32 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



FIELD MEETING OF THE PHILADELPHIA BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. 



save the time ordinarily taken by long expla- 

 nations. We wish to commend the idea as being 

 worthy of the consideration of all societies. — Ed.] 



PARCELS POST. 



The Objections Found to be Groundless 



by a Study of Conditions in Other 



Countries. 



BY THOMAS WM. COWAN, 

 Editor British Bee Journal. 



For some years I have watched the controver- 

 sy respecting parcels post, and have been sur- 

 prised at the objections put forward — objections 

 that have proved to be groundless considering 

 the very satisfactory manner in which parcels 

 post works in Europe. When I was in Califor- 

 nia I supplied a friend who was President of the 

 Postal Progress League, with statistics which 

 showed what an inestimable boon parcels post 

 has been to all classes, and how, instead of being 

 a hindrance, it is a stimulus to trade 



I see in Gleanings, page 1309, an extract from 

 The Shoe and Leather Gazette, in which an en- 

 deavor is made to show that parcels post would 

 be an advantage to the large mail-order houses, 

 and an injury to the smaller local merchants. 

 This is not true, for we have found it has been 

 just the reverse. Small shopkeepers who could 

 not keep a large stock of goods formerly lost or- 

 ders because they could not compete with larger 

 firms who, with their larger capital, could afford 

 to keep a large stock. Since the introduction of 

 parcels post all this is changed, and these small 

 shopkeepers have been able to get a living, as 

 they do not need to have a large stock on hand, 

 samples of the different goods being sufficient. 

 Customers select from these samples, and the 

 goods are delivered at their doors in from one to 

 three, days, at the same:prices as would be charged 

 at the large houses. The customer does not pay 



more, but the tradesman gets his legitimate 

 profit. 



It does not appear that the wholesale houses 

 have suffered in any way, and there is no doubt 

 that the small dealers have been benefited, and the 

 benefit has extended to the purchasing public, for 

 it has brought shopping facilities of the city with- 

 in reach of every one in the country. No doubt 

 your express companies will suffer; but is it not 

 an anomaly that it costs more to send a parcel 

 from New York to San Francisco by express than 

 it does from London to, say, China by parcels 

 post.^ Even parcels from London to different 

 points in the United States cost less for postage 

 than the express charges in the country. If the 

 express companies can make a profit on English 

 parcels after deducting cost of freight by steamer 

 across the Atlantic, they are surely charging too 

 much for carriage of parcels in the country. It 

 is surprising to us that a practical people should 

 have so long kept out of parcels post, and sub- 

 mitted to exorbitant express charges. No one in 

 Europe would for one moment advocate doing 

 away with the advantages we now derive from 

 parcels post. I hope you may also soon share 

 the same benefits with us. 



Taunton, Eng. , Nov. 30. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF A CAGE FOR 

 PREVENTING ROBBING. 



BY E. M. GRAVES. 



I wonder how many readers of Gleanings use 

 a cage when working their bees. I have been 

 using one several years, and would hardly know 

 how to get along without it, for I consider it one 

 of the most useful fixtures about an apiary. 



With a cage to set over a hive one can work in 

 comparative comfort all day long, and seldom 

 get stung. Bees are very sensitive creatures, and 

 they do not like robbers about their homes. If 

 we open one of the hives, and a hungry lot of 



