sweetened) and it cannot work for our 

 interests, unless Ave in turn work for 

 its. I am no new hand at the wheel of 

 "producer's interests," but I am not 

 yet ready to give up the old ship. I 

 cannot believe that any new paper can 

 excel the American Bee Journal in 

 its devotion to our best interests, or as 

 a clean-cut, well-published paper. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., March 12, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Sending Bees by Mail. 



H. ALLEY. 



Prof. Cook should have the thanks 

 of every bee-keeper in the country, for 

 the effort he made in getting that ob- 

 noxious order rescinded relating to the 

 sending of bees through the mails. 

 I am of the opinion that this new lease 

 will be of short duration, and will 

 soon be revoked. Not that any shipper 

 of queens will disregard the provisions 

 of this new order, by any means. 



Now, suppose some one of that great 

 army of clerks, who are employed to 

 run the postoffiee department of this 

 country, complains to the P. M. General 

 that he was stung by bees found in the 

 mails, who could contradict such a 

 statement V The sworn statement of 

 all the bee-keepers in the country would 

 be of no avail, and would not be even 

 noticed by the officials of the postoffiee 

 department. Any one can 'easily pre- 

 dict what the effect of such a complaint 

 would be : " no more bees permitted in 

 the mails," the same as two years since. 

 The postoffiee department would not 

 make the least effort to learn whether 

 such a report was well founded or not, 

 and bee-keepers would not have a 

 chance to do so. 



Some one of that million of clerks 

 reported two years ago that an attempt 

 was made to ship 50 bees in a paper- 

 box through the mails. I did not be- 

 lieve the statement then, and do not 

 now. I do not believe that such a flat 

 can be found among the one hundred 

 thousand bee-keepers in the United 

 States. 



Now a few words about double- wire 

 cages. During the past 18 years I have 

 shipped through the mails nearly 15,000 

 queen bees. Out of all these only one 

 cage was damaged so that the bees 

 escaped. As there were only 2 bees be- 

 sides the queen in the cage, I do not 

 believe that any one was badly stung by 

 them. Everybody who has purchased 

 queens of me know the kind of cage 

 1 have used. After bees have been in 

 these cages 24 hours, they are not in 

 condition to sting much. This cage 



175 



was returned to me as proof that the 

 bees were destroyed before they reached 

 the purchaser. It must have dropped 

 on the floor of some postal-car or post- 

 office, and accidently or purposely trod 

 upon, as it bore the imprint of the heel 

 of a man's boot. Does any one suppose 

 that the cages shown to the P. M. Gen- 

 eral, will prove any better than mine, 

 after 15 years 1 trial? Certainly the 

 cage made as has been described in the 

 Journal will not stand the pressure of 

 the heel of any man's boot any better 

 than mine. I shall continue to use the 

 same kind of a cage as I have used, 

 and if they must be double wired, will 

 make them so. I think, however, that 

 they will be rather stronger with single 

 wire and enclosed in a paste-board 

 wrapper, like the sample 1 send you to- 

 day. I shall supply all my cages with 

 the new food such as I used 2 years 

 since. It retains moisture a long time, 

 and has kept bees alive 14 days without 

 water or honey, the bees making a 

 journey to Chicago and back to Wen- 

 ham in the meantime. 



Here is one more point : I have been 

 obliged to pay letter postage on all 

 packages containing bees for several 

 years. Packages sent me only have a 

 2c. stamp affixed. I have not dared to 

 write the P. M. General about it, as I 

 feared the reply might be the same as 

 the late Mr. Wagner got from that 

 department, on one occasion when he 

 went there on some business for me. 

 After Mr. Wagner had stated his case, 

 he was coolly told by one of the officials 

 that if he had any more trouble about 

 bees he would make an effort to have 

 them excluded from the mails. So you 

 see I never have dared to stir up that 

 kind and obliging official the second 

 time. If I can send packages of bees 

 at the rate of 2c. per ounce, I will make 

 my cages so strong that even the P. M. 

 General cannot hurt them with the 

 heel of his boot. 



Wenham, Mass. 



[Mr. Alley's queen cage is simply a 

 block of wood having an auger hole 

 covered with wire cloth, and enclosed 

 in a paper box having two small holes 

 in the latter over the bees, to admit air. 

 The one sent, in no way answers the 

 law, and to use such is but to invite a 

 revocation of the order admitting bees 

 to the mails. Mr. Alley says he does 

 not see the need of the double wire 

 screen, but will make them so if neces- 

 sary. This is right. We must respect 

 the law or take the consequences. The 

 food he speaks of is good ; we well re- 



