*The Farm and Garden. 



Vol. IV. 



NOVEMBER, 1884. 



No. m. 



TO ALL WHO RECEIVE THIS NUMBER. 



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Fakm and Gard- 

 en has taken very 

 little or uo notice 

 thus far, yet, in 

 which thousands 

 of our readers are 

 interested. I mean 

 bee-keeping. 



Scientific bee- 

 keeping is a very 

 profitable branch 

 of agriculture as 

 you will admit, 



_ you do not receive the paper promptly, write its, | y'^l^""S '" .""["'JJ 

 that we may see that your address is correct. i parts or tne L lutea 



Adilresses.— No matter how often you have written .' States, very hand- 

 to us, please always give your full name, post office, and some returns for 

 State. We have no way to Itnd your name except from 

 the address. 



Names cannot be guessed, so write them plainly and 

 In full. If a la{ly, always write it the same— not Mrs. 

 Samantha Allen one time and Mrs. Josiah Allen next. 

 If you do not write Miss or Mrs. before your signature 

 <io not beotTended if we make a mistake on this point. 



Errors.— We make them ; so does every one, and we 

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 It pa.sH. We want an early opportunity to make right 

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ADVERTISING RATES.-Froni issues of Fel>- 

 ruary, 1SS4. to Oeeeinber, 1884. inclusive, CO 

 cents per Aeate line eacli insertion. 



.Subscriptions to this paper 50 cents a year, payable 

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CHILD BROS. iSc CO., Publisliers, 



Nos. 418, 420, 4aaLlbrnry Street I (Irn below Chestnul), 

 Philadclphtii, Pa. 



Wlio murmurs at his lot to-day f 



M^io scorns his native fruit and bloom f 



Or sighifor dainties far away, 

 Beside the bounteous board of home ? 



Thank Heaven, instead, that Freedom^s arm 



Can. change a rocky soil to gold. 

 That brave and generous lives can warm 



A clime with Northern ices cold. 



Whittier. 



OOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES IN THE SOUTH. 

 [Continued From April Nl'mber.] 



By Joseph. 



The Beekeeper's Chances. A season in the 

 North as cool as the one just passed, sliortened by 

 heavy frosts on both ends, (one on May 29th or 

 30th, which spoiled the fine prospects for big 

 ■crops of apples, peaches, plums, cherries and 

 grapes, and one on August 25th, almost as de- 

 structive in the vegetable garden), could hardly 

 be expected to make me forget the charms o" the 

 t)eautiful "Sunny South." Remembrance and 

 longing proved inseparable in this instance, and 

 those charms irresistible. 



After a sojourn of a little over si.t months in 

 the cool North, I yielded to the temptation to 

 make another visit to the great valley of the 

 Shenandoah. The impre.ssions which I had 

 received on Virginia's soil in 1883, were in a few 

 instances modified, but generally strengthened. 

 It is about a year ago, when I advised the laborer 

 without means, seeking employment on the farm, 

 to stay away from the South. That advice was 

 ■correct, as far as East Virginia is concerned ; 

 circumstances are diflerent in the mountain 

 regions, notably in the northern part of the great 

 valley, where "but few negroes cross the path of 

 the white man. Thousands of laborers and their 

 families might here find employment under 

 ■exceedingly profitable conditions. 



During both visits, 

 not only in the val- 

 ley, but also in other 

 parts of the Virgin- 

 ias, in North Caro- 

 lina and Maryland, 

 I have taken pains 

 to investigate an in- 

 .dustry of which The 



the capital and 

 labor invested in 

 the business; and 

 if apiculture pays 

 anywhere in the 

 world, it is in the 

 a ]j o v e-mentioned 

 States. In fact, it 

 is so remunerative, 

 that some of these 

 Southern bee-kee- 

 pers wish to hide 

 their yields and 

 profits from the 

 eyes of the world, 

 and thus retard an 

 inconvenient in- 

 crease of produc- 

 tion. "Why don't 

 they pocket tlieir 

 profits and keep 

 still, instead of 

 reporting their 

 yields in every bee 

 paper of the Coun- 

 try," said a War- 

 ren County apiar- 

 ist to me last Feb- 

 ruary. Itmavnot 

 be business-like to 

 invite competi- 

 tion ; on the other 



hand, no raonop- 



oly should be })er- 



mitted to get a foothold in any of the branches 

 of agriculture ; also, both the production and the 

 consumption of honey is capable of a growth to 

 ten-fold its present extent. 



