1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURF. 



479 



Mr. H. H. Page, of the Page & Lyon Mfg. 

 Co., New London, Wis., died on the 23d of 

 May, at the age of 80 years. Page & Lyon is 

 a firm that has come to be well and favoral)ly 

 known, and has long been an advertiser with 

 us. If we are correct, Mr. M D. Keith is the 

 active man of the snpply department, and the 

 affairs of the firm su far as they relate to bee- 

 keeping will continue as before. 



rambler's rambles resumed. 

 In our previous issue I omitted to state the 

 fact that John H. ^Martin, the Rambler, is now 

 on another rambling-tour through California, 

 in the northern part of that State. The arti- 

 cles began right where they left off — No. 146 ; 

 and for any- thing I know they- will continue 

 till further notice. Tliey will be of the same 

 general nature as the former Rambles, which 

 were so eagerly sjught for by our readers in 

 the past, and IMr. ^Murray will be the special 

 artist as before. Rambler will take along his 

 ever-faithful camera and ever-present umbrel- 

 la ; and you may be sure that, through his 

 eyes, his camera, and his typewriter (tor he 

 uses one now), our readers will see some inter- 

 esting things. He is no longer a " tender- 

 foot," but a Californian in the full sense of 

 the word. 



It seems strange that, after the liee papers have 

 been so careful to tell honey-prwducers just Aorf to 

 prepare and ship comb hoiiev, "those thatsh.juld know 

 better will .imply g'l on in their blindness, and then 

 blame the commis.ion man, very likely, it any 

 thing is wrong, or different froin whit was ex- 

 pected. And yet, if .some folks think they know it all, 

 and won't read, they will have to take the conse- 

 quences, of course. 



Now, don't ship comb hor.ey bv express. Put the 

 shipping-ca^es of honey in large crates holding per- 

 haps 200 pounds each, with several inches of !-traw in 

 the bottom and sides of the crate. Then nail a 3 or 4 

 inch board on each .•-ide a third of the way down from 

 the top, letting the boards e.xtend abouteight inches 

 at each end for handles by which two men will carry 

 the crate. Honey thus packed will irtaud lots of 

 bumping around, and wid alm^ist invariably reach its 

 destination without any breakage whatever. 



It is almost unnecessary for us to st^te that 

 our experience in handUiig comb houey leads 

 us to indorse every w jrd. Indeed, I should 

 like to underscore every line of it in red ink if 

 I could. 



NOAH D. WEST. 



Late one afternoon last August I found 

 myself en route for Schoharie, on the Middle- 

 burgh & Schoharie R. R But l)efore I knew 

 it, scarely, I had reached the end of the road, 

 the conductor having carried ni<- ]:)ast my des- 

 tination. " Middleburgii ? Middlebargh ? " I 



SHIPPING COMB HONEY BY EXPRESS. 



In years gone by we have catitioued bee- 

 keepers agai^st shipping comb honey by ex- 

 press. In the first place, the rates are exorbi- 

 tant, and the commission man is sure to 

 charge it up to the bee-keeper. In the second 

 place, when properly put up, comb honey will 

 go much more safely by freight, even throw- 

 ing out of the account the difference in 

 charges. Comb honey will not spoil, like 

 strawberries, and there is no need of immedi- 

 ate haste to get it to market. Haste makes 

 waste; and if ever that old saw applied it is 

 when one is foolish enough to send his honey 

 by express. The editor of the A in erica ii Bee 

 Journal thus discourses on the same subject: 



A prominent Chicago honey dealer .sent for us to 

 come and see a lot of comb honey that he had just re- 

 ceived — from a bee-keeper about .50 miles from Chica- 

 go. The honey was pul up in double-tier out-of-date 24- 

 pound shipping caises, and two of them had been fa.st- 

 ened together by nailing pieces of lath across their 

 ends. There was perhaps .500 pounds of beautiful 

 honey in the shipment. But it wasn't so beautiful 

 when the commission man received it. It was the 

 worst broken-up — and broken down — leaky lot of 

 honey we ever saw. It was shipped by express. 

 That, of course, explained it. We could scarcely be- 

 lieve it, when we were shown the shipper's letter, to 

 find that he was an old, experienced bee-keeper, and 

 yet knew no better than to ship such a lot of honey 

 by express ! Of course, he doesn't read the American 

 Bee Journal. 



The producer, in his letter of instructions to the 

 dealer, was very careful to tell how carefully the 

 honey was graded, and how well it was put up; and 

 that he e-xpected a good price for it, of course. But 

 we wouldn't have given 5 cents per pound for it. 

 Why, we shouldn't have wanted such a mess at any 

 price. 



.■% »'*' 



N. D. WEST. 



kept saying over to myself. ' ' Why does that 

 sound familiar to me ? Why, sure enough, 

 that is where N. D. West lives — the man who 

 invented the West queen-cell jarotector, queen- 

 cage, and bee-escape." He was the man 

 whom I ran across accidentally on my first 

 bicycle-tour away back in 1890. At that time 

 I made only a brief call, but enough to satisfy 

 myself that N. D. West was one of the promi- 

 nent bee-keepers of York State — a man who 

 has from 300 to 400 colonies in from three to 

 five different out-yards. 



At the time, I did not relish the fact that 

 the conductor had carried me beyond my des- 

 tination; but the more I thought of it the 



