146 THE BEE-HIVES. 



zinc (467), to exclude the queen, or by a board with a square 

 hole in the center. The frames are suspended, in grooves, by 

 the ends of their upper bars, and have to be taken out with 

 pincers. 



292. The worst feature of this hive is that, if it is neces- 

 sary to reach the last frame, every one of the others has 

 to be taken out. There are twenty combs in the brood-chamber. 

 It is safe to say, that a hive built on the Langstroth principle, 

 can be visited five times more rapidly, than a hive built on 

 the Berlepsch idea. These inconveniences, coupled with the 

 fact that the brood apartment of the Berlepsch hive is divided 

 into two stories, and that the surplus apartment cannot be 

 enlarged, ad infinitum, make the Berlepsch hive inferior; and 

 we can safely predict that hives with movable ceiling will some 

 day be exclusively used throughout the world. 



293. The superiority of the Langstroth hive is so evident 

 that we were not surprised to read in the Revue Interna- 

 tionale d' Apiculture, Sept., 1885 : 



"The question of the mobility of the ceiling was discussed at 

 length at the Bee-keepers' Meeting held in Milan, Italy, in 

 September, 1885. Mr. Cowan and I were unable to conceal from 

 the Italian bee-keepers our wonder that it was not solved for 

 them, as it has been, for a long time, in the countries of large 

 production. 



"We can predict, and without any fear of mistake, that the 

 principles on which the Langstroth hive is based will be ad- 

 mitted sooner or later by the most progressive bee-keepers of 

 the world." — (Ed. Bertrand.) 



294. In 1905, an Italian writer, speaking of the Lang- 

 stroth-Dadant hive, as described by the elder Dadant, calls 

 it, "the preferred, the international, the classic, the queen of 

 hives." (Romagna Agricola, June, 1905.) 



295. The success of American bee-culture, in the last 

 fifty years, was first attributed, by European bee-keepers, to 

 the honey-producing power of the country; but the most in- 

 telligent Apiarists, who have tried the American methods, 



