1330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



ing-cases are rather expensive; but, are they? 

 Apple-producers do not hesitate to pay 30 

 or 35 cents for barrels when they are get- 

 ting less than two dollars per barrel for 

 their fruit, thus giving one-sixth of all they 

 get for the package, while I can get up a 

 case for my honey, with very good protection 

 against breakage, for less than one-twentieth 

 of what my honey sells for. 



By the way, I notice of late that careful 

 apple-packers are using cushions of some 

 light material for the heads of their barrels, 

 to prevent bruising the fruit when filling 

 and heading the barrels. Does it pay them? 

 I do not need to answer the question. And 

 if it will pay them, how much better will it 

 pay bee-keepers to pack their honey so that 

 there shall be the least danger of break- 

 age? 



I maj' say, in closing, that the use of 

 corrugated board in packing has been very 

 satisfactory to us, and appears to be especially 

 pleasing to those who receive honey so 

 packed. 



Middlebury, Vt., October 16. 



[It is a fact that bee-keepers have hardly 

 kept pace with the fruit-men in getting up 

 suitable packages and shipping-cases for their 

 comb honey. It may be that this reflects 

 more seriously on the bee-supply manufac- 

 turer than on the customer. If so, the Root 

 Co. will try to take its own medicine. 



As soon as Messrs. Crane and Green sug- 

 gested the use of corrugated paper, such 

 as is put around patent-medicine bottles and 



other fragile articles, I felt at once that 

 here was something that was just the thing 

 for comb honey shipping-cases in lieu of 

 the no-drip sticks. Why did not somebody 

 think of it before? Why have we been 

 so stupid as to let all the rest of the world 

 run ahead of us? Why have we been letting 

 our comb honey break down when we might 

 have saved quite a respectable percentage of 

 it? 



We have been testing the corrugated paper 

 by taking cases of comb honey right out 

 of stock. Half of the case to be tested 

 contained the no-drip cleats, and the other 

 half the corrugated paper. How did we test 

 it? We lifted the case up about two feet 

 from the floor and let it drop ker-slap ; and 

 we kept on dropping it until some of the 

 combs were broken out of the sections. Then 

 we would open up the case and see which 

 side fared the worse. Of course, the comb 

 honey on the no-drip side broke out first. 

 The continual dropping, however, smashed 

 all the combs, leaving but little choice be- 

 tween either side. But it was very evident 

 that, in ordinary shipping, the corrugated 

 paper with its cushion surface would save 

 many combs that would be utterly lost on 

 the unyielding no-drip cleats. Even though 

 the cleats lift the honey above the drip, the 

 whole case full is damaged to some ex- 

 tent. The corrugated paper also lifts the 

 combs out of the honey, but not so well as 

 the cleats. But if the paper will save the 

 breaking of the combs it is easy to see there 

 will be less of drip or none at all. 



A FRAME BONE YARD. PHOTO BY W. A. PRYAL. 



