362 



Gleanings in Bee Cu'ture 



n-iiling the cover on the case stiffens it ma- 

 terially. In Fig. 5 it will be observed that 

 where the covers are in two or three pieces 

 they are halved together. This is very im- 

 portant; because if there is any shrinkage it 

 will prevent small insects such as ants from 

 getting into the sections. 



FIG. 5. 

 In all of these new cases the same width 

 of glass— namely, two inches wide, is used 

 throughout. In Fig. 4 it will be observed 

 that the front cleats to hold the glass are let 

 down into the end of the grain so as to bring 

 the glass tight against the wood. The ends 

 of the glass are then closed up with short 

 strips of section stuff as on the old-style 

 cases. 



In Figs. 6, 7. 8, 9, will be seen a carton 

 made of aeheap kind 

 ofstrawboard '/& inch 

 deeper than the sec- 

 tion is tall. This is 

 to take any vertical 

 strain that may be 

 placed on the sec- 

 tion. The carton 

 can be folded flat as 

 shown in Fig. 9, so 

 as to take but very 

 little room in ship- 

 ping. A slight pres- 

 sure at both ends 

 will square it up as „ 



in Fig. 8, so that a ^^^- ^■ 



section can be let down into it as seen in 

 Fig. 6. When sold to a customer a rubber 

 band holds the carton in place, see Fig. 7. 

 A good many times it hai)i)ens that the 

 housewife is disgusted when she sees a nice 

 box of honey jjunched into by other pack- 

 ages of groceries; and she will naturally de- 

 cide that the next time she goes to market 

 she will get along without honey if it is go- 

 ing to daub her other groceries like this. 

 The Twentieth-cen- 

 tury idea nieans that 

 ihe sections should 

 he protected, not 

 only during shij)- 

 jiing, but after they 

 reach the market- 

 visket of the con- 

 umer. 



In Figs. 6 and 7 

 he artist shows a 

 section with a foun- 

 dation starter rather 



FIG. 8. 



than a built-outcomb. Of course, an empty 

 section is not sold to the consumer. 



This brings up the all-important question 

 whether the producer can afTord to buy these 

 more expensive cases. Let's see. One large 

 buyer recently told us that the average of 

 his breakage, carefully figured up in one 

 season, of the total 

 aggregate of his 

 shipments of comb 

 honey, showed a loss 

 to the producer, 

 which he had to 

 charge up, of 11, ^^ 

 per cent; and we are 

 satisfied that this 

 figure is low, if we 

 take into considera- 

 tion the average of 

 shipments that go 

 to the city from 

 small producers, for this 11 1'^ jier cent for 

 breakage and leakage took into account 

 shipments from large producers who know 

 how to put up comb honey properly, as well 

 as from the small ones, careless and indiffer- 

 ent. Twenty per cent is not far from the 

 correct average loss to small producers; 25 

 per cent would be a very conservative esti- 

 mate of all comb honey not shipped in car- 

 riers. Taking these figures as a basis, it 

 will be seen that the average producer can 

 ivell afford to pay the slight advance in the 

 cost of these better cases rather than to suf- 

 fer the constant leakage and breakage that 

 have been charged up to him in his final ac- 

 count of sales. 



We figured up in our issue for May 15 that 

 the 20 per cent breakage and leakage, al- 

 lowing 50 per cent market ])rice for the 

 broken product, means a loss of 35 cts. on a 

 24-lb. case; or on a crop of 10,000 lbs., of a 

 loss of nearly ?1.50. Any one who can see 

 through a ladder can easily see that for years 

 and years bee-keepers have, by pursuing a 

 policy of economy at a wrong point in their 

 business, been paying a big tariff for their 

 cheap cases that 

 were any thing but 

 cheap in the final 

 settlement for the 

 honey. It would 

 pay them well to in- 

 vest a small per cent 

 more for their ship- 

 ing-cases in the first 

 place; for if it jiays 

 the producers of eggs 

 and the makers of 

 glass bottles and jel- 

 ly-tumblers to put 

 these commodities 

 each in a separate 

 compartment and in 



a strong and well-made box, it would cer- 

 tainly pay the comb-honey producer, whose 

 goods are much more fragile, and the value 

 of which, as a general thing, is considerably 

 in excess of the value of eggs or jelly or hon- 

 ey in tumblers or bottles, to use at least as 

 good a package. 



FIG. 9. 



