GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



crushed. I have noticed several reports in 

 the papers since the parcel post has been in 

 operation, wliere eggs have been sent 

 through the post and have been broken. 



The cause is not hard to find. The post- 

 office officials have not yet made sufficient 

 arrangements for the handling of this busi- 

 ness ; and until the Department is fully pre- 

 pared to take care of all kinds of business 

 it would be better for the public to use a 

 safer method than the open mail for fragile 

 matter. To label a package " With Care," 

 or " This Side Up," is absolutely useless, 

 as few ever see it, and fewer pay any atten- 

 tion to it when they do see it. A swift 

 glance at the address, and flop it goes into 

 the sack it belongs in, whether a foot away 

 or ten. Registered matter receives better 

 treatment, being handled personally from 

 one clerk to another. In a few years, when 

 the express business is owned by the gov- 

 ernment or supplanted by parcel post, all 

 parcels will be handled with the care that 

 they deserve, and that they now get from 

 the private express companies. 



Handling fragile matter by freight, 

 whether by carload or less, is still more un- 

 satisfactory. Of late years the railroads 

 have been burning their candle at both ends 

 — through no intent of their own, be it said, 

 but because it has been forced upon them 

 by federal and State laws. Rates have been 

 reduced, and no prospect of any advance, 

 while every item of railway operation has 

 steadily advanced in cost, especially mate- 

 rial and labor; consequently every manager, 

 every superintendent, and every boss of 

 every kind, to hold his job has to exert 

 eternal caution to keep expenses down. The 

 usual devices are to cut labor, hours, ma- 

 terials, and improvements. Where si^ecial 

 knowledge is not required, the very cheap- 

 est labor is used. In the South that means 

 negroes; in the Southwest, Mexicans; in the 

 East, Italians or other foreigners. Now. 

 what is the result when your case of honey 

 is marked "Glass"? The inscription is 

 never read; and if it should by accident be 

 read it receives absolutely no attention. A 

 ear holds just so much. In time of a car- 

 famine every available piece of freight is 

 put in, and seldom with regard to any con- 

 sideration except to fill space. Of late some 

 of the systems have been making an effort 

 to remedy the careless loading of freight in 

 an effort to cut down the enormous amounts 

 being paid for claims, but the progress is 

 slow. 



But suppose that tlie case is properly 

 loaded, or that there is a carload shipment. 

 Dynamite used to be handled indiscrimi- 

 nately with other freight, and the loss of life 

 was so great that the federal government 



had to step in and regulate it, with the re- 

 sult that last year there was not a single 

 death from this cause in the whole United 

 States, so a federal insjDector recently told 

 me. Every case of dynamite or other ex- 

 plosive now has a big red label on it. It is 

 braced in the car so that it can not move, 

 even if the car is wrecked and turns over. 

 Nothing that can easily catch fire or explode 

 is allowed in the same car. Furthermore, 

 the car is inspected, large tags are put on 

 every side, and the car placed in the safest 

 part of the train. 



Now, if all this can be done for dynamite, 

 why can not something similar be done for 

 honey? It is worth taking up in the next 

 national convention. Supi^ose that a cer- 

 tain color, whether painted on or pasted it 

 makes little difference, be used on the tops 

 of all honey-packages, a regular system of 

 bracing be agreed upon, and, in the case of 

 carloads, placards be put on the outside of 

 the car to let switching crews know the 

 fragile nature of the lading. Too much 

 should not be asked of the roads, as a raise 

 in rates would follow ; and whatever is 

 agreed upon should be with the understand- 

 ing that the shipper be required to furnish 

 every thing, and perform all the extra labor 

 incident thereto. I add this because it will 

 be useless to ask any railway management 

 at this time for any thing that will add any 

 expense to their burdens, which are already 

 too heavy. 



To he continued. 



Drones from Drone-layers ; Are They any Good ? 



I have some fine Golden queens that I raised from 

 a breeding queen last fall, and they did not mate. 

 Now they are laying drone eggs. Will those drones 

 reared in drone comb Ije all right to breed queens to ? 



Kendallville, Ind., March 31. O. P. Eldridge. 



[Drones from drone-laying queens are not gener- 

 ally regarded as the equal of drones reared from 

 ordinary normal queens. A good many doubt whether 

 they have any potency at all; but it is generally be- 

 lieved that they are better than no drones. If a vir- 

 gin queen were fertilized by one of these drones the 

 probabilities are tliat the result of that mating would 

 not last as long as though she had been mated with 

 a drone from a normal queen. 



Drones from queens that have formerly laid work- 

 er eggs, and yet later lay only drone eggs, are good. 

 We have used them extensively, and have reason to 

 believe they are all right. 



However, we are frank to say to you that no 

 scientific experiments have thus far been conducted 

 to prove whether drones from drone-laying queens 

 are the equal of those from the ordinary average 

 queen. Possibly the Bureau of Entomology, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, may find its way clear to give this 

 matter investigation. Microscopic examination of the 

 seminal .sacs of the drones from drone-laying queens 

 and drones from the ordinary normal queen would 

 doubtles.? show whether the former had as many 

 spermatozoa as would be found in the other drone. 

 Ed.I 