When we consider the long duration of bee 

 jiasture in the South, — fruit tree and berry blos- 

 soms in April, white clover and an abundance of 

 locust in May, blue thistle, aster, golden rod, and 

 numerous other wild flowers from June until 

 fall ; the small number of colonies in any one 

 apiary, and the distance, generally miles, between 

 the apiaries, last but not loast, the fine climate 

 with short winters, — we will see no reason to 

 wonder about the enormous yields of honey, nor 

 about the ease, with which bees are safely carried 

 tlirough the winter, that great problem for the 

 Northern and Western apiarist. Successful win- 

 tering solves itself without trouble in the South. 



Last winter when in Warren County, Virginia, 

 I made a list of the yields of the most prominent 

 apiarists in that neighborhood during 188.3. Hav- 

 ing mislaid the list, I will at least mention one 

 item which I distinctly remember: 23,000 pounds 

 from 150 colonies. A failure is almost unknown, 

 and scientific treatment will insure an average 

 yield of upwards of 100 pounds per colony. 



A skillful beekeeper in the South, however, is 



A Bunch of Polyantha Roses. 



We are ver.v anxious tluit 

 every one who reads this sliuuld 

 lielp us to increase our list of 

 subscribers. If every one \\ ill 

 send us four now names at 

 *2^ cents eacli, it will greatl.v 

 aid us in increasing the value of 

 The Farm and Garden. 



BEAUTIFUL WINTER-BLOOMING ROSES. 



To evt'r\- n[],- whitsi-nds us!*;l and fi in- new siiliscribcrs ((•<)SliMf;unly 2.5 cts. 

 fii.li), we will si-ii.i. us a Kilt, 4 iti-aulitiil .>Ionllilv Roses, varied colors, red, 

 liiulc. and y<■ll<^^v, Slrunu' plaits, which, it priip,-ily attended to, will bear 

 niaiiv Npieiidi<l I'oses this winter. We make tins oti'^r for you to accept. 



i'rovidfii, (We have given so much this time that it must be accepted according 

 to our forms). That the order is mailed on or befoie November 29th, 18*4, and 

 names are filled on blank enclosed. 



a "rara avis," scarcer than honesty in politics or 

 truth in a court room. The majority of colonies 

 are kept in ancient box hives. The owner gener- 

 ally puts a rough box on top for surplus honey, 

 and perhaps rqdaees it by an empty one long 

 after the first lias has been filled, and in thia 

 unskillful manner often realizes fifty or more 

 jmunds of fair honey from each colony. Some 

 farmers have the Langstrotli hive, but derive lit- 

 tle benefit from it, as they do not understand the 

 management. The few specialists that do, reap 

 a rich reward for their labor. There is room for 

 thousands of apiarists in the Soutli ; 1 advise 

 young bee men to investigate this field for them- 

 selves. Here are golden opportunities ; do not 

 let them slip from your grasp. 



The price of honey has been low in 1883, and 

 in spite of a partial failure of the crop in the 

 Northern States this year, we can hardly look for 

 a material improvement in that direction, with 

 the present prices of sugar, and with general 

 stagnation in business. But even at ten cents a 

 pound for honey in sections, or eight cents for 

 extracted, the production of it is a highly remun- 

 erative business in favorable localities in the 

 North, and ninch more .so in the South. 

 Spetiking from experience, I can well affirm, 

 that 1 know. I have 

 had an apiary o f 

 about one hundred 

 colonies right under 

 my very eyes during 

 the last eight or ten 

 years, and kept track 

 of the management 

 and the proceeds. 



