MAY 15, 1913 



347 



that the horses are not attached to the wag- 

 on, except in one instance. In this one the 

 driver has just arrived at an apiarj' and is 

 unhitching to take the team aside to a safe 

 hitching-place. Always do this, since there 

 is no telling when the bees might sting the 

 team and cause considerable trouble and 

 disaster. Especially should this be Avatched 

 in time when bees are robbing badly. 



To get the load away from the apiary 

 when bees are robbing, and it is not safe to 

 liitch direct to the wagon, a long stout rope 

 is used to which the horses are hitched. 

 This has a large hook at the other end, 

 which is hooked to the end of the wagon- 

 tongue, and the load is pulled to a safe dis- 

 tance from the apiary, where the team is 

 then hitched to the wagon. 



New Braunfels, Texas. 



SHIPPING FRAGILE ARTICLES 



Some Advice from One who has had Experience 



BY JAY W, GEE 



Inasmuch as the writer's first knowledge 

 of Gleanings, and a subsequent interest in 

 the bee industry, was a direct result of a 

 broken case of bee supplies it may not be 

 amiss to repay the debt to the fraternity by 

 giving my experience in the transportation 

 business, covering about ten years. Some 

 years ago I was agent for a railway at a 

 ]>oint where a heavy transfer business was 

 done, from five to twenty cars being handled 

 daily. There was a white foreman who 

 checked the freight, and had the general 

 supervision of the platform; but all the 

 trucking and actual handling of the ship- 

 ments was done b,v a gang of negroes, all 

 of whom were illiterate. It was not possi- 

 ble for me to be on the platform every day; 

 but I would make an inspection as often as 

 possible. One day while looking over the 

 situation I found quite a pile of curiously 

 sawed little sticks lying by themselves 

 around a post, with no case near, no mark 

 on any of them, and no possible way to con- 

 nect the sticks or make any thing out of 

 them. 



I called one of the boys, " Tom, what's 

 this you have here? " 



" Fo' God, Cap, I dunno. Yistiddy when 

 us wuz unloadin' the St. Looie cah, Pete, he 

 dun drap a box frum the flatfom an hit 

 bust wide open, an all them sticks come out. 

 Us wuz goin' to put 'em back, but the bos? 

 lowed 'twont no use, fur some feller had 

 jess put em in dat air box fur trash to get 

 rid of, an Pete say dey sho Avould make 

 good kindlin', an' dun bunn bout haff ob 

 'em dis mawnin'." 



There was a little magazine lying near 

 which I put in my pocket for future refer- 

 ence; for I am like the ancient Athenians 

 in one respect at least — always .on the alert 

 to learn some new thing. The little sticks 

 found their way to the stove; and a few 

 months later, after I had perused the little 

 magazine — Gleanings — and some other bee 

 literature, the mystery of the little sticks 

 was solved. The railway company had un- 

 intentionally used a nice lot of frames and 

 other fixtures for stove kindling, and in due 

 course paid the claim, I suppose. The ship- 

 ment went beyond me for final delivery, so 

 I can not say as to that. If there is a moral 

 to this particular incident, I suppose it is 

 that the various railways of the country 

 should have all their employees take a 

 course in bee culture, and so reduce the 

 amount of their annual claim budget by 

 avoiding a recurrence of such mistakes in 

 the future. 



Now, you old-time beekeepers need not 

 be amazed at such gross ignorance outside 

 of your ranks. The biggest part of the 

 losses that the railroads and the public sus- 

 tain is caused by the ignorance of one party 

 of the methods and working tools and jDarts 

 of the other. This is not any disparage- 

 ment to anjr one, either, for in one short 

 life it is impossible to master all the details 

 of every calling, trade, or j^rofessior 



The i^urpose of this article is not to urge 

 the use of any system in behalf of such 

 system by reason of any interest of mine 

 in it ; but it is purely a matter of informa- 

 ,tion that may be of help to some of the 

 many readers of Gleanings. 



Before I began working for the railroad 

 I spent two years in a postotfice of the third 

 class on the main line of one of the trans- 

 continental railroads in Oklahoma. The 

 biggest part of our mail was put off from 

 the through trains. There was a grade just 

 beyond our little town; and in order that 

 the heavy trains might cross it without stall- 

 ing they had to go at full speed by the 

 station. When the sacks were kicked from 

 the mail-car they would sometimes fly thirty 

 or more feet away, and it was not safe to 

 be in their path. It was a sickening sight, 

 sometimes, to go through these sacks and to 

 see the condition the contents were in. I 

 remember one Christmas morning in partic- 

 ular, when the sacks were dumped on our 

 work-table, there was not a single package 

 intact, the whole being an indiscriminate 

 mass of doll limbs, scalps, dresses, tin sol- 

 diers, wrecked cars, and the like. Whether 

 the practice yet obtains, I am unable to say. 

 Of late I have received several fragile pack- 

 ages by mail from long distances without 

 damage ; but the outer packing had not been 



