MATERIALS FOR BEE-HIVES. 175 
by any one who can handle tools, but cannot be profitably 
manufactured to be sent far, unless made where lumber 
is cheap, and the parts closely packed,—in the flat,—to 
be put together after reaching their destination. 
361. If the Apiarist desires minute instructions, on how 
to file his saws and keep them in order, select his lumber, 
and make his hives, with pleasure and profit, let him send 
to A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, for his ‘‘A. B. C., of Bee- 
Culture.’’ He will be repaid a hundred-fold, by the many 
good points he will find in it. 
362. We here cite, with illustration, his explanation of 
‘* why boards warp’’: 
I51 
beet Y \ YY 
ss Ss Ly 
paar 
ree 
may, 
FeO 
Sie 
se 
L? 
LOR 
inane 
me 
% 
ii 
Fig. 79. 
*‘ Before going further, you are to sort the boards so as to have 
the heart side of the lumber come on the outside of the hive. If 
you look at the end of each board, you can see by the circles of 
growtb, which is the heart side, as is shown in the cuts. At B, 
you see a board cut off just at one side of the heart of the tree; 
at C, near the bark; at A, the heart is in the centre of the board. 
You all know, almost without being told, that boards always 
warp like C; that is, the heart side becomes convex. The reason 
is connected with the shrinkage of boards in seasoning. When 
a log lies until it is perfectly seasoned, it often checks as in fig. 
2. You will observe that the wood shortens in the direction of 
the circles, and but very little, if any, along the lines that run 
from the bark to the centre. To allow this shrinkage in one 
direction, the log splits or checks in the direction shown. Now 
to go back to our boards, you will see that B shrinks more than 
A, because A has the heart of the tree in its centre; that C will 
shrink, in seasoning, much more on the bark side, than on the 
