30 FIFTY YEAKS AMONG THE BEES 



from the trees to the hives. I showed him how to use rotten 

 wood for 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 acquired accomplishment, I had hardly left 

 town when he tried its use, and succeeded in setting Are to a 

 hive by means of the sawdust on the ground. Whether it was 

 burned up or merely put into jeopardy I do not now remem- 

 ber. 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 into tlje 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 had been using, but I think the frames were 

 considerably deeper than the regular Langstroth. I say "the 

 regular Langstroth," for in reality all niovable frames are 

 Langstroths, but the regular size is 17% x 9%. J. Vandervort, 

 a man well known among the oldw beekeepers as a manufac- 

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

 Marengo, 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 the standard size, and % of an inch shallower. 



CHANGE TO KEGULAE LANQSTBOTH. 



So little a difference in measurement could make no appre- 

 ciable difference in practical results, yet after going on until I 

 had three or four thousand of such frames, the inconvenience 

 of having such an odd size got 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. 



