1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



45 



men, by its aid. can do as much as 

 two thousand men working with 

 hand tools. The saving in wages of 

 this large number of men will very 

 soon pay the cost of the big ma- 

 chines. To get it down to a fine 

 point, the machine can do, for three 

 cents. what it costs seventy-five 

 cents to have done by hand. This is 

 the reason that few beekeepers can 

 afford to make their own supplies. 

 They are not only better made by 

 machinery, but a man. working by 

 hand, can never compete with a ma- 

 chine which does the work of 

 twenty-five men. 



Let us follow a load of basswood 

 lumber through the mill and see 

 What happens. The boards are 

 wheeled into the factory on three- 

 wheeled carts that carry a wagon 

 load of lumber at one time. For 

 making sections, absolutely clear 

 lumber is used.. First every board is 

 planed to fit a gauge, so that all are 

 exactly alike." The basswood boards 

 are twenty-nine thirty-seconds of an 

 inch in thickness after coming from 

 the planer. All knots are cut out, 

 and waste wood is used for other 

 purposes requiring small pieces of 

 indifferent quality. Motor-driven 

 mandrils now plane each edge, above 

 and below, and cut each strip into 

 five parts. There are seventy-five 

 saws on each machine. The strips 

 are then run through a sander to 

 polish both sides and cut into 17- 

 inch lengths for sections. At this 

 stage the pieces are sorted by hand 

 into grades, for no machine has yet 

 been perfected which will sort out 

 the off-colored pieces. After the 

 pieces are graded they are clamped 

 into bundles of 100 and the various 

 cuts necessary to make them into 

 finished sections made quicker than 

 it can be told. The dovetails are cut 

 at the ends by rapid saws_, the V 

 grooves by a scoring machine, and 

 the beeways by rabbets. These ma- 

 chines have an automatic feed, and 

 the machine counts them, also, ring- 

 ing a bell for every crate of 500 fin- 

 ished sections. It only requires 

 three men to attend this machine. 

 One supplies it with lumber, one fills 

 the crates and the third nails the 

 crates up ready, for shipment. The 

 machinery necessary to manufacture 

 sections hi this rapid manner cost in 

 the neighborhood of $10,000. but with 

 it three men are able to do the work 

 of Hill men by hand labor. The fact 

 is, that it would be almost impossi- 

 ble to make good sections by hand. 

 The one machine turns out 64,000 

 every ten hours. 



Hives may be followed through the 

 big factor}' in similar manner, al- 

 though the process is much the same. 

 The lumber is first planed, and cut 

 clear, edges are planed and the 

 boards are cut into short lengths, to 

 fit the hives. We have some way 

 come to demand dovetailed corners 

 in all our beehives, although it is 

 quite possible that well boxed cor- 

 ners would do quite as well. In or- 

 der to satisfy this whim on the part 

 of the beekeepers, it is necessary to 

 install a Morgan lock-corner ma- . 

 chine at a cost of $1,300, which cuts 



THE LUMBER IS WHEELED TO THE 

 the dovetail so evenly that there is 

 not a miss in a hundred hives. 



Small pieces of boards are worked 

 into end bars and frame parts. The 

 top bar is cut out entirely complete 

 at one operation. Take a look at a 

 thick top bar from a Hoffman frame 

 and try to imagine what an ingen- 

 ious machine ij necessary to turn the 

 trick. To describe it so it could be 

 understood would require a better 

 reporter than I. I could not even 

 figure the thing out when I saw it 

 working. 



Every machine in the big factory 

 has its own individual motor, thus 

 doing away with hundreds of belts 

 and tons of shafting and overhead 

 pulleys. In one corner is a repair 

 shop in charge of an expert me- 

 chanic. Here necessary repairs are 

 made for the machines without leav- 

 ing the building, and with the least 

 possible delay. 



After all, beekeeping is not a busi- 

 ness to be sneezed at, when it takes 

 several hundred carloads of lumber 

 yearly to keep one factory busy 

 turning out supplies. After we have 

 pasted a few million more of the 

 "Eat Honey" stickers on our outgo- 

 ing mail, we will have to enlarge all 

 the factories and start more to sup- 



FACTORY ON THREE-WHEELED CARTS, 

 ply enough hives to hold the bees 

 necessary to meet the demand for 

 our product. 



Northern Wisconsin Meeting. — The 



annual meeting of the Northern Wis- 

 consin Beekeepers' Association was 

 held at the court house here Satur- 

 day, Dec. 29, 1917. Dinner was 

 served by the ladies of the associa- 

 tion and was very much appreciated. 

 An address was given by Professor 

 Mathews, of the U. S. Agricultural 

 Department, on Wintering Bees and 

 Increase of Honey production. Some 

 important bee' problems by Jas. 

 Chief, a local and up-to-date bee- 

 man, were discussed. Co-operation 

 for better results in beekeeping, dis- 

 eases in bees, frames, combs and us- 

 ing foundation, also were touched 

 upon by Professor Mathews. The 

 following officers were elected for 

 the ensuing year : 



President — H. H. Schroeder. 



Vice President — James Chief. 



Secretary-Treasurer — E. H. Marsh. 



Directors — Otto Klessig, Joe Cro- 

 terfeil and C. S.Leykom. 



Honey is very scarce here now, 

 extracted bringing from 20 to 30c a 

 pound. E. H. MARSH, 



Sec'y- 



THERE IS ROOM TO LOAD A WHOLE LINE OF FREIGHT CARS FROM 

 THE WAREHOUSE AT ONE TIME. 



