AUGUST 1, 1916 



64 7 



that the price of sugar is soaring, we think 

 it will set the good liousewife to thinking. 

 See lat^r editorials for further particulais 

 ill regard to this campaign. 



In the mean time, clover-honey produceis 

 should advertise honey in all their local 

 papers. Get your customers to thinking 

 about honey for general use, for canning 

 fruit, as a table delicacj', and as an impor- 

 tant food. 



Railroads Discriminate against Comb 

 Honey in Western Territory 



In the new issue of the AV extern Classifi- 

 cation, becoming effective September 1, and 

 applying to territory west of Chicago and 

 tlie Mississippi River, Ave discover that the 

 rate on comb honey has been raised to dou- 

 ble first-class, Avhich means that all local 

 shipments of comb honey, in the territory 

 affected, of 100 pounds or more, and less 

 than a carload, for longer or shorter dis- 

 tances, will have to pay double the freight 

 after Sept. 1. 



Without question the careless packers and 

 shippers of comb honey are responsible for 

 this advance in rate, and it seems decidedly 

 unfair to those vfixo put their honey in 

 cartons or partitioned cases and then pack 

 the cases in carriers, that they should have 

 to suffer the penalty of paying such exces- 

 sive freight charges, because of the large 

 claims on comb honey improperly packed 

 and shipped. 



This question was up before the Western 

 Classification Committee two years ago. At 

 that time they proposed making the rate 

 three times first-elas?. We learned of the 

 proposed change before the meeting of the 

 Committee, and arranged for a hearing. As 

 a result of this hearing the rate was left 

 unchanged; but we were given to under- 

 stand that unless there was a decided re- 

 form in the method of packing and ship- 

 ping comb honey, so as to reduce the num- 

 ber and amount of claims entered against 

 the railway comijanies for breakage, they 

 would be compelled later to make a change 

 in the classification. 



We have since then uttered repeated 

 warnings, and have endeavored to institute 

 a reform in the method of packing comb 

 honey; but there have been too many pen- 

 ny-wise-and-pound-foolish producers who 

 were not willing to pay the price of ade- 

 quate protection to their very fragile prod- 

 uct, and as a result all producers of comb 

 honey must suffer by paying a double 

 freight charge on all local shipments. 



But we need not accept without protest 

 the ruling of the Western Classification 



Committee. In the Official Classification 

 governing the territory east of Chicago and 

 the Mississippi and north of the Ohio, comb 

 honey protected by carriers is carried at 

 second-class rate. If the joroducers and 

 associations of beekeepers interested will 

 take prompt and united action, and will 

 write to R. C. Fyfe, Cliairman of the West- 

 ern Classification Committee, Transporta- 

 tion Building, Cliioago, 111., protesting 

 against the discrimination, and asking for 

 provision for a lower rate on comb honey 

 pro^Dcrly packed and protected for ship- 

 ment, we may still liope to obtain some 

 icdress. 



Hand Extracting vs. Power Extracting; 

 a Small Extracting-outlit at Every 

 Oulyard, vs. One Large One at the 

 Home Yard 



These two questions will invariably come 

 up in the mind of every producer of ex- 

 tracted^ honey with out yards. There are 

 some who believe it is more econonaical and 

 more satisfactory to have a hand-power ex- 

 tracting-outfit at each yard. But there is 

 another class, and it is growing larger, who 

 believe it is more economical to have one 

 large power outfit at home, and haul the 

 combs from the outyard to the home yard, 

 extract and return. One strong argument 

 in favor of the latter is that the large outfit 

 will do a more thoro and much cleaner job. 

 We have definitely proven that a hand- 

 driven machine cannot extract as clean as a 

 power outfit. 



Again, the conditions at the outyard are 

 not usually favorable so far as a building- 

 is concerned for extracting. Practically all 

 I lie work will have to be done in a small 

 outbuilding or under a tent. If the extract- 

 ing is near the close of the season, robbers 

 will be ever present and annoying. Be- 

 sides, they will be the cause of a general 

 uproar in the yard. On the other hand, if 

 the combs are taken from the hives and 

 freed from bees they can be put into ex- 

 tracting-supers hauled home, and brought 

 back again in very short order. Two men 

 going with an automobile truck will clear 

 the combs of bees while an extracting force 

 at home can have a set of empties to send 

 back; but suppose there are only two men 

 to do the Avork. The combs can be shaken 

 at an outyard, taken away late in the day, 

 extracted, and brought back some time the 

 next day. 



The objection has been made that the 

 central extrncting-outfit at the home yard 

 will cuiso more or less of a mix-up of 



