190 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



IB©©[]S(B(B[pD[IDg] iSmCDDDg] GDd© [^(D©feD( 



Wesley Fosteb, Boulder, Colo. 



In an apiary of 105 colonies, half of which 

 are being wintered in double-story eight and 

 ten frame hives, and half in single-story 

 eight and ten frame hives, four colonies up 

 to date, February 15, have died. These four 

 colonies were all in single-story hives. 



4>- 



spring meeting of the colorado state 



beekeepers' association. 



AVith the idea of uniting the interests of 

 beekeepers on the western slope and Eastern 

 Colorado, a spring meeting will be held in 

 Montrose, probably early in May. The date 

 will be announced a little later. The Mont- 

 rose County Beekeepers' Association is to 

 be our host, and they have promised us a 

 good time. There will be a picnic and vari- 

 ous other entertaining features. Every bee- 

 keeper on the eastern side of the Rockies 

 should make it a point to attend this meet- 

 ing. There will be special rates on the rail- 

 roads, and this will be an excellent time to 

 see the western-slope country. Montrose 

 County is as good a section of Colorado as 

 one will find in riding over a good many 

 hundred miles of Colorado rails. The county 

 is young yet, and has hardly begun to grow. 



The orchards are mostly on the mesas, 

 which rii^e a hundred feet or more above the 

 valley. The freezes are said to slide down 

 hill; but they so often come in the night 

 that they can not find the edge of the mesa, 

 and so camp out in the orchards unless the 

 ever watchful orchardist smokes them out, 

 when they slip downhill and nip the alfalfa 

 bloom of the diversified farmer in the val- 

 ley. The farmer who is content to raise al- 

 falfa, wheat, onions, and spuds, and does 

 not go in for the ?500 per acre (?) profits in 

 orcharding, is supposed to have lost caste 

 in this country; but upon inquiry I found 

 that the reason for their losing caste is prin- 

 cipally because these diversified farmers are 

 holding most of the mortgages on the fruit 

 ranches, and also sitting in the bank di- 

 rectors' chairs! Montrose County is worth 

 seeing. I can't tell it all. Go yourself and 

 see where weeds grow like trees, and the 

 pumpkin-patch is used by small boys to 

 play hide and seek in. Why, I saw a pump- 

 kin that weighed 147 lbs., and it wasn't fed 

 milk either. It just had all the Gunnison 

 water and black soil and Colorado sunshine 

 it wanted. 



PARCELS POST NOW AN ISSUE. 



In taking up this question of parcels post, 

 there are two things that should be thor- 

 oughly understood: First, every express 

 company is operating in violation of the 

 law. Second, the law has been violated so 

 long that nearly everybody has forgotten 

 about it. Here is a part of it: "And de- 

 clares it to be unlawful for any person or 

 persons to establish any private express or 

 expresses for the conveyance, or in any man- 



ner cause to be conveyed, or to provide for 

 the conveyance or transportation by regular 

 trips, or at stated periods or intervals, from 

 one city, town, or other place, to any other 

 city, town, or other places in the United 

 States between and from and to which cities, 

 towns, and other places the United States 

 nf ail is regularly transported under the au- 

 thority of the Postoffice Department, of any 

 letter or ^^ackages, or packages of letters, or 

 other properly transmittable matter in the 

 United States mail, except newspapers, 

 pamphlets, magazines, and periodicals. A 

 penalty of $150 is inflicted by the act for its 

 violation." 



The parcels-post limit now is four pounds, 

 and the rate 16 cents a pound; but the rate 

 for beans, peas, seeds, etc., for planting is 8 

 cents a pound. If for human consumption, 

 the charge is 16 cents a pound ; the charge 

 is twice as much if the beans are to be eaten 

 as if they are to be planted. Talk about 

 the high cost of living! 



Now, suppose the express companies re- 

 ceive an 11-pound package from Great Brit- 

 ain's parcels post. They will deliver it any- 

 where in the United States for 2-4 cents; 

 while if we want to send it by post our Post- 

 office Department charges us 16 cents a 

 pound, and we have to divide it up into four- 

 pound packages. 



The postoffice in Boulder will charge me 

 64 cents on a four-pound package to New 

 York; but if I send it to Berlin (through 

 New York) , the charge is only 48 cents. 



There is no limit to the size of package 

 carried by parcels post in Switzerland, and 

 the rate is one cent a pound. In Belgium 

 the limit is 132 pounds, and the rate about 

 lYz cents a pound. Germany will carry by 

 post up to 110 lbs. at a rate of about 1% cents 

 a pound. Austria will do the same. France 

 will carry up to 22 lbs. at 1>^ cents a pound. 

 But we here in the United States have to 

 pay 16 cents a pound, and can send but 4 

 lbs. Mexico, which owns 51 per cent of the 

 express companies' stock, will carry parcels 

 at half the rates charged here. 



The average rural-delivery carrier's load 

 is 25 lbs. It should be nearly a thousand 

 pounds, and would be, under an intelligent 

 parcels post. The rates could be put down, 

 and it would not be long before we could 

 have rates almost as reasonable as those in 

 Europe. And, in addition, we can, from 

 the additional profits, soon have the penny 

 letter postage. 



The express companies have been paying 

 dividends of 38 per cent, and this is made 

 through a violation of the law. What are 

 you going to do about it? 1 would suggest 

 that you write your Senators and Congress- 

 men at once, urging them to support a pro- 

 gressive parcels-post measure. It will mean 

 several dollars a year to you, as you will 

 readily appreciate as soon as this betterment 

 is in operation. 



