1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



115 



come seasonable. Inside we have a room 

 about 40 X 60 feet, entirely occupied by the 

 counter store. The counters inside, instead 

 of being in a circle, as in our old room, 

 are made in oval form, having entrances to 

 go behind the counters on each end and at 

 the middle of each side. In the center of the 

 oval is a stairway that leads to the basement. 

 This stairway is generally occupied by Cad- 

 die and her cousin Mabel, where they sit on 

 the steps and cut paper dolls, with Eliza's 

 shears which they have borrowed. This 

 whole south side of the counter store is occu- 

 pied by shelves. The large vault for valua- 

 bles is in the corner, at the right. JN'ot only 

 has every article in our price list got a place 

 provided especially for it, but a label is past- 

 ed in the bottom of the box, giving the 

 name of the article, and telling where the 

 stock is kept, if it is not directly under it un- 

 der the counter. For instance, one article 

 reads, "Stock kept in the safe;" another one, 

 " Stock kept on next top shelf opposite." 



At the left end of the counter store, where 

 the two counters open, we come to the lunch 

 room. Here you will find oranges and trop- 

 ical fruits, received from bee-friends in Flor- 

 ida, and also little pies, doughnuts, etc., 

 from the kitchen below. One side of the 

 lunoh-room is occupied by a pyramid of the 

 Jones honey-pails, a little like what we saw 

 at the Toronto exhibition, on a small scale. 

 Interspersed are also glass honey-pails ; and 

 if you go through into the lunch-room you 

 will see honey in 10-lb. cans, nicely arranged 

 on the shelves. This room is the dining- 

 room. At 12 o'clock every day it is filled 

 with pleasant tables surrounded by boys and 

 girls, chatting and visiting merrily and hap- 

 pily, for milk and honey is one of the sta- 

 ples of the lunch-room. 



Near the outside door, where you see the 

 sign just back of that basswood shade-tree, 

 we have cases of comb honey nicely display- 

 ed. On top of these 

 cases of comb honey are 

 a lot of little paper box- 

 es made so as to hold 

 just one section. Here 

 is a picture of one. 



\Vhen anybody wants 

 a section of honey, Mrs. 

 Shane just pulls out the 

 llap that you see at one 

 side, raises the lid, as it 

 SKET FOR were, slips in the sec- 

 tion, closes it up, and 

 hands it over to the customer. We have 

 quite a nice little trade on honey put up in 

 this shape. You see, the purchaser can take 

 hold of the ribbon and trudge nlong, envied 

 by beholders, because he has got such a pret- 

 ty little package. If he chooses, he can have 

 a Jones honey- pail in the other hand. Well, 

 well ! we must get along, or Ave shall never 

 get through the" factory. 



Let us go back where the little girls sat 

 cutting paper doll-babies on the stairs. 

 "Look out, little chicks, that we don't step 

 on you. Hadn't you better sit so that folks 

 can go up and down ? and do you remember, 

 Caddie, what papa said about putting every 

 scrap into the waste-basket when you get 

 through V" Down here is the tin-shop, 



friends. Iloney-pails V To be sure, we 

 have to have a good many for our work. 

 Mr. Gray said, that when we got into this 

 new tin-shop we were going to have things 

 in order. So he made great bins up against 

 the whole north wall, the wliole length of 

 the building, and three tiers high. Then we 

 commence with honey-pails, or tin boxes, 

 rather, holding i lb. The next bin contains 

 ^-Ib. pails, and so on, until we get up to pails 

 holding 25 lbs. each. AVe keep such a quan- 

 tity in these bins, that, if we get an order for 

 KiOO in a single day, we often fill the order 

 right up, and have some left. After we get 

 up to the 10-lb. pails, we have pails with 

 covers, holding 2-5 lbs., -W lbs., and the flour- 

 cans; holding 100 lbs. l^esides, we have a 

 great variety of different sorts of pails— rais- 

 ed-cover pails, Jones's improved screw-top 

 pails, japanned and lettered pails, then ex- 

 tractor-cans ; 300 or 400 are now made up 

 ready for next season's work. 



To get in the tin for all this work, we have 

 a little railroad running through the base- 

 ment, and right out into the little brick en- 

 try-way where you see that large arch open- 

 ing. The tin comes down our side track, on 

 the cars ; the boys then run it olf on their 

 trucks into the arched doorway, then it 

 goes down on a shute through a trap-door, 

 and is landed on the car that carries it into 

 the tin-shop. 



Our friend "Xed" is the tinner. He 

 has been with us a good many years. In 

 fact he used to be one of the little boys who 

 helped in the tin-shop : now he has whole 

 charge of the tin work. You can sit on that 

 car, if vou wish, and be pushed out into 

 what we used to call the "dark-room." As 

 you go by, if you look through the window 

 you will get a little view of the kitchen 

 where the pies are made, and dinner is got- 

 ten up. After the noon service the dinner 

 is sent up into the lunch-room on a dumb- 

 waiter. To-day we had honey for dinner, 

 sent as a present from W. J. Ellison, States- 

 burg, S. C. 



If we go a little beyond the kitchen, a 

 turn to the right brings us into the wax- 

 room. About 12 hands are at work there 

 now, and we are beginning to use up wax at 

 the rate of a ton every few days, even though 

 it does cost from oo to 40 cts. per lb. 



Beyond the wax-room, Mr. Gray is fixing 

 an arrangement for melting honey by steam. 

 He takes a whole barrel, rolls it on to the 

 platform over a large tin reservoir. The 

 head is then removed, and the honey runs 

 slowly out all around the steam - pipes. 

 When melted, by o])ening the honey - gate 

 the honey runs quickly into the pails placed 

 on a spring scale which registers the proper 

 amount very quickly. 



Beyond the honey-room is the 50-horse- 

 power engine ; and still beyond this, the 

 boiler and the boiler-room, where our friend 

 " Park " shovels in the coal, and looks after 

 the steam-pipes which warm the building, 

 warm our house, and drive the engine. 

 Within a few days we have put in an auto- 

 matic arrangement which takes the sawdust 

 and shavings away from the planers and buzz- 

 saws, and shoots them into the fire under 

 the boiler in a sort of spray, something like 



