80 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



keep from thinking that a thing is iieeessarily an improvement 

 because it is differept from what has been. The things and 

 plans gotten up by me that were different from others would 

 make a pretty long list. Unfortunately, a full trial has in most 

 cases convinced me that my supposed improvements were no 

 improvements at all, and so they were cast aside. A few, how- 

 e^•er, have stood the test; the Miller feeder and the Miller 

 introducing cage having become standard articles on the price- 

 lists, while bottom-starters, the robber-cloth, bottom-board, and 



FiQ. 27 — Weed Briiahes 



some other things have had from my brother beekeepers a 

 reception of which I have no reason to complain. While the 

 tendency toward something different needs to be kept in bounds 

 it would be a sad thing if no changes had been made, and we 

 were set back just where we were a quarter or half a century 

 ago. 



GETTING COMBS BUILT DOWN TO BOTTOM-BAES. 



While upon the subject of frames, I may as well tell how 

 I manage to have them entirely filled with straight combs which 

 are built out to the. end-bars and clear down to the bottom-bars. 



