66 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



road company could be compelled to i)ay 

 the full loss, if they paid any thing. The 

 loss would then fall on the producer. It is, 

 therefore, important that the bee-keeper put 

 up his honey in the most approved style, 

 using modern well-made shipping-cases; 

 and if he can prove that .the honey was de- 

 livered at the railroad station in good order, 

 any loss or breakage in transit can then be 

 recovered from the railroad company by 

 either the consignee or shipper. 



Another case arose some little time ago. 

 A bee-keeper shipped his household goods 

 from a southern city to a northern. He pre- 

 paid the freight to the agent at the starting- 

 point, which was $12.00. This charge was 

 based on an estimated weight of the goods. 

 When the goods reached the northern city 

 the agent at destination demanded $3.85 

 more, which was paid. A short time later 

 the railroad company demanded $5.50 more. 

 The bee-keeper demurred, and wrote to us, 

 asking for his rights in the matter, saying 

 that the railroad company threatened that, 

 if he did not pay, he would be held liable to 

 a fine of $3000 and a term in the penitenti- 

 ary. He was willing to pay what was right, 

 but he did not propose to be imposed on. 



We replied, saying he made a mistake in 

 not knowing the exact weight of the goods 

 when they were shipped; that the railroad 

 agent at the starting-point had no business 

 to "estimate" the weight. But this thing 

 is done very often; but if any trouble arises 

 it always falls on the shipper; and in this 

 case it seems that, when the goods arrived 

 at destination, the estimated weight was 

 found to be too low, and the agent at that 

 point figured up the difference and demand- 

 ed $3.85. Later on, the railroad company 

 discovered that the i-ate made in the first 

 place was wrong, and this necessitated ad- 

 ditional payment. 



We do not wonder that our correspondent 

 thought he was being imposed on; but the 

 facts are, the railroad company had the ad- 

 vantage. If the poor shipper does not pay 

 the full amount required by the rate and 

 the weight of the goods, the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission when appealed to can 

 compel him to do so or take the consequences, 

 and the consequences are something seri- 

 ous. We do not know whether the railroads 

 of the country have secured a set of laws in 

 their favor or not; but clearly they have the 

 advantage in such cases over the shipper. 

 On the other hand, there is no rule but 

 what will work IxAli ways. If the shipper 

 can prove that the weights made by the 

 railroad company were too high, or that the 

 rate charged was in excess of the pro|)er 

 amount, and ai)peals to the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission, that body will require 

 the carrier to refund the difTerence. 



Moral ;.'. — Carefully weigh your goods be- 

 fore you ship them; then when the railroad 

 agent weighs them again, make sure that 

 his weight corresponds with yours. If there 

 is a discrepancy, ascertain where the mis- 

 take is before the goods are shipi)ed. Sec- 

 ond, ascertain what the rate is on the class 



of goods shi])ped. Make the agent show 

 you the schedule. Keep all of your records; 

 and then if there is any trouble, and the 

 shipment is a large one, present the facts to 

 an attorney. 



DOUBLE-WALLED PACKED HIVES V. SINGLE- 

 WALLED WITH A PAPER COVER. 



The readers will doubtless be interested 

 in the symposium on this general question 

 in this issue, on pages 73, 74, 75, 7G, and 77, 

 It is our opinion that this question of pack- 

 ing, absorbents, and size of entrances, is 

 more dependent on locality than we had, 

 perhaps, suj^posed. Mr. A. C. Miller, an ex- 

 cellent authority, seems to prefer the single- 

 walled hive with black paper for a winter 

 wrapping, or, rather, perhaps we should say, 

 he concludes that there is no advantage in 

 having the walls made thicker. He prefers 

 large entrances on the sides of the hive and 

 sealed covers. While he says nothing about 

 sealed covers, he makes no provision for the 

 moisture to escape upward, but, rather, to 

 pass out through an entrance of ample di- 

 mensions. We do not question the accuracy 

 of his judgment for his locality; but from 

 exhaustive tests we made some years ago 

 we are thoroughly convinced that bees in 

 single-walled hives in this locality, even 

 with paper covers, either died outright or 

 were so weak in the spring as to be good for 

 nothing for honey-production the following 

 season. We did not at the time take any 

 readings of the inside and outside of such 

 hives; but we see no reason to question Mr. 

 Miller's statement, that the difTerence in 

 temperature between the outside and inside 

 would be very slight with so large an en- 

 trance, and with walls so thin. 



It is probably true that a contracted en- 

 trance, whether in a single-walled or double- 

 walled hive, would not be advisable in his 

 locality — that is, providing no upward ven- 

 tilation were allowed. But conditions in 

 other localities are so different that we feel 

 very certain that the plan he recommends 

 would not work in most of the colder cli- 

 mates; and Mr. Holtermann and Mr. Byer 

 seem to be equally certain that they must 

 have more packing for their localities. Mr. 

 .1. E. Crane, who is visiting us today, .Tan. 

 20, expresses himself as decidedly favoring 

 the views taken by Mr. Byer and Mr. Hol- 

 termann, and Mr. Crane is one of our most 

 successful bee-keepers in \'ermont. 



Perhaps an illustration would help to 

 make it plainer why we favor a double-wall- 

 ed packed hive rather than a single-walled 

 hive. During the past season we built a 

 small garage for storing an automobile. The 

 structure was made of % lumber planed on 

 both sides, and painted on the outside. This 

 made a single-walled building, for we did 

 not think it necessary to go to the expense 

 of making double walls, because the build- 

 ing could be easily heated by exhaust steam 

 from the factory. Now, it happened that a 

 radiator in one of the living-rooms in our 

 house was altogether too large for the size of 

 the room. The temperature would go up to 



