1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



115 



our team is sent with the honey, and necessary ap- 

 pliances for rapid delivery: otherwise we ship to 

 destination, hiring a team to make deliveries. As 

 a rule, honey is taken for use of team, boarding, 

 lodging, etc. We carry about all the honey in 60-lb. 

 tin cans, screw caps, two in a case. One case is 

 made large enough to admit, when cans are raised 

 Up, an oil-Stove under them, that honey may be 

 kept thinned, so it may be quickly run into the re- 

 tailing-can, which holds 150 lbs., with gate soldered 

 firmly, and this can is also raised in its case so that 

 vessels may go under the gate, and an oil stove be- 

 neath the can. With this arrangement the honey 

 is made to run out at once. Without this we could 

 not get along in cold weather. We always take 50 to 

 100 lbs. more honey along than our orders call for; 

 but even then, seldom have any to carry back. 



Now, I am aware that many will say, after all, 

 "Oh! 1 can never go to all this trouble to sell my 

 honey; it won't pay me. I'll just do as I have been 

 doing— ship my honey to some dealer, and let him 

 sell it for me." Well, then, all right; do so, and I 

 will get some of it cheap, and make the profit you 

 lose— that is all. 



I made a clear profit, in one day's sales, this fall, 

 of $26.00 on honey which some of you bee-keepers 

 shipped to a commission man, and the price I paid 

 for the honey may have satisfied the bee-keeper 

 who produced it too. The least pay I have had 

 selling direct to consumers this fall and winter was 

 $5.00 a day. Did my health permit any thing like 

 constant work in the business, I would ask for 

 nothing better. 



Before closing I wish to say that I know there 

 are many apiarists so located that their honey 

 must be shipped to distant markets; but where 

 there is any thing like a home market, use it, and 

 use it well. J. A Buchanan. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va., Jan. 23, 1889. 



Friend B., I presume you well remember 

 that, about the time Gleanings was start- 

 ed, and for several years afterward, 1 was 

 perhaps the strongest and most earnest 

 champion of extracted honey, and it was 

 with great reluctance that I finally gave way 

 so far as to agree that comb might be al- 

 most as profitable, all things considered. I 

 do believe you are right in regard to selling 

 honey— that is, if the man wlio produces it 

 has unoccupied time on his hands ; and if 

 he has not, I am inclined to think that he 

 can hunt up some one who will dispose of 

 his honey in the way you mention, to a good 

 deal more profit than sending it to com- 

 mission houses. Circumstances, however, 

 may alter cases. A commission man who 

 loves his business, and loves his customers 1 

 interests, as well as his own, would be a 

 good deal in the line of somebody taking 

 up the kind of work you describe. I also 

 like the idea of taking a sample of the hon- 

 ey around first, and taking orders before de- 

 livering. The Moore brothers, whom we 

 have mentioned once or twice before, have 

 been for years doing this same kind of bus- 

 iness; and they take great cities like Tole- 

 do and Cleveland, and canvass them thor- 

 oughly. For the first time this winter we 

 have been selling not only honey, but the 

 produce of our market garden, in just that 

 way. The mild weather has made the roads 

 so bad that it seemed too bad to ask a horse 



to lug heavy vegetables around through the 

 mud, before we knew where they were to be 

 delivered ; therefore the boys go out in the 

 morning first and take orders just as you 

 have described. If they sell enough to war- 

 rant taking a horse, then a horse is used ; 

 but a good deal of the time they use a coup- 

 le of our light wheelbarrows, and get along 

 quicker than even a horse. When there is 

 sleighing they use light sleds, with a light 

 box. In this way our fruit and vegetable 

 rooms and cellars can be always kept order- 

 ly. The one who takes the orders goes and 

 puts up in neat packages just what he 

 wants and no more. The fruit and vegeta- 

 bles are not bruised by being bumped 

 around in a wagon, and the honey is not 

 mashed and soiled. Packages are handed 

 to the purchaser, clean and tidy. We visit 

 our customers every other day. The onions 

 and lettuce and radishes — yes, and spinach 

 too — can grow in our cold greenhouses until 

 they are wanted, so we have no wilting and 

 no stale goods on hand. — The picture you 

 give us, of a father working side by side 

 with his boys, is indeed a pleasant one ; and 

 although you do not mention it, friend B., 

 1 suppose that you and your boys have 

 learned how unprofitable it is to have quar- 

 rels or any thing the least unpleasant with 

 the people you call upon. One who goes 

 from house to house needs not only tact but 

 gentility. The suggestions you give us 

 are very valuable. 



CELLAR WINTERING. 



SOME POINTS WELL TAKEN BY GEO. E. HILTON. 



Tjp S 1 am laid up for repairs with rheumatism, I 

 gilk have thoroughly digested Gleanings for 



jRI? Jan. 15, and will say a few words in eonclu- 

 ■*™ 2 sion. 



CELLAR WINTERING VS. OUTDOOR WIN- 

 TERING IN CHAFF HIVES. 



For three winters I have been experimenting with 

 a cellar above ground. The walls are 26 inches 

 thick, 24 inches of which are sawdust, two inches 

 air space, and then lathed and plastered inside. 

 There is a cement floor. The only ventilation it 

 has is a 5-inch pipe about the center, running with- 

 in 2 inches of the cement floor. I have put in about 

 40 colonies each winter, a few in single-walled hives, 

 the remainder in chaff hives, packed the same as 

 outdoors, only the cover is removed. The cellar is 

 10x24x6 ft. high. They have wintered successfully 

 every winter, only not as dry and bright as out- 

 doors. My preference is chaff hives and outdoor 

 wintering. 



SECURING AN EXCLUSIVE LOCALITY, ETC. 



I can hardly agree with you and friend Dilworth 

 in regard to " exclusive right of territory." In the 

 first place, I do not think it would be right; and in 

 the second place I don't think it possible. I doubt 

 very much your ability to find a community where 

 all could be bought; and he of whom you could not 

 purchase the agreement not to keep or allow bees 

 to be kept on his premises would either keep or 

 lease to some one else who would . pasture the 

 other fields you had purchased the right of, and 

 what redress would you have? I see no other way 

 than to let all try it who want to, and then let the 

 " survival of the fittest '•' have the pasturage. A few 



