FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 139 



lifted them into a tub and rinsed them off with cold water, 

 and set them up in the sun to drain, as bright and clean as 

 when they came from the tinner's. 



"I filled up the boiler with T tins again, and so on, 

 until the strength of the lye was all used up, when I 

 turned it out, filled up the boiler afresh, and began all 

 over again, continuing until they were' all done. I used 

 a can of lye to a boiler of water. 



"Every time I fill up a super with the nice clean T 

 tins I feel more than paid for the work it took to make 

 them so. I am pretty sure that washing-fluid would clean 

 them almost if not quite as well as the concentrated lye, 

 providing it were used strong enough, although I have 

 never tried it. However, I think I should prefer the lye, 

 as it does the work most thoroughly and does not hurt 

 the T tins in the least, that I can see. 



"If you have a lot of dirty T tins I advise you to 

 clean them in this way, and see if you are not as delighted 

 as I was to see them come out so bright and clean. Be 

 sure to use plenty of water in rinsing them off." 



WETTING SECTIONS. 



The well-known Hubbard section-press is used for 

 putting the sections together. If the sections are fresh 

 from the manufacturer and as good as they ought to be, 

 they can be put together at once without any preparation. 

 If they have been held over from the previous year they 

 may be so dry that too many of them will break in folding. 

 The joints of these are wet in a somewhat wholesale man- 

 ner. If they are crated in such a way as to be favorable 

 for it, the whole crate of 500 are wet before being taken 

 from the original package, one side of the crate being 

 removed so as to expose the edges of the sections. If 

 the crate is not of the right kind for this, then the sections 

 are taken from the crate and put in the proper position 



