240 



July, 19i:i 



American fiae Journal 



tempt whatever to do except when nec- 

 tar is to be had or when they desire to 

 rear brood. This house cleaning is 

 best accomplished by reqiieening by 

 means of a queen-cell. The bees seem 

 to become more enthusiastic over the 

 matter as the time approaches for the 

 young queen to begin laying than when 

 a laying queen is given to them direct. 



A very effective method for this 

 treatment of mild cases, when nectar 

 is plentiful, is to place the brood above 

 an excluder and the queen below. I 

 would advise requeening, however, as 

 soon as convenient with a queen of 

 less susceptible stock, or the disease 

 will be very likely to reappear some 

 time later on.J 



I have cured a great many colonies 

 by the .\lexander method, but these 

 colonies invariably had an unpleasant 

 way of becoming re-infected. They 

 wouldn't stay cured. With one slight 

 variation it has been made to work in 

 my own, and also in a number of 

 other apiaries in this vicinity, with de- 

 cided success. That one important 

 little " kink " is to use Carniolans in- 

 stead of Italians. After discovering 

 foul brood in my apiary, I ordered six 

 Italian queens from five of the most 

 noted queen-breeders in the United 

 States. From these I reared queens 

 to requeen my apiary, then consisting 

 of about 100 colonies. In less than a 

 year every colony containing an Ital- 

 ian queen, with one e.xception, showed 

 the disease. Of course most of the 

 young queens were mismated, but some 

 seemed to be purely mated ; the breed- 

 ing queens certainly were. 



The following spring I requeened 

 with Carniolans, and wliili.- they are not 

 entirely immune, they seem to be far 

 less susceptible in this locality than 

 are the Italians. The majority of my 

 full blooded Carniolans have never 

 shown a trace of the disease, and those 

 that have become infected have con- 

 tained but a few diseased cells. This 

 is the second year in which I have 

 been breeding Carniolans e.xclusively, 

 and so far it has not been necessary, 

 in a single instance, to requeen a col- 

 ony of these bees when in tlieir purity. 



Since Carniolans are .gentler, more 

 prolific, and in every other respect the 

 equal of the Italians, it seems to me 

 they should be bevter known. 



Monrovia, Calif. 



Railroad Overcharges 



BY B. F. ;..\liTfl, JR. 



IN THE DECEMBER Bee-Keepers' 

 Review, over the signature of VV. 

 F., I find the follov/ing : 

 "The freight on coal is 40 cents 

 a ton from Colorado coal fields to 

 Nebraska and Kansas points. This is 

 2 cents a hundred poui'ds. For ship- 

 ping apples from western Colorado to 

 Denver the rate is 55 cents a hundred. 

 The distances are the same, but the 

 rate is 20 times as much. But now 

 let us take potatoes. The rate is 45 

 cents a hundred to Denver, and pota- 



toes are shipped in cars but little more 

 expensive than coal cars. The rate is 

 22 times as much as coal. Now the 

 rate on honey is $1.40 from southwest- 

 ern Colorado to Denver, and 85 cents 

 a hundred on honey from western 

 slope points to Denver, or 70 and 42 

 times as much as on coal a like distance. 

 The lacal rate on honey is 52.15 a hun- 

 dred from southwest Colorado. You 

 can see that the rate on honey is 2 or 3 

 times as much as upon apples, and they 

 are shipped in the same kind of cars. 

 The railroads' charge is not according 

 to the cost of carrying, but what the 

 traffic will bear. 



" A producer on the western slope 

 was told by a freight agent (to whom 

 he was complaining of the shortage of 

 cars) that his interests were served as 

 well as those of any other non-com- 

 petitive point. The railroads have 

 plenty of cars, even during the heavy 

 crop-moving period, at the points 

 where there is competition." 



There are many things to be taken in 

 consideration on the rat-e question. 

 Among the points to be considered is 

 the number of cars required to move a 

 certain tonnage; a 40-ton car of coal 

 is about the smallest handled in this 

 territory; the minimum on coal is the 

 marked capacity of the car, while 

 honey is only 15 tons. A car can be 

 used for coal when it is unfit for any 

 other commodity. The price of a car- 

 load of coal, freight and first cost 

 added, delivered at northeast Nebraska 

 points, some 1200 miles from the mine, 

 is $7..50 to $8.00 per ton. The value of 

 a car of honey delivered over the same 

 points is about $160 a ton, cost and 

 freight added. Twenty times as much. 



