is op- 

 tional, hence it is not objectionable, 

 ■.although it will probably never be 

 made use of. Dr. Miller is wrong ; he 

 •says is to be formed. 



In Article IX., Clause ,2, I agree 

 with Dr. Miller. Five dollars is the 

 .affiliation fee ; the local society gets 

 two silver medals and a free member- 

 -ship. If these can be had for $5.00, all 

 right ; otherwise our funds will not 

 .allow it. And that reminds me that 

 members should send on their mem- 

 bership fees for the new year, as funds 

 :are low, and a great deal of work re- 

 ■quiring funds has to be done during 

 the coming year. 



Article XI is of no use to us. I agree 

 \vith Dr. Miller. 



Article XII is very good, but re- 

 member, send on those annual fees. 

 We are out of funds, and the associa- 

 tion is already indebted to me for pos- 

 tage, etc. 



Article XIII, Clause 2, is very good. 

 Xet us stick to that. 



In closing, let me say that I agree 

 Tvith Dr. Miller, and I am sure we all 

 feel that a vote of thanks was, and is, 

 due Mr. Newman for the great trouble 

 he has taken in tliis matter, more es- 

 pecially as he was quite sick at the 

 time. 



Brantford, Ont. 



EXTRACTING-. 



<roustriiotins a Simple, Home- 

 Made Honey Extractor. 



Written for the Practical Farmer. 



Tlie pi'oduction of comb lioney, 

 -with amateur bee-keepers, is a diiti- 

 cult matter, especially to those having 

 a few hives, and who prefer obtaining 

 their honey to increasing their colo- 

 nies. To i-ead the number of articles 



written upon the subject in bee-peri- 

 odicals and apicultural newspapers, it 

 would seem that even apiarists with a 

 large number of colonies have con- 

 siderable trouble in getting the bees 

 to work freely in the section boxes. 

 Various plans have been suggested, 

 the principal and probably the only 

 cei'tain one being the contraction of 

 the brood-chamber to five frames, 

 therebj' compelling the bees during a 

 honey flow to deposit it in the surplus 

 chamber. 



Now this niaj- be a very good plan, 

 and it certainly can be readily carried 

 out by the party who makes bee-culture 

 a business, and can sit down, pump iu 

 hand, read}- to throw a wet blanket on 

 a swarm endeavoring to get up and 

 dust, or get in as unhandy a place on 

 a tree as possible ; but the bee-keeper 

 jn a small wa}-, who has other things 

 to attend to, is vexed when he comes 

 home and finds that the honey he saw 

 in the sections a week before is now 

 safely stored in the honey-sacs of the 

 missing swarm. Why, we may ask, 

 should the bee-keeper run such a risk 

 to obtain comb honej' ? It is no purer 

 than extracted honey, neither is it so 

 easy to partake of, unless you eat the 

 wax, which certainly was never in- 

 tended for food. 



Mr. Lemuel Stout, of Philadelphia, 

 after five years of bee-keeping, with 

 from 3 to 5 colonies, had very little 

 success in getting comb honey in the 

 siu-plus department. There was plenty 

 elsewhere, but unobtainable without 

 destroying the comb, and then the 

 product was only strained honey, an 

 article not relished b}' any one who 

 knows how it is obtained. 



Mr. Stout had decided to get rid of 

 his bees except a little pet colony in a 

 hive about 8 inches square. The last 

 week in June, 1888, there were about 

 40 pounds of honej^ nicely capped over 

 in his hives, which, if he had an ex- 

 tractor, he could recover, but it cer- 

 tainlj' would not pay him to purchase 

 an article that he might not want to 

 use six hours annually. He thought it 

 strange that among the 300,000 bee- 

 beepers in the United States, no one of 

 the number had devised some simple 

 contrivance that would answer the 

 purpose — an instrument that any one 

 could make with verj' little trouble 

 and expense. 



If centrifugal motion would throw 

 the honey from the comb in the stan- 

 dard extractors, it would do the same 

 if the comb was put in a suitable 

 shaped can and placed upon the edge 

 of a horizontal revolving wheel. This, 

 if secured to a vertical shaft about 6 

 feet long, might be operated bj* pulling 

 a stout cord, sa)- 10 feet long, around it. 

 Accordingly he took an old hoe- 

 handle pointed at one end for his up- 



right shaft. On this he fixed a dis- 

 carded front wheel of a carriage. The 

 pointed end of the shaft rested in a 

 small countersunk hole made in a 

 block of wood nailed to the floor, 

 while the upper end revolved in a hole 

 bored through a block fastened to a 

 joist overhead. Round the hub of the 

 wheel which extended downward, the 

 cord was wound, by pulling on which 

 strongly the wheel revolved, and with 

 so much velocity that bj' the momen- 

 tum acquired, the cord after being un- 

 wound, was wound up again ready 

 when drawn upon to impart to the 

 wheel an equal velocity in the contrary 

 direction. 



The tin-can used is deep enough to 

 receive one of the hive frames, stand- 

 ing on end. It is nearly diamond- 

 shaped in its cross section, and is 

 securely closed by a tin lid. When in 

 place it stands erect on the upper side 

 of the felloe of the horizontal wheel, 

 where its lower end is secured between 

 wire uprights. Its upper end is em- 

 braced by strong wires attached to and 

 extending from the shaft. 



His instrument was first tried last 

 4th of July, when Mr. Stout uncapped 

 the combs, introduced frames and 

 combs, and extracted over 40 pounds 

 of nice, clear honey, the combs being 

 free from injurj-. 



BEE-KEEPIlSra 



Con§idered a§ a Pursuit for 

 Farmers. 



Written for the Maryland Farmer 



BY THE EDITOR. 



The progress of this pursuit since 

 our boyhood days is something wonder- 

 ful, and even now it is quite evident 

 that still greater progress is in store 

 for the bee-keeper of the future. Men, 

 womeu and children are now in the 

 business of skillful bee-keeping, and 

 the honey production of the country is 

 becoming of vast magnitude. 



The Brlglit Side. 



That bee-keeping has a bright side 

 is a fact which everj' one realizes. At 

 the farmer's home it speaks of the 

 delicious sweets gathered from the 

 flowers, and reaped and enjoyed with 

 the smallest degree of labor and care. 

 All day long, while the farmer is toil- 

 ing in the fields, these industrious pro- 

 viders are gathering the very nectar 

 of the crops for his delight, and for 

 the health and happiness of his house- 

 hold. 



The Dark Side. 



But it has a dark side, also. Not so 

 heavy in the farmer's home, as when 

 the ))ee-keeper, who has made this the 



