208 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Fis. i. 
Hints on House-keeping Conveniences. 
Saving labor, or what is equivalent, saving " steps," is 
an important point to be always kept in mind, in all 
plans for the arrangement of rooms, pantries, etc. A 
house-keeper writes lis, that, from the suggestions thrown 
out in our articles on dwellings, she has been led to 
re-arrange the position of the sink, pump, table and pan- 
tries, in her kitchen and dining-room ; and that by a 
pimple arithmetical calculation she finds that during the 
last 12 years she has traveled 2,190 miles more than she 
■will have to, during the next dozen years, with the new ar- 
rangements. It cost her about $50 to put things just where 
they ought to have been placed 
at first without any extra cost. 
Bells.— These are very simple 
contrivances, easily provided at 
trifling cost, and they not only 
save steps but promote quietude. 
Very good hells are now sold at 
20 to 25 cents each ; a wire " car- 
riage " and check spring cost 10 
to 15 cents ; a few cents' 1 worth of | Jl 
No. IS tinned wire, two or three 
triangles for changing the direc- 
tion, costing 6 to 10 cents each, 
and a bell-pull costing anywhere 
from 25 cents for a slide, to a dollar or so for a japanned, 
bronzed, or plated crank with porcelain cap (/?, Fig. 1 9 ) 
are the requisites. Any mechanic, with common ingenu- 
ity, can hang one, though in a large house it is cheaper to 
employ a professional bell-hanger. The wires may run 
along the corners of a room, or behind the casing, or back 
of the lathing ; but is far better when building a new 
house to use the zinc tubing prepared specially for the 
purpose, and costing only about iy« cents per foot. This 
is fastened outside the lathing and covered over with the 
plaster, with the end bent outward 
where the bell is to he hung. Bell 
"boxes (Fig. 2 5 ) are attached to the 
end where the pull is to be placed, and 
this is covered with the mortar, ex- 
cept at the opening for the pull. In 
this tubing the wire runs smoothly and 
with little wear, and is easily put 
through after a house is completed, if 
mortar has been kept out by the inser- 
tion of a wooden plug in the open ends. 
The bell boxes are kept by hardware 
dealers and sold for to S cents each. 
Speaking-Tubes.— Two persons 
standing at each end of a simple tin 
pipe, one inch in diameter, 50 to 
100 feet or more long, with several elbows in it, and car- 
ried through half a dozen rooms, can still converse quite 
readily in a low voice. Such tubes may be carried be- 
tween any two rooms in a house, however distant, and 
save a world of steps, and calling through the halls. (See 
pages S8 in our March number, and 129 in April number). 
A mouth-piece for inserting in each end, is shown in fig. 
1. This may be of common tin plate, like the mouth- 
piece of a tin horn, but with the opening the same size 
as the tubing, or more elaborate. The three shown in 
fig. 1, have a porcelain rim, ??i, and a srinc shoulder, z. 
These retail at 30 to 40 cents each. Ready-made tin 
speaking-tube in 5 feet lengths, is retailed in the hard- 
ware stores for 4 cents a foot, and the elbows at 3 to 
4 cents each. Fifty feet of tubing with two mouth- 
pieces, and staple hooks for putting up the tubing, will 
cost only $2J4 to $3, and it can be put up by any expert 
carpenter. It is usually 
fastened firmly along the 
studding before lathing. It 
can be carried through any 
timbers in an auger-hole. 
An invalid unable to move 
upon a bed may have a 
flexible rubber tube ex- 
tend from the tin pipe in 
the wall to the bed, with 
the mouth-piece in this, 
and thus be able to com- 
municate with persons 
working in a distant room. 
Were we constructing a 
new house for ourselves, 
we should be tempted to 
rim a speaking-tube from 
each to every other room. 
As they never wear out or 
need repairs, the annual 
interest on the cost of a 
tube 50 feet long would 
scarcely exceed 25 cents. 
A Dumb-Waiter, is a great labor-saver, especially 
where the kitchen and dining-room are not on the same 
floor. It is simply a cupboard, or shelves, suspended on 
a cord passing over a pulley with a -weight attached. 
