A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
47 
the ruler, without running away from it or cutting into it. 
When all on the board is cut, the pieces are gathered in piles, 
40 to 80 in a pile, the edges all made even at one side. These 
piles are put on division-boards or dummies till used. The 
foundation raises the ruler so high from the board that the 
nails are hardly stiff enough. To obviate this, I nail on each 
side a strip %-inch thick, and drive the nails in this. 
SIZE OF STARTERS. 
I believe in having as little space as possible left unfilled 
by the starter in the section. I have tried starters of such 
length as to reach from top to bottom, but they sagged and 
bulged. I have seen sections that had been completely filled 
with foundation, the foundation having been first drawn out 
in the brood-chamber; but these sections, when filled, had 
an unfinished look about the margin. I settled upon a 
margin of %-inch as the smallest practicable, although it 
takes almost too careful work to put in such large starters. 
So, in a 43^x434 section a starter about 3% inches square is, 
perhaps, the largest admissible. 
Y ears ago my sections were always filled so full by the 
bees that they carried very securely in transportation. After- 
ward I began to have trouble from combs breaking down. 
It was due, perhaps, mainly to the bees having too much 
surplus room. Some sections would be filled with a nice 
comb of honey, not very strongly attached at the top, very 
little at the side, and not at all at the bottom. Aside from 
depending upon crowding the bees to make them fill the 
sections, I wanted a plan whereby I could be sure of having 
the sections securely fastened at the bottom as well as at the 
top. I tried taking partly-filled sections out of the supers 
and reversing them, and even went so far as to invent a 
reversible super. I abandoned this, however, and adopted 
the plan of putting a starter in the bottom as well as the top 
of the section. The problem I had to solve was, how large a 
starter I could put in at the bottom and not have it topple 
over when warmed up and occupied by the bees. By put- 
