MATERIALS FOR BEE-MIVES. 



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" : 



S7j9. 



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 

 growth, 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 