Fig, 3 shows a good form. 
Here the slide is suspended in 
the middle over a large wooden 
pully. It runs much better than the 
old-fashioned one with weights 
upon two sides. The weight is 
a piece of broad, flat cast-iron, 
running down upon one side. A3 
the waiter does not need to rise more than 5 feet above 
the floor, there is room over it for the large pulley, or 
wooden wheel. A dumb-waiter may 
rise through the floor, its top being car- 
peted and forming part of the floor. In 
this case, two weights to slide down on 
two sides, are required, with the cords 
over small pulleys in the casing, and 
attached to the slide near the bottom. 
Ventilators should be provided ^o- 5. 
in every room of every house. We usually put in two, 
one (Fig. 5,) just over the baseboard; and another, 
(Fig. 4 5 ) near the ceiling. The lower one is opened and 
closed by turning the ratch- 
et-wheel, and the upper one 
by means of cords hanging 
from the two opposite 
sides. Where a cold room 
is being heated the upper 
ventilator is closed; the 
warm air rises to the ceil- 
ing and forces the cold air 
out through the lower ven- 
tilator. When the air be- 
comes rarefied and impure, 
the upper ventilator will 
carry off that portion near- 
est the ceiling. Hound, 5- -p. „ 
inch ventilators, black or 
porcelain enameled, cost about $1.10 each, and the rectan- 
gular ones, 4x6 inches, cost about $1.60 each. An open- 
-j ing should of course he carried up through 
if the wall from each ventilator or pair of 
them in one room, to the attic or to some 
point giving free exit to the air. Where 
a beam is in the way, it can be pierced 
with several small auger-holes, in sufficient 
number to allow free passage of the air. This 
P*£- ?■ can be done so as not to weaken the beam. 
Cornice Brackets.— Three pieces are shown, 
copied from the houses described in March and April, 
which will serve as patterns. Fig 6 is a portion of the 
cornice, and dentils under the eaves. Fig. 7 is a neat 
form of a bracket for the head of a bay-window, or a 
small portico. Fig. 8 is a tasteful pattern for brackets 
to he placed under and supporting a bay-window. 
Bee Notes. — By M. Quinby. 
Tlae Apiary in sSsism*. — Put boxes on 
early in this month, there will be no harm if they are on 
a few days before they are really needed. They should 
have small pieces of comb stuck in the top. The whiter 
and cleaner the comb for tliis purpose, the better. As 
fast as boxes are filled, replace them with empty ones. 
They must always be shaded. Progressive bee-keepers 
should be so advanced as not to wish or allow their bees 
to swarm at all in the usual way ; but to such as still re- 
main where they were ten years ago, I say now is the 
time to look for swarms. Small apiaries swarm more 
than large ones in proportion to their numbers. Putting 
on boxes will not often interfere with it, and if in any 
case it should, the box honey might compensate for the 
delay of the swarm. You cannot get many swarms and 
much box honey from the same hive. Weak hives should 
be examined. If queenless, supply a laying queen ; if 
diseased, drive out the bees so that they may begin again ; 
or put them in a hive with combs kept over from last year 
and frozen during the winter. In thus transferring bees 
from a diseased hive, keep them 4S horns in an empty 
box, to dispose of the honey they may take with them, 
supposing they are filled, before putting them in clean, 
pure combs. Bees should never be driven out in less 
than 10 days after the first swarm issues, or before the 
young queen hatches. Twenty days would be better 
still. When after-swarms issue nearly at the same time, 
two together will make a good swarm. Such are not al- 
ways quiet. When several hives containing after-swarms 
made up in this way, are standing in a yard, they will 
frequently begin to unite in a way which a careless bee- 
keeper would not be likely to notice. Ten or a dozen 
bees at a time will leave some one hive for another, and 
this process repeated, sometimes produces surprising 
changes ; and where you thought you had half a dozen 
good swarms you suddenly find you have two or three 
monsters, and the rest of the hives are empty. Where bees 
are entering a hive in this way, a few at a time, they will 
generally stop a short time around the entrance and set 
up a buzzing by which the careful observer may detect 
them. If this is discovered while the hive from which 
the bees are coming still contains enough for a fair 
colony, stop the entrance with wire-cloth, and Hie bot- 
tom with wire-cloth or something that will admit the 
air; for bees are very easily smothered this warm weath- 
er ; turn it on its side and put in a cool cellar for twenty- 
four hours. This will generally quiet them. If they con- 
tinue uneasy after they are set out, it may be taken as an 
indication that they have 110 queen, and one should be 
given them. Such swarms are liable to lose their queens 
when they go to work. If the first combs they build are 
for drones, it proves that the queen is lost. Under such 
circumstances they -will accept a queen at once. Those 
who wish to control swarming are referred to the Ameri- 
can Agriculturist for June, 1S69. 
