132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec. 



it would not be on tJi,e, stra'w-piat, but pjC t^oiae, ' 

 two one-inch strips above the mat, or' on the 

 air passage above the mat. ' '■'". 



rhave now put in winter quarters thirty'/fifiuf'j 

 stands of bees, all told. About ten swarms, 

 were made in September, with the aid of ready 

 cofnb's, of course, 'and I shall, in due time, re- 

 port;' as to their wintering this year, under .their 

 straw-mat arrangernent. '. My friend, aboTe 

 referred to, has put up his bees in the same 

 mAnner as last year, 'only tha,the left the second 

 story, olf, and laid one-inch strips on top of the 

 straw-mat. ' We shall see, now, if his bees will 

 have dysentery again this winter. 



Ghas. F. Muth. 



Cincinnati, 0,, Nov. 19, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



An Appeal to Beekeepers. 



' ■ , ■ ■ , . ' 



Are; you^ tired of railroad men, friend ^ Bee- 

 keepers,?" I, for one, am very much fatigued with 

 th^ir roughness in regard to my goods. One 

 hi^ndred dollars would not cover the loss that 

 I |i,ave experienced by their rough handling, 

 luj^pite of all kinds of warnings on the ad- 

 dregees, they handle the queens, the hives, and 

 th^ boxes of comb honey, as if they were re- 

 commended not to allow the contents of a 

 single box to pass in their hands without being 

 srtiashed. 



J have had so many queens killed by thi3 

 smashing of combs, that I prefer to have them 

 starving on their way, rather than to give them 

 combs somewhat heavy with honey, — my risk 

 b^l^g smaller. 



.This spring, I have sent three stocks of bees 

 to. a beekeeper of Iowa. All kinds of warnings 

 were written upon the addresses, and, besides, 

 the express officer had promised to see to their 

 careful handling. Well, my three stocks were 

 put in the cars, bottom side up. Fortunately 

 they had only thirty miles to travel, and no 

 change of cars. One half of the bees only 

 were killed, but the queens were safe. 



I have tried three times to send honey by 

 railroad. The third time only fifteen miles ; and 

 every time, all the combs were smashed down. 

 Yet I had had the care to show a part of the 

 glasses of the boxes. " But," say the railroad 

 meuj " we do not warrant living anunals ; we 

 do i^ot, warrant things contained in glasses," 

 yet they take higher charges because they are 

 living ariimals or glass. 



" But it IS irupossible for us to go with such 

 a speed, and to handle your goods with the 

 care that you require." Why ! your speed is 

 not greater than on the old continent. There 

 is, in France, every other year, an exhibition of 

 bee culture. Honey is sent in jars, and in 

 combs from every part of the country ; even 

 from Italy, and through every railroad, yet 

 not three per cent of the combs are broken. 



t 1 Tti^year.-at the exhibition at vi^^a, they 

 I had honey in comb, coming from the remotest 

 j:^arts of Europe. These combs had traveled 

 .across the railroads of France, Germany, Italy, 

 and Austria, and they arrived in good order. 



Yet the railroad rates on the continent are 

 lower than in this country. They are regulated 

 by law. The railroad companies of France 

 and Italy, do not possess the railroad in full 

 property ; for these railroads will return to the 

 nations after a lapse of 99 years. Besides, the 

 railroad companies are liable for damages and 

 interests, if they have not cars in sufficient 

 quantities to transport all the goods as soon as 

 presented, &c. Besides, the railroad companies 

 of Europe have not received such bounties as 

 those of this country. 



We have not yet arrived to the time when 

 the honey crop will be large enough to encum- 

 ber the railroad. Our case is the necessity of 

 carefulness. 



Some people will think that, as I have been 

 raised in the old country, I am partial to the 

 railroads of the continent. To show that such 

 is not the case, I will cite a well-known citizen 

 of the United States, who, after his return from 

 Europe,: wrote in his journal, the Ame7-ican 

 Agniadturist, for January, 1868, the following 

 article.:. . 



" BAGGAGE SMASHERS." 



" To Railroad Managers. — A species of down 

 right robbery is now practiced upon travelers 

 on very many of the public conveyances in 

 this country. We assert as a fact, from our 

 own observation, that many such employed to 

 handle baggage, take a special delight in see- 

 ing how hard they can pitch a trunk about. 

 We have seen them use extra exertions to give a 

 largp trunk a hard thump, and to see how 

 /ar-tpiey could throiv a lighter one,— as if trying 

 to^eayu the name of a baggage smasher. Let 

 iny.'Qf our railroad managers stand where they 

 will not be geen, and note the handling of the 

 |)aggage, at a station. They will usually see 

 th^ trunks thrown out, or in, without the least 

 fare to save them, — the corner of one pitched 

 ' wit;h force into the side of another, — in short, 

 no care is used, to spare them in any way ; but 

 every -thing done to injure them, that can be 

 done. Probably forty thousand travelers' 

 trjinks are daily handled upon our railroads, in 

 the aggregate, and the unnecessary hard usage 

 they receive, amounts to twenty-five cents each, 

 or ten thousand dollars a day ! Judging from 

 our own past experience, of setting out upon a 

 journey, in this country, we would willingly 

 give twenty-five cents a day in advance, to have 

 our trunks handled with the same care that is 

 exercised on the European railroads. Here, 

 one hundred days traveling and stopping will 

 thoroughly use up a twenty-five dollar trunk, 

 no matter how strongly made. After a six 

 months tour in Europe, including twelve thous- 

 and miles by railroad, with our baggage taken 



