MOVABLE COMB HIVE. 
75 
wonder. I there saw something new. Bees I found were no 
exception to the dominion given to man over the lower order 
of creation. Bees and bee-keeping were not what I had 
taken them to be. I purchased “ Langstroth on the Honey 
Bee, ” and read with the utmost delight the wonders of this 
little insect; I concluded I would quit school and goto 
keeping bees. This seems to have decided my occupation 
for life. It occurred to me that if bees and their combs 
could be so handled, there was an opportunity for an indefi- 
nite amount of improvement in their management. And so 
I still view the matter. Although a large number of bee- 
keepers keep bees just because it is convenient to do so, wfth- 
out making any special effort to get all out of the hees that 
can be had ; yet many, who are lovers of nature and keep 
bees as much to see them do the best they are capable of as 
they do for the profits they yield, will do much to make bee- 
keeping one of the businesses of the country. Such I be- 
lieve will always want their bees, in part at least, in movable 
comb hives, although generally in as simple and cheap style 
as possible. Soon after commencing keeping bees in the 
Langstroth and Harbison hives, the Leaf hive was invented; 
and although I considered the hives I had been using excel- 
lent, I concluded this, on account of its simplicity, cheapness, 
and ease of working, was everybody’s hive. It seemed these 
would be almost universally wanted if they were known, and 
as some persons had to work to introduce them, and perhaps 
make some money by so doing, it seemed proper that I might 
as well engage in it as any one else; and accordingly purchas- 
ed the patent right of the Leaf hive for two States, and have 
had the satisfaction of seeing them pretty well tried. Some 
badly made hives and injudicious transferring in the out-set 
did the cause injustice, and some extremely bad seasons 
since have discouraged many ardent bee-keepers. The Leaf 
hive is just the box hive with each of the combs made in a 
frame that can be taken out and put in at pleasure. The 
frames stand on the bottom board, with stiff wire posts driven 
in the bottom and running up the side of each frame to 
which they are secured in wire loops like a gate on a post. 
I he frames and posts arc in no way attached to the body of 
the hive. One side of the hive, instead of being nailed in, is 
set in loose, and is held in its place by nails or’woiden pins 
