We measure shear response in packings of glass beads by pulling a thin, rough, metal
plate vertically through a bed of volume fraction , which is set, before the plate is pulled, in
the range 0.575 to 0.628. The yield stress is velocity independent over 4 decades and increases
exponentially with , with a transition at   0.595. An analysis of the measured force fluctuations
indicates that the shear modulus is significantly smaller than the bulk modulus.