38 BULLETIN 1007, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
angles to form the completed honey section. The strips are shipped 
flat from the factory and should be steamed at the scorings to bend 
satisfactorily. Apparatus is sold to apiarists for this purpose, 
although the strips can be bent without breaking by moistening the 
wood where the scorings have been made. Basswood does not break 
readily when bent in this way, which makes it valuable for this use. 
Manufacturers of honey sections prefer to get their basswood from 
the Lake States. Some is purchased from West Virginia mills, 
but this is not considered so white and clear or so suitable for this use. 
Basswood which is cut in the winter is preferred for the manufacture 
of honey sections, because it is less likely to discolor than if cut in the 
summer. Some firms make a practice of buying it partially seasoned 
in the winter. It is then piled in the open on sticks for 9 months to a 
year, after which it is piled solid for a year under cover. Where this 
practice is followed it is necessary to keep a very large stock of 
lumber on hand. 
Factories making honey sections and other bee-keepers' supplies 
generally find it necessary to manufacture a number of miscellaneous 
articles in order to utilize their small-dimension and defective bass- 
wood. Such articles as small boxes, handles of cheap fans, calendar 
sticks, and washboards are among the most common. Trimmings 
cut from the ends of thin basswood strips are sold for hay-balers 7 
labels, on which weights are written. Brown and dark-streaked 
material can be used for these purposes. Basswood is sometimes 
used for the interior of hives and occasionally for the sides, but white 
or western yellow pine is more often used for these parts, and cypress 
for the tops and bottoms, because a more durable wood is desired. 
Manufacturers of apiarists' supplies assert that there is no satis- 
factory substitute for basswood in the manufacture of honey sections. 
Yellow poplar is not so strong at the corners of the honey sections 
where it is bent and, moreover, it not in general so white and clear 
as basswood. The sapwood might serve, however, if it could be 
obtained in large quantities. Cottonwood might be made to serve, 
but it does not machine smoothly. The warping of tupelo, which 
might otherwise be suitable, precludes its use for the purpose. 
Other articles for which basswood is adapted are butter molds, 
because it looks clean and can be easily carved, and parts of churns, 
on account of its light color. Incubators and poultry coops are often 
made partly of basswood, because it is light in weight and easy to 
work. 
New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio use the largest quantities 
of basswood for this line of wooden products, because of the bee, 
dairy, and poultry industries in those States. 
