33 FIFTY TEARS AMONG THE BEES 



trees to the hives. I showed him how to use rotten wood foi' 

 smoking bees, and he thought it a great improvement over the 

 plan he had been using. I do not now remember what his plan 

 had been, but hardly a tobacco-pipe, for I have heard that he 

 has some objections to the use of tobacco. Pleased with his 

 newly aecjuired accomplishment, I had hardly left town when he 

 tried its use, and succeeded in setting fire to a hive by means of 

 the sawdust on the ground. Whether it was burned up or 

 merely put in jeopardy I do not now remember. He did not 

 send me the bill for it. 



At that time he knew nothing of a bee-smoker, and neither 

 of us then thought that in the next third of a century he would 

 send out in the world three hundred thousand of them. 



ADOPTS 18 X 9 FRAME. 



In 1870 I made a change in hives. I cannot now tell the 

 size of frames I liad been using, but I think the frames were 

 considerably deejier than the regular Langstroth. I say "the 

 regular Langstroth,'' for in reality all movable frames are Laug- 

 stroths, but the regular size is 17% x dYg. J. Vandervort, a 

 man well knewn among the older beekeepers as a manufacturer 

 of foundation-mills, had at that time a machine shop in Maren- 

 i;o, and upon his moving away in 1870 I bought out his stock 

 of hives. The frames were 18 x 9, % of an inch longer than Die 

 standard size, and % of an inch shallower. 



CHANGE TO REGULAE LANGSTROTH. 



So little a dilferenee in measurement could make no appre- 

 ciable difference in practical I'esults, yet after going on until I 

 had three or four thousand of such frames, the inconvenience 

 of having an odd size was felt to be so great that I felt I must 

 change so as to be in line with the rest of the world, and be 

 able to order hives, frames, etc., such as were on the regular list 

 without being obliged to have everything made to order. The 

 change to the regular size cost a good deal of money, and a good 

 deal more in labor and trouble, extending over several years. 



