1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



461 



taste. The same recipe will do for any other 

 berries or acid fruit. This is a delightful sum- 

 mer drink, as wholesome and harmless as your 

 lemon and ice; and, while as nice and refresh- 

 ing, it can be made from our own fruit, when 

 the lemons might be lacking. It keeps indef- 

 initely. Surplus strawberries, raspberries, etc., 

 can be thus made into veritable nectar for the 

 hot dusty days of midsummer, when the bee- 

 keeper comes in tired and thirsty. Try it with 

 your broken ice. C. P. Coffin. 



Pontotoc, Miss.. May 18. 



[Friend C, this ceiling paper, or manilla, has 

 been advised before; but I do not remember of 

 any reports as successful as your own. — Many 

 thanks for the recipe for making a summer 

 drink from berries. It certainly would be a 

 great advantage to us if we could use up our 

 surplus berries on Saturday nights, in the way 

 you indicate. The boiling water could be pour- 

 ed on the surplus berries Saturday night, and 

 then every thing would be safe to set away un- 

 til Sabbath is over.] A. I. R. 



ANOTHER ftUEEN-CAGE. 



THE DIXIE. 



I believe the Dixie queen-cage is little enough 

 and big enough, simple enough, cheap enough, 

 light enough (1 oz.). has rooms enough, and all 

 that. I also think the printed directions about 

 right for the guidance of the timid novice, and 

 the other fellows don't need any. So far as I 



tice. In response he sent the article above. 

 The method of introducing is the same that we 

 have adapted to the Benton, and has two holes 

 instead of three. Mr, Jenkins' idea of putting 

 directions on the inside oi the cover, as well as 

 general instructions on the outside, to postmas- 

 ters and the general public, is very neat. It 

 goes for one cent postage instead of two. It is 

 to the credit of our friend W. J. Ellison, of 

 Stateburg, S. C, for so reducing the size of the 

 Benton as to make that also go for one cent 

 postage. By combining the Jenkins and Elli- 

 son improvements, we have a cage that is very 

 near perfection. 



Verily we are making great improvements, 

 not only in mailing queens long distances safe- 

 ly, but in sending nuclei to all parts of the Unit- 

 ed States. We liave recently constructed a lot 

 of shipping-boxes for two and three frame nu- 

 clei, that are less than half the weight of the 

 former ones we used. This is a fact that will 

 be very much appreciated by the receiver, in 

 the reduction of express charges. Why make a 

 customer pay charges on a lot of wood that is 

 unnecessary ? We have sent out so far this 

 season, going on 125 nuclei; and we have re- 

 ceived a good deal of praise from customers, 

 not only for the good condition in which the 

 bees arrived, but for the neatness and lightness 

 of the package. In a word, our new lot of ship- 

 ping-boxes is made of light J^-inch stuff. In 

 warm weather the top and bottom are covered 

 with wire cloth, and the whole thing weighs 

 only fi.j lbs. We are thus enabled to furnish a 

 two or three frame nucleus, the whole thing 

 weighing not over Tibs. I might remark fur- 

 ther, that any thing weighing over 7 lbs. and 

 less than 10 would have to go at the same rate 

 as 10 lbs.; and that is not all, either. Express 

 charges are much lower for the weight on 7 lbs. 

 and less than on 10 or 15 lbs., where it has to 

 pass through two express companies. For in- 

 stance, the express charges oi>7 lbs. to Salt 

 Lake Cityis $1.00, while on 10 lbs. it isf 2.05. and 

 if the package weighs 8 lbs. it goes at the 10-lb. 

 rate, and this you see is equivalent to paying 

 $1.00 for the extra 1 lb. weight, and shows the 

 desirability of reducing the weight of the pack- 

 age.] 



JEXKINS DIXIE «^UEEN-CAGE. 



know, this is the only cage that has contents, 

 breeder's address, etc.. printed on it; and I be- 

 lieve the request to the postmaster. " Deliver 

 quick," may at times expedite matters, espe- 

 cially in the country, where tiie consignee may 

 live "a few miles away, and the queen or " word'' 

 may be sent by some wayfarer. This printed 

 request, and notice of contents, gives the coun- 

 try postmaster a pointer as to the care he 

 should take of it, and the desirability of effect- 

 ing a speedy delivery. Some of its best features 

 were borrowed from other cages, especially 

 your Benton cage. 



While I am about it. I might say I like to see 

 the printed name and address of the individual 

 or firm doing a business, on every letter, wrap- 

 per, package, or shipment he, she, or it sends 

 out by mail or otherwise; for, besides the little 

 feeling of pride in it, a knowledge of the- sender 

 sometimes enables the postal and railroad folks 

 to correct errors and straighten things that 

 "ain't" straight, and thereby save lessor long 

 delay; and it is a way of advertising too. 



Wetumpka, Ala., May 18. J. M. Jenkins. 



[On page 440 we spoke of a cage sent out by 

 J. M. Jenkins, and we have since requested him 

 to send us a description of the same, as we 

 thought it deserved more than a passing no- 



ftUEENS BY MAIL TO ALL PARTS OF THE 

 WORLD. 



WHAT CHARI-ES BIANCONCINI DID TO BJilNfi 

 IT ABOITT. 



Mr. Riiot:—l read with great interest in the 

 Jan. 15th number of Gleanings what you re- 

 late in regard to a queen arriving safe in Aus- 

 tralia. Up to the present time we have never 

 succeeded in getting queens to Australia by 

 mail, although we have tried a special ship- 

 ping-cage. But we have frequently succeeded 

 in sending them to America, except a few times 

 when they did not arrive in good condition, for 

 which we could assign no good reason. That 

 they can now be sent almost anywhere in Ben- 

 ton'cages is owing not a little to my efforts in 

 that line. About two years ago we began to 

 send queens by mail in Benton cages, when the 

 postal authorities, one after another, refused to 

 accept the queens (except by parcel post) say- 

 ing it was contrary to oi'ders received from the 

 Postal Minister at Rome. At my request, they 

 replied from Rome that it was on account of an 

 observation made by some foreign state, that 

 these cages were not contemplated in the inter- 

 national postal convention. Quite likely; for 

 at that time the Benton cage was not yet in- 

 vented. Then I concluded that it would be 

 necessary, perhaps, to get some concessions 



