:((> FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



ground up through the house, a stove-pipe hole opening from 

 the cellar into each. But the only way to warm the cellar was 

 by keeping fire in the rooms overhead, and by opening the inside 

 cellar-door. One day when I came home from school — I think 

 it was in December, 1876 — I found my wife had decided to 

 hurry up the manner of warming the cellar, and had a small 

 stove set up, and throughout the winter there was fire there a 

 good part of the time. 



FIRST SECTION HONEY. 



In 1877 I gave up extracted honey, the introduction of 

 sections having made such a revolution that it seemed better to 

 go back to comb honey. The sections of that day were crude 

 compared with the finished affairs of the present day. One- 

 piece sections were then unknown, four-piece sections being the 

 only ones, and there was not a remarkably accurate adjustment 

 of the dovetailed parts, so that no little force was required to 

 put the sections together. When a tenon and mortise did not 

 correspond, pounding with a mallet would make the tenon 

 smash its way through. 



In order to fasten the foundation in the section, the top 

 piece of the section had a saw-kerf going half way through the 

 wood on the under side. The top was partly split apart, the 

 edge of the foundation inserted, then the wood was straightened 

 back to place. I was not well satisfied with my success in fast- 

 ening in the foundation, and in 1878 wrote to A. I. Root for a 

 better plan, describing minutely the plan I had been using, 

 giving a pencil sketch of the board I used on my lap, with the 

 different parts upon it. In June Gleanings in Bee Culture my 

 letter appeared in full, jaencil sketch and all, and he sent me a 

 round sum in payment for the letter, but no word of instruction 

 as to any better way ! I hardly knew whether to be glad or mad. 



WIDE FRAMES. 



The sections were put in wide frames, double-tier, making 

 a frame hold eight sections (Fig. .3). I had an arrangement by 

 which the sections, after having been lightly started together, 

 were all punched into the frame at one stroke, driving them 



