io6 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
that it has also, interwoven with old plans, novel 
methods which will hereafter make their mark. It is 
narrowness, not patriotism, that would deny to one of 
another country his full meed of praise, and I conceive 
that the unprejudiced will not dispute that the half 
bee-space in each hive section and in the bottom 
board ; the narrow, abutting edges, giving possibility 
of rapid handling; and the general invertibility of the 
whole, although associated, perhaps, with some crudi- 
ties, yet mark another hill-top passed in the pro- 
gressive march of practical apiculture. Mr. Heddon 
and Mr. Jones have also, by their hives, brought 
prominently before us, and have done not a little 
to settle, a question which has been much dis- 
cussed — viz., the most desirable interspace to allow 
between brood-combs. Mr. Heddon makes his frame 
end ifin., while Mr. Jones allows ijin. full, or, more 
accurately, i-g^in., a plan which resulted, apparently 
somewhat to his own surprise, in the building of 
worker-cells, to the exclusion of drone-cells, narrow 
strips of foundation only having been given. A 
little attention to the arithmetic of the matter will 
elucidate the reason of this. Worker-comb, within 
a very small fraction, is ^in. in cross-section. Bees, 
each requiring g^in. for the accommodation of its 
bodily presence, need to perambulate both faces 
of this comb, to generate heat, to brood the eggs, 
and to carry food to the helpless larvae. The whole 
structure, with its two layers of attendants, thus 
equals J-fin. + f^in. = -J^in., or i^in. Should starters 
be given i-g^in. apart — /.<?., -^^in. more than the neces- 
sary ijin. — the bees have just elbow-room, and no 
