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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



here," he said, pointing to a lot of discolored and 

 broken comb honey dripping and leaking. " The 

 shipper of those goods sent them without any 

 notice whatsoever; the market was glutted, with 

 no demand for such stuff hardly at any time; and 

 the producer expects us, of course, to give him 

 quick returns at good prices at this ort^ season. 

 t)f course, we will do the best we can. Now," 

 he continued, directing our attention in another 

 direction, " look at these goods over here. 

 These will sell. They are first class. Do you 

 recognize the product.?" 



" Why, no," we replied. 



With a look of satisfaction he said, "That is 

 Dr. C. C. Miller's honey. While he shipped to us 

 a little late, it will sell, while this other stuff," 

 pointing to the first-mentioned lot, " will drag 

 and drag and drag, and we shall have a dissatis- 

 fied customer. It is too bad that there are not 

 more bee-keepers like Dr. Miller who know hoix 

 to grade and do it honestly. Let's take a look 

 at his honey." 



So saying he opened up two or three cases, re- 

 marking, "These sections are all clean, well 

 scraped, and you can pick out a box anywhere in 

 the center of the crate, and it will look just as nice 

 as that immediately in front of the glass. That is 

 what I call square dealing. I like to do business 

 with men like that. Why, that fellow," point- 

 ing to the lot of bad honey — " well, I feel sorry 

 for him. Say, Mr. Root, don't you know there 

 are a good many more just like him.? They will 

 wait till the selling season is over, dump all their 

 odds and ends on us, without first writing to see 

 if we can handle them to advantage, and then com- 

 plain because we can not make an immediate re- 

 turn. Why, some of this stuff is candying now. 

 Sell it.? Yes, of course, we can get sot?ie price; 

 but that would not please the producer, and he 

 would be likely to write to the editor of Glean- 

 ings, complaining of the unfairness of Hildreth 

 ;v Segelken." 



As he said this his eyes traveled backward 

 toward the Dr. Miller honey, remarking, 



" What a contrast ! " 



We then strolled over to his desk, where Mr. 

 Segelken explained some of the deals he had been 

 having with the bee keeping public, telling some 

 of the difficulties of the business, where a com- 

 mission man was unjustly censured for conditions 

 that were beyond his control; or where, again, he 

 was simply pursuing ordinary business methods. 

 For example, he .referred to a case where a pro- 

 ducer had shipped him a large amount of honey; 

 and as it arrived out of the selling season he had 

 to store it till the market opened up again, As 

 his own warehouse was filled up he had to put it 

 outside. Well, in the course of a few months 

 he made his final returns, charging storage and 

 insurance. Mr. Honeynian was very much dis- 

 satisfied. He had given Mr. Segelken no author- 

 ity to charge storage and insurance. 



"Now," said Mr. Segelken, "what could I 

 do.? I could not put the goods in our own ware- 

 house, as we simply had not room for them. 

 Somebody had to pay storage; and as Mr. Hon- 

 eyman took the liberty of sending his honey at 

 the wrong season of the year, it had to be held 

 until the market rose. Suppose there had been 

 a fire — wouldn't there have been a howl from 

 Mr. Honeyman because I did not look after his 



interests by insuring the goods.? But there was 

 no fire, and Mr. Honeyman was very much put 

 out because he had to pay a small insurance. 

 This is the kind of thanks we get sometimes for 

 trying to protect our clients' interests." 



Mr Segelken mentioned a good many cases of 

 a similar nature. He had no complaint to make 

 of bee-keepars in general, except that many of 

 them are unbusineslike, because of their unfamili- 

 arity with business methods, often pursuing poli- 

 cies that tend to break down their own market. 

 He told how a producer would divide his ship- 

 ment of honey between two or three different 

 merchants in the same city, and how all three of 

 those merchants would, as a matter of course, 

 put those same goods up in competition with 

 themselves; whereas if the bee-keeper had con- 

 signed all to one reliable house the best price 

 possible would have been secured. 



Hildreth c^' Segelken no doubt do the largest 

 honey bu.siness in New York and perhaps in the 

 whole East. While there have been occasional 

 complaints, and while it is possibly true that they 

 have erred at times in the matter of adjustment, 

 yet when we take into consideration the immense 

 volume of their business, their record is good. 

 Indeed, we do not know how any house, how- 

 ever honest it may be, can fail to run against 

 some of these unbusinesslike methods, and, as a 

 natural result, have some complaints filed against 

 them. 



THE NEW CORRUGATED STRAWBOARD SHIPPING- 

 CASES. 



We asked Mr. Segelken if he had had any ex- 

 perience in receiving or shipping comb honey in 

 the new corrugated strawboard shipping-cases 

 that have recently been figured in the columns 

 of Gleanings. He said he had not; but he saw 

 no reason, from the general construction of them, 

 why they would not very materially reduce the 

 breakage and leakage of combs in transit. 



He explained that comb honey in ordinary 

 wooden shipping-cases should be put up in car- 

 riers; that it is very risky to ship such cases in 

 single lots, either by freight or express. We 

 went on to explain to him that these new corru- 

 gated paper cases would cost only a trifle more 

 than the wooden cases, and how, from some 

 tests that have been made, honey would go 

 through in them to destination, without breakage 

 or leakage. He seemed to be very much inter- 

 ested; and the result of our interview was that 

 we agreed to ship him a 24-lb. case of comb 

 honey in one of these new corrugated shipping- 

 cases by express. As soon as the goods are re- 

 ceived he is to examine them, put them back in 

 the case, if not damaged, and express back to us. 

 Our readers will get the result of the test later. 



BEKS KILLED BY TELEPHONE WIRES. 



Just as the honey-flow comes on from fruit- 

 bloom we observe again as we did last season, 

 and for almost every season before when the bees 

 were flying heavily, that numerous bees are dead 

 and dying on the sidewalks in front of our fac- 

 tory buildings. In some cases the abdomen is 

 separated from the thorax of the bee, for, in the 

 death-struggle, the sufferer crowds at the rear por- 

 tion of its body until it dismembers itself. 



Our readers will remember that, a year or so 

 ago, we were at a loss to account for so many 



