1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



461 



There is a good deal of dishonest grading. 

 We by far prefer sending our man, when we 

 buy car lots, unless we know from whom we 

 are buying. We would refuse to take a car 

 of honey, sight-draft bill of lading attached, 

 unless we knew the party shipping. 

 Chas. H. Wi 



Cincinnati, 0., Feb. 8. 



'EBER. 



THE FAULT LIES WITH THOSE WHO ARE IG- 

 NORANT OF REQUIREMENTS AND OF GRAD- 

 ING-RULES. 



We have read your article entitled "Ship- 

 ping Honey in Carloads on Sight Draft with 

 Bill of Ladmg Attached; some of the Troubles 

 of the Shipper and Consignee." 



We would not have made any comments 

 upon it except for your drawing attention 

 thereto under date of Feb. 6. We are of the 

 opinion that you have undertaken to regu- 

 late something that may present many diffi- 

 culties. We have found during our business 

 career that the men or firms who make a 

 business of cheating are few in numbers; and 

 when we have found those addicted to that, 

 we have ceased to deal with them, for these 

 men know what they are doing. 



Our greatest difficulty has been with those 

 who are ignorant of our requirements, and 

 careless in the preparation of their merchan- 

 dise for market. These we have found to 

 give a great deal of annoyance, for the rea- 

 son that their intention was not to deceive. 

 Much improvement has come about of late 

 years, and now there is a general knowledge 

 among those handling car lots of honey, that 

 certain requirements as to grade and method 

 of marketing generally are necessary. We 

 are of the opinion that publication of aggra- 

 vated cases would be helpful. 



R. A. Burnett & Co. 

 Chicago, 111., Feb. 8. 



CONSIDERABLE TROUBLE WOULD BE SAVED 

 IF HONEV-SHIPPERS WOULD SELL ONLY TO 

 RESPONSIBLE PARTIES, AND THEN BILL THE 

 HONEY OPEN. 



As a rule, the early part of the season 

 where we are loading carloads of comb or 

 extracted honey we usually have our own 

 representative on the ground to inspect, ac- 

 cept, and load. Extracted, we at times buy 

 draft bill of lading attached subject to draft 

 being held for arrival and examination of 

 car. Some of our honey-shippers, that we 

 have been dealing with in the past, load cars 

 as agreed upon, properly graded, and give 

 us wnat we buy; then, again, there are oth- 

 ers who may want to do what is right, but are 

 not sufficiently familiar with the grading- 

 rules, or they sell one thing and ship anoth- 

 er, and this is where the trouble commences. 

 It is not good policy to have the railroad 

 companies unload comb honey in their 

 freight-houses. In the first place, the rail- 

 road employees do not know how to handle 

 comb honey; and before they get it unload- 

 ed, considerable will be damaged. On the 

 other hand, it is impossible to inspect a car 



of honey properly as long as it is still in the 

 car. Then, again, railroad companies have 

 no right to unload the honey when goods 

 are consigned to shipper's order. 



In our opinion, if tne honey-shippers would 

 confine their operations to responsible 

 houses, and then bill their honey open, it 

 very often would avoid considerable trouble; 

 but where a seller sells one grade and puts 

 in two or three grades, it invariably will lead 

 to rejection, and then the fault is all blamed 

 on the buyer. In more cases the seller does 

 not know any better, while, again, he may 

 feel indifferent, thinking that draft may be 

 honored on presentation. When such cars 

 are rejected they are often turned over to 

 brokers or dealers who are not in the honey 

 business, and are not in the habit of handling 

 this commodity, except on such occasions; 

 and honey of this kind is usually sold at the 

 best obtainable price, to the detriment of the 

 regular honey-dealers. 



Chicago, 111. S. T. FiSH & Co. 



[In our opinion the best solution of the 

 whole difficulty is for consignee (as some of 

 them do) to send a representative into the 

 territory where the honey is produced, and 

 instruct him to buy, after thorough inspec- 

 tion, and load the same before he leaves. A 

 car of honey may cost all the way from three 

 to six thousand dollars, and seventy-five dol- 

 lars or a hundred is a very small amount to 

 invest in order that there may be entire sat- 

 isfaction to both sides of the deal. — Ed.] 



AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. MILLER. 



Is it Advisable to Give Young Brood to a 



Colony that has a Virgin? Does 



the Giving of Such Brood 



Stay Swarming? 



[The following: discussion between two old veterans 

 involves some practical considerations, and we are 

 slad to place it before our readers. — ED. J 



Dr. C. C. Miller:— In the A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture (edition of 1905, page 287), under the 

 head of "Virgin Queens" Mr. Root advises 

 giving a comb of young brood to a colony 

 having a virgin queen, if the colony does not 

 already have such brood; and he gives three 

 different reasons for doing so. 



In Gleanings, 1907, page 185, three writ- 

 ers, D. R. Keyes, W. D. Achord, and J. A. 

 Crane, say that giving young brood to a 

 colony having a virgin queen, before she be- 

 gins laying, will cause the bees to start 

 queen-cells on the brood given, and to kill 

 the queen. How do you reconcile these two 

 statements? 



I always used to give young brood, when 

 none was present, as soon as I knew that a 

 queen had hatched, principally to prevent 

 the bees from swarming out with the queen 

 when she came out to mate; and I found that 

 it had the desired effect, but I also found 

 many youn^ queens missing when I expect- 

 ed to find them laying. 



Since reading the statement of Messrs. 

 Keyes, Achord, and Crane I have omitted 



