1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



443 



wants a larger price per day for fewer hours. 

 As labor is a very large factor in the cost of 

 all useful products, has not the increased 

 cost of labor been a large factor in the in- 

 creased cost of living? 



Virgil Weaver appears to be the honey 

 prophet of the country, and he has had 

 pretty fair sailing so far. Now it seems to 

 me that it does not require a great amount 

 of foreknowledge to say that we shall get a 

 good crop after a very poor season, or that 

 we are likely to get a poor crop after a very 

 large one. Moses Quinby used to say that 

 a poor season was likely to follow when bees 

 had wintered unusually well; but I believe 

 his observations were founded on the fact 

 that bees winter better than the average 

 years after a good season, and badly after a 

 poor season. Now we are confronted by an 

 unusual condition this spring. Bees have 

 generally wintered unusually well following 

 a very poor season. Clover is looking well, 

 and I think we may at least hope for a good 

 year. 



Dr. Miller, page 208, April 1, says I'm 

 naughty trying to drive him out of busi- 

 ness by advising one to locate where stones 

 are not necessary to keep covers from blow- 

 ing off. Say, doctor, I didn't mean that. 

 I just meant if you can't find such a place 

 just make it. Plant a row (or, if very 

 windy, two rows) of evergreens on the 

 windy sides of your yard, and then there 

 will be no need of stones on top of your 

 hives. It's "awful " windy where my own 

 home is; but an evergreen hedge on three 

 sides of my bee-yard makes it warm and 

 quiet. I moved a yard of bees last winter 

 just to get out of the wind, and the new 

 yard is surrounded by hills and forests; and 

 when the cold north winds blew in April it 

 was as warm in there as June. Oh, my! but 

 wasn't it nice? and the 16th of May that 

 yard threw off four good swarms — the earli- 

 est I have ever had bees swarm, just to show 

 their appreciation of their new yard, and, 

 perhaps, lo celebrate my seventieth birth- 

 day. 



The grouping of hives, given by the edi- 

 tor, page 206, April 1, is one of the best. 1 

 add to it, however, by making each group 

 ten, and face them to all points of the com- 

 pass, which works well where the yard is 

 free from heavy winds. I moved a yard 

 last winter, and, as a sort of experiment, set 

 it in rows. There were 120 hives, about 75 

 containing bees. They were set in six 

 rows, the rows a rod apart, and eight rods 

 long, twenty in a row, and — well, it would 

 puzzle an exi)erienced bee-man to tell 

 which hives contained the bees by the 

 number of bees flying out and in the en- 

 trances. Indeed, there were more at the 

 entrances of some of the empty hives 

 than those containing combs of brood and 

 honey. Opening some of these empty hives 

 we find dead bees and others bewildered and 

 lost, and ready to give up. I have now 



painted the hive-fronts "all sorts of color 

 schemes, and set out smill trees and shrubs, 

 but without much improvement. 



4?- 



WHY SOME REPORT BREAKAGE FROM THE 

 CORRUGATED SHIPPING-CASES. 



Our friend Louis H. 8choll, page 174, 

 Mar. 15th issue, cautions bee-keepers about 

 the use of corrugated-paper shipping-cases, 

 evidently from good motives; but his advice 

 somehow seems a little defective. If anxious 

 to save inexperienced bee-keepers from loss, 

 why does he not discourage shipping by ex- 

 press, which is much more certain to give 

 broken combs than when shipped by freight? 

 I don't know much about the freight busi- 

 ness in the West; but Mr. Foster, of Colora- 

 do, complains of a great deal of breakage, 

 even when shipped by freight, although he 

 says, page 1-38, Mar. 1st issue, that the straw- 

 board case will stand rougher treatment than 

 the wood case. Would it not be a good thing 

 to say to those who, in the West, get their 

 honey broken, that it is safer to ship by 

 freight than express? and, secondly, if brok- 

 en when sent by freight, to pack' in carriers 

 holding 150 to 200 lbs., with hay or straw in 

 the bottom? If this way is not an entire 

 success, I will tell you what to do. Make a 

 strong box that will hold, say, 20 or 25 cases, 

 400 or 500 lbs., of honey. The shape should 

 be such that your cases will just fit in nice- 

 ly. Nail some strong cleats on each end on 

 the bottom, and on to these fasten four strong 

 casters, one at each corner, with strong 

 screws. Such a box or carrier, freight-han- 

 dlers or truckmen can not or will not lift, 

 and, of course, can not throw, but will roll 

 along on the floor or platform of the railway 

 stations. I have shipped in this way small 

 lots of honey for hundreds — yes, thousands 

 — of miles, without breakage. On page 169, 

 Mar. 15th issue, the editor suggests that the 

 reason we have had as good success in the 

 use of paper cases might be that we use a 

 paper carton on each section. I have some- 

 times wondered myself if that had not some- 

 thing to do with it; but I think now not 

 much, as we have used cartons on our sec- 

 tions for fifteen or twenty years, and dealers 

 recognized very quickly the better condition 

 of honey in the paper cases as soon as used. 

 But how did those two cases reported by Mr. 

 Scholl get used up worse than the wooden 

 ones? "I don't know." Perhaps in this 

 way: About eighteen months ago I went to 

 the capital of our State to see what could be 

 done to secure a foul-brood law. While wait- 

 ing at the station for my train to return, 

 another train pulled in, and I watched the 

 expressman unload his express. Presently 

 the conductor came round and said, "Hur- 

 ry up, there; don't stop to read everything. 

 We want to get to Williamstown by " such 

 a time; and then the way the express came 

 out was a caution, some of it landing on top 

 of the truck standing on the platform by 

 the car-door, and some of it not stopping 

 until it struck the ground six or eight feet 

 below. 



