582 



(JLEANINGS m BEE CULTUEE. 



July 



When this now honey was taken and phiced in 

 the store-room, the whole family praised it highly. 

 And when the honey was cut from a section into a 

 dish, and placed upon their suppor-table, they pro- 

 nounced it delicious. Jane said, "]t is better tlian 

 any candy I ever tasted;" and Tommy added, "I 

 tell you, our bees make the boss honey; the comb 

 melts in my mouth. You remember, pa, the honey 

 Mr. Baker sent us, how tough the comb was; you 

 could hardly cut it, and it did for chewing-g-um." 



His father said, " Comb is never good to eat after 

 bees have hatched in it. Each young bee opens a 

 web around the inside of the cell. This makes the 

 comb tough. As each bee hatched in the cell adds 

 another web, old combs become very tough. This 

 comb had no bees hatched in it, while Mr. Baker's 

 had; hence the ditterencc." 



When the other case of sections was removed, 

 after the first frost. It was found that there was 

 honey in every section. Six in the middle were 

 about finished, the rest only partly sealed, but 

 could all be used in the family. In fact, it had 

 already been decided that no honey should be 

 sold that year. Their entire honey-.crop was fifty- 

 three pounds. 



One evening, after supper, Jane produced the ac- 

 count-book of the firm, which showed as follows: 



AllTICLES PURCHASED BY THE FIRM OF JANE 

 MEEK & BROTHER. 



Number of packages of sugar for feeding $i.".j 



Five Langstroth hives 8.00 



Five liundred sections r!50 



Freight on sections 30 



A box containing one snioljer M 



Fifty tin separators 1.50 



Eight pounds of thin comb foundation 4.00 



Freight on this box 25 



One dozen feeders CO 



One queen 1.00 



822.40 



Of this amount, $3.30 was from the children's 

 pocket-money. The rest, SrJO.lO, was money loaned 

 the firm by Mr. Meek. 



Of course, more supplies had been purchased 

 than were needed, because these had to be shipped, 

 and could not well be ^shipped in smaller lots than 

 they had ordered, and they knew that any supplies 

 left over would do for next season. The children 

 made out the following account, to be placed oppo- 

 site the expenses: 



Supplies and utensils on hand S9 60 



Four colonies at S5.00 a colon.y 20.00 



53 pounds of honey, at 15 cts. a lb 7.95 



■* 837.55 



A comparison shows that, although the firm was 

 in debt, there was a gain during the year. 



Tommy did not like to be in debt, and said to his 

 father, " You gave me a book about Benjamin 

 Franklin, and told me to follow its teachings. You 

 showed me what he said about debt, and said when 

 1 went into business to remember his advice, if I 

 would be successful— to have as my motto, 'Owe 

 no man any thing.' Now, our firm is deeply in 

 debt. Are we doing right? " 



His father answered, "If you had borrowed this 

 money from a stranger, I would not approve of it; 

 but as it is, I think it all right. You remember I 

 gave my consent to you and Jane keeping bees for 

 certain reasons. You are being educated. The 

 money is invested in educating you to do business; 

 tOjUnderstand bees, and also to keep bees; and if 

 the. firm fails to pay me, I will not consider the 

 money lost. This debt to me is not like another 



debt; I merely ask you to pay if able; and if disas- 

 ter overtakes you, I wi'l forgive you the debt. An 

 old farmer advised his son never to go in debt at all ; 

 'but,' said he, 'if you do go in debt, let it be for 

 manure.' I would say to bee-keepers, never go in 

 debt at all; but if you do go in debt, let it be for 

 improvements which will increase your yield of 

 honey. 



To he cnntinued Au(j- 1- 



THE DOOLITTLE SURPLUS ARRANGE- 

 MENT. 



CAN HONEY BE SENT TO MARKET IN THE SAME 

 CASE IT COMES FROM THE HIVE? 



TN j'our remarks on the Doolittle surplus ar- 

 ^ rangement for comb honey, in Gleanings, 

 ^i June 1st, you say: "Such an arrangement 

 -*■ works nicely on hives, but is not practicable to 

 use for shipping honey to mai'ket. For home 

 use, however, it seems to answer every purpose." 

 If I understand your last sentence, you wish to im- 

 ply that the case is not practicable for bee-keepers 

 raising honey for market, but only for those who 

 raise honey for home use, etc. I should like to 

 have you tell us if you ever sent comb honej' to 

 market in the cases in which it is l)uilt, in a market- 

 able condition? Is the combined shipping and hon- 

 ey crate a marketable honey-case? For my part I 

 don't think it is, and I don't think it is ever used 

 for that purpose. The fact is, I don't know of any 

 bee-keeper who ever sent his comb honey in the 

 case it was built in. This arrangement that you 

 call the Viallon plan, etc., instead of the Doolittle 

 surplus arrangement, etc., has been used for near- 

 ly ten years by Doolittle, and it is from a sample ar- 

 rangement of wide frames he sent you in 1876 that 

 you came out and advertised the wide frames to 

 hold eight sections, and your three-box case j'ou 

 say is similar, and advertised by you several years. 

 I claimed no novelty in the arrangement; but as I 

 used it with better results than any other case, and 

 as it had not been made public, to my knowledge, 

 before I saw friend Doolittle's article in the -4. B. J., 

 I wrote to him and asked him permission to manu- 

 facture it and call it his arrangement, which is 

 nothing but right, as he was the first one to use 

 such an arrangement. I will take this opportunity 

 to ask friend Doolittle to give us his views on the 

 subject, in Gleanings. P. L. Viallon. 



Bayou Goula, La., June 13, 188G. 



Excuse me, friend V., if I did not say just 

 what 1 meant to say in my foot-note to your 

 communication in our issue of June 1st. 

 Tlie combined shipping and honey crate il- 

 lustrated in our price list has been used 

 quite extensively about here, and I think 

 generally in different localities, for taking 

 honey to neighboring stores and groceries. 

 It can be lifted directly from the hive ; and 

 after the bees have been expelled it is ready 

 to be handed over to the grocer M'ithout re- 

 moving a section, unless you think best to 

 take out one or two, so he won't have any 

 trouble in getting them started. As to 

 whether it has been used for shipping on the 

 cars or not, I do not know. I am inclined 

 to think it Jias, however, because one or two 

 complaints, have been made that there is no 

 ready method of closing the openings in the 

 bottom, where the bees get in, during ship- 