Tlie JSest ESecBaive. — Several letters' 
have recently been received inquiring for some non- 
patented movable comb-hive suited to the needs of pro- 
gressive bee-keepers. Although I shall not give a de- 
tailed description, measurement, etc., I will endeavor to 
present a general idea of the hive I have recently adopt- 
ed, and am now using. I invented it to meet my own 
necessities, and as I did not expect to make anything by 
its sale or general introduction, I have not taken any 
special pains to make its merits known. However, I am 
willing to give all a chance to become acquainted with 
it. I consider it free from any patent or claims of in- 
fringement. The prevailing idea of the hive, as 1 use it, 
is to make it a non-s wanner, and secure the largest 
amount of surplus honey in the best shape for market. 
The first of these considerations has long occupied my 
attention; for until swarming is fully controlled, results 
must be more or less uncertain. This point has been 
attained by the use of a device, called a queen-yard, made 
as follows : Nail together strips of boards to make a box 
IS or 20 inches square, by 3 or 4 inches deep, with a floor 
of thin boards, except a strip 4 inches wide, which should 
be of wire-cloth, for sifting out dirt, and for ventilation. 
Fasten strips of tin 2 inches wide, around the inside at 
the top, parallel to the floor ; and make an opening in 
the side next to the wire-cloth, in the floor, correspond- 
ing to the entrance of the hive. Paint the upper side of 
the tin some light color. In swarming-time place this 
yard in front of the hive. Previously examine the hive, 
and clip the wing of the queen. When a swarm is dis- 
posed to issue, all the bees are obliged to pass through 
this yard, and the queen, being unable to fly, or crawl 
over the projecting tins, will return to the hive where 
the bees will soon follow her. To prevent their raising 
a young queen which can fly, the hive must be opened, 
and all queen cells cut out once a week, unless itis desira- 
ble to supersede the old queen, in which case one cell 
may be left ; and after she has hatched and commenced 
laying, which will be in about ten days, find her and clip 
her wing as above directed. The old "queen should be 
removed just before the young one hatches. The inside 
of the hive is simple, consisting of eight movable frames, 
supported by a device which clears them from any patent. 
The frames are HxlS inches, inside measurement, and 
are held in place by a piece of hoop-iron fastened on the 
outside of one of the end pieces, near the bottom, and 
bent at a right angle to project under the end of the frame 
about }± inch, to form a sort of hook. There should bj 
space enough between the hook and end of frame, to 
allow it to slip over a piece of hoop-iron, fastened across 
the bottom board of the hive, which has a slight channel 
cut nnder it to give requisite room. One end of each 
frame being thus secured, they remain perpendicular, 
and are kept at the right distance from each other— J£ 
inch — by nails partially driven in the sides of the frames. 
There are various other items in the construction, such 
as ventilators, etc., which I cannot take room to describe. 
At the sides and top of these frames, there is space 
enough to place surplus boxes of over 100 lbs. capacity, 
holding from %y 2 to 4 lbs. each. Top boxes arc placed 
directly on the frames; side boxes with the partially 
open ends, against the main combs. If the honey is de- 
signed for home consumption, extra frames may be used 
