1\ 



)e (5)ee- 



eepeps' J\e\^ie( 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tlqe Interests of Hor^eLj Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



w. z, HDTCHiNSON, Editor and Proprietor, 



VOL, XJ^- FLINT. MICHIGAN, JANUARY 10. 1899, NO I, 



SECTION HONEY BOXES. 



A few Particulars Regarding their Manufac- 

 ture. 



\V. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



"(".real oaks from little acorns grow." 



M 





SECTION 

 honey box— a 

 thill slip of bass- 

 wood, notched at 

 the ends, havinij 

 three j^rooves cut 

 across its surface, 

 A. ,• . and insets along 



^^^Wft ^^^^^ its edges — what a 

 ^^^B^M^^^^^^ simple thing: and 

 ^m^ ^H^m the man who 



tries his hand at 

 their manufacture will find occasion to use 

 a "mighty deal of nice consideration" be- 

 fore he succeeds in turning out a first 

 class article. 



I'll tell you how I know. While tak- 

 •ng a trip last summer through Northern 

 Michigan I called upon my friend Wm. 

 1', iniber of Mt. Tleasant. I knew that he 

 h.id a planing mill and did something in 

 the way of making bee keeping supplies, 

 but I was not prepared I'j find him mak- 



ing sections upon so large a scale. His 

 planing mill has been practically turned 

 into a section factory. Mr. Bamber is an 

 excellent mechanic and machinist, hav- 

 ing a lathe and iron-working tool ; in 

 fact, he made with his own hands nearly 

 every machine in his factory. He has 

 gradually worked into the section busi- 

 ness; in fact, he told me that had he, at 

 the outset, realized the difficulties to 

 be overcome he doubts if he should have 

 ever gone into the business. I stayed 

 with him nearly half a day, and he ex- 

 plained to me some of the nice points to 

 be considered in the making of sections. 

 First of all comes the timber. Large, 

 old trees will not answer. The wood is 

 too dark. Young, thrifty trees must be 

 selected in order to secure white wood. 

 Then it must be cut in the winter when 

 the timber is frozen. Not only must it 

 be cut then, but it must be sawed 

 then, before it thaws, and the lum- 

 ber piled up. The coming of spring 

 must find the little, short planks all piled 

 up, but not too closely, or there will be 

 mildew. If the timber is cut or sawed 

 into lumber when not frozen, the color 

 will not be white, but of a dark cream 

 color. For making sections, the timber 

 is not cut into lonu logs and taken to a 

 regular saw mill, but is cut up into short 