Should a car of honey and a car of 

 coal be wrecked which would be the 

 greater loss to the carrier ? The car 

 of coal could be picked up with very 

 little loss of coal ; but how about the 

 car of honey if it should be mostly 

 comb ? The two cars arrive at desti- 

 nation, and weather conditions must 

 be very bad indeed to delay the un- 

 loading of the coal, if it is necessary, 

 but how about the honey ? The coal 

 mine orders 20 cars for tomorrow's 

 loading, and at 6 o'clock tomorrow, 

 rain or shine, sleet or snow, a crew 

 can be called for those 20 cars. 



The producer orders a car for his 

 honey, and probably uses the full-time 

 limit to get his 15 tons aboard, and if 

 it should be rainy, or the road very 

 rough, he wants more time and gets it ; 

 equipment is tied up ; car has to be set 

 several times; reports made out, etc., 

 while the train of coal is a long ways 

 on the road, and some of the short 

 hauls unloaded and on their way back 

 to the mine before the car of honey 

 has moved. 



Nearly all the roads in the North re- 

 fuse to handle potatoes or apples in 

 common box cars after Nov. 1, just 

 about the time coal commences to 

 move. How many claims are filed on 

 apples and potatoes frozen and dam- 

 aged in transit, I am not in a position 

 to say, but we can all guess it is less 



on coal. In my own experience I can 

 truthfully say that there have been as 

 many claims filed on apples stolen 

 from cars as on coal, although I have 

 probably handled hundreds of cars of 

 coal to one of apples. 



Every division of a railway has a 

 force of men who attend to the distri- 

 bution of the cars. On this system we 

 send a daily telegraphic car report, 

 showing the kind and number of all 

 cars on hand, and of all cars wanted 

 for loading. The car distributer finds 

 he has 40 cars ordered, and but 25 cars 

 available. .-^11 orders are cut alike, 

 but you will find this difference just the 

 same as in any other line of work; 

 that some agents can get more cars 

 than others situated the same. 



I don't mean to say that W. F. can't 

 get a reduction on honty rates, for I 

 think they are too high compared with 

 goods of like nature, as are also the 

 rates on supplies. I think that the 

 National should get after the rate com- 

 mittees and get as good a rate on 

 honey as we have on maple syrup, and 

 as good on hives and shipping-cases as 

 canners get on cases and like material. 



The Country Gentleman for Jan. 11. 

 has an article as follows: 



C.\RS USKD .\S WAJtEHOUSES. 



" Given reasonable freight rates the 

 shipper is just as bad oflf if he cannot 

 obtain cars ; indeed, cars are more im- 

 portant than fair freight rates 



It is said there are now standing on 

 side-tracks at seacoast points 50,00ii 

 loaded cars of coal on which the con- 

 signees prefer lo pay demurrage rather 

 than unload and store the coal. In the 

 West and South there is a shortage of 

 cars for the handling of grain crop. 

 Thousands of carloads of grain, sacked, 

 cannot be moved to shelter 



"The railroad companies claim they 

 have plenty of cars, but that they are 

 standing on side-tracks, in Galveston 

 and New Orleans, loaded with cotton 

 for export, upon which the handler 

 prefers to pay Jl.OO per day per car 

 rather than unload and store the cot- 

 ton. The shipper has found it cheaper 

 to use the cars for warehouses than to 

 build warehouses. It is said there are 

 now standin.g on the tracks of New 

 Orleans 6000 box-cars that have been 

 so held from 10 to .30 days, while the 

 business of the whole country is para- 

 hzed by the lack of cars for the more 

 pressing traffic.'' 



The writer of the above should have 

 told the percent of these cars that were 

 fit lor other than coal handling. We 

 have standing instructions not to send 

 cars to the mines that are fit for mer- 

 chandise, e.xcept cars belonging to 

 other roads. Ninety percent of the 

 cars sent to the mines are cars belong- 

 ing to other roads. The cars at Mis- 

 souri River points, where they accumu- 

 late, are inspected both as to mechani- 

 cal and internal condition, and are 

 tagged " Fit for Gr.m.n " and " Not Fit 

 ?0R Gr.m.x." Cars tagged as fit for 

 grain are moved into a territory in 

 need of that kind of equipment, and 



pct top notch prices 

 ulI for your honey 



BY 



Using Lewis Sections 

 AND Shipping Cases 



Send for Annual Catnlos which ttIII tell 

 you -nho is your nearest Distributer. 

 <;. B. Lewis Company, AA'atertoirn, Wis. 



