44 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
house into a store-room ; immediately in front of you as you 
enter are the stairs leading to the upper story, and at your 
right a door opens into the work-room, in this work room 
is a coal-stove, and the room, being ceiled up, is comfortable 
in the severest weather. 
PUTTING SECTIONS TOGETHER. 
The empty supers are brought into the work-room, and, as 
fast as filled, stacked up in the store-room, ready to be put 
on the hives. In this work, the first thing is to put the 
sections together. As fast as Charlie makes them, he stacks 
them up on thin boards, generally using dummies for this 
purpose. A dummy being about 18x9, holds 60 sections, if 
piled four deep. lie breaks very few one-piece sections since 
he has had practice, and claims the manner of putting them 
together has much to do with it. He grasps the sections in 
such a way that the right hand bends a joint at one end, the 
left hand at the other, and the middle is bent by both ; all 
three joints being bent simultaneously, and no one at any 
time bent faster than another. The secret of it lies in having 
the fingers of each hand on both sides of the joint it is bend- 
ing at the same time. If the section is caught by each hand 
at the extreme ends, and those ends brought together, one 
joint may be bent entirely before another starts. This not 
only makes an extra strain on the one already bent, but each 
one must be bent with a quicker movement if bent success- 
ively than if bent simultaneously. I think he can make 
more rapid work by his plan. 
PUTTING STARTERS IN SECTIONS. 
As fast as a boardful is made, they are stacked up on his 
bench and, as needed, lifted over on Emma’s table. This is 
provided with a Clark foundation fastener. If rightly used, 
I think the Clark fastener will put in foundation more 
securely, more rapidly, and with much less expenditure of 
labor than the Parker. The Gray is said to be an improve- 
ment on the Clark, but I have not tried it. 
