188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



May U hi lb! 



Mav22 .')0 " 



May 27 12 '• 



May 28 42 " 



Julie 2 .il-^ " 



June 11 «; " 



June 12 l.i " 



and it hits the point so exactly that we copy it. 

 thinking it may be of use to others who have 

 similar places of business: 



"Callers are welcome, but I trust they will 

 bear in mind this is no place for long stories, 

 loafing, or gossip." 



His honey-house and apiary are a good deal 

 after the same plan. The frames of honey are 

 wheeled up to the upper story of the honey- 

 house, in a cart made for the purpose. After 

 the honey is thrown out it runs by gravity into a 

 sun evaporator, the honey flowing around par- 

 titions so as to go slowly zigzag over a large ex- 

 tent of surface, glass sashes being placed over 

 it during the evaporation. Of course, it is 

 placed where it will get the full benefit of the 

 direct rays of the sun. From the evaporator it 

 goes into a large storage-tank from which it 

 can be readily drawn into barrels. Something 

 like sixty barrels, containing twelve or fifteen 

 tons of honey, were stored in the lower story. 

 or honey-cellar, during our visit. 



The above is just about half of the whole 

 crop of honey. 



As there has been some bungling in the at- 

 tempt to give the exact amount of honey stored 

 by a single colony placed on scales during the 

 season of 1894, we give the following figures, 

 taken from Mr. Hart's memorandum-book: 



June 16 44 Ills. 



June 2.5 .tO 



June27 l.l •■ 



July 6 .% " 



Julv 16 5.SJf " 



July 26 ii\i •' 



Ann. 6 14 '• 



Total hMli " 



By the way, I want to say here that friend 

 Detwiler wants all bee-keepers to test dipping- 

 boards made of Spanish cedar. It can be pur- 

 chased in our large cities; but you can test it 

 on a small scale by using the cover of a cigar- 

 box. His boards are always made of Spanish 

 cedar. He says it does better work, and lasts 

 longer, than any other kind of wood to be found 

 in the world. 



It is quite interesting to go over friend Hart's 

 grounds and around his house, and see the 

 great variety of fruits that may be grown with 

 more or less success in Florida. Here for the 

 first time we saw the wonderful scuppernong 

 grapevine. A single vine, if given trellis 

 enough, with a little training will cover almost 

 a quarter of an acre; and this one vine will 

 often yield hundreds of pounds of fruit. 



Mulberries are largely raised in the South, 

 and somebody suggests they can be grown so 

 cheaply that they are valuable for the chick- 

 ens, keeping them from having a desire to 

 meddle with other more valuable fruits. Gua- 

 vas also will yield fruit almost every month of 

 the year; and. judging from specimens of can- 

 ned ones, as large as apples, furnished us at 

 Dr. Oren's, we regard them as a most pleasant 

 and agreeable substitute for apples. Brother 

 Hart says they are the poor man's apples in the 

 South. The bushes grow with wonderful lux- 

 uriance on almost any soil, and without any 

 care; in fact, the dryer and poorer and more 

 sandy the soil, the better the guava seems to 

 flourish. The fruit is even now hanging on the 

 bushes: but both bushes and fruit too were 

 used up by the frost. We are told the bushes 

 are killed clear down to the ground; but no 

 one seems to think it matters very much, for 

 they will be up and in full bearing again in an 

 incredibly short space of time. Cuttings for 

 figs are sometimes planted in the spring, and 

 yield a crop of ripe fruit before another spring. 



Dr. Hawks, who gave Hawks Park its name, 

 paid us a visit during the evefiing. He has 

 written a book entitled "The East Coast of 

 Florida," and it contains matters of much in- 



terest pertaining to this coast of Florida. The 

 book is the result of his own travels and in- 

 vestigations. He paid me a higli coniplimont 

 in something like the following words: •■ Mr. 

 Root, you are not aware, perhaps, of the extent 

 of the great industry you are largely instru- 

 mental in starting up all over the world, espe- 

 cially through Florida. Your enthusiasm and 

 zeal did much toward developing bee culture, 

 and in advance of what it would have been 

 otherwise, and your ABC book is still doing its 

 work of making the desert bloom and bear tons 

 upon tons of a delicious food product." And 

 this reminds me that friend Hart said I must 

 call upon a young man who is just commencing 

 in the bee-business. We found him poring 

 over the pages of the ABC. His bees had got 

 to robbing, and he was in trouble to know how 

 to stop them. I told him to come along with 

 us, and either friend Hart or myself would fix 

 the robbing business in short meter. I felt sure 

 we could, because the bees were gathering con- 

 siderable pollen and some honey. Well, several 

 colonies that he supposed were robbing were, 

 in my opinion, only having a playspell. There 

 was robbing, however, at one stand. This stand 

 had the nameless bee-disease, or bee-paralysis, 

 when he purchased it. Somebody had said 

 through Gi,EANiNG8 that feeding was a good 

 thing. Now. though the bees had an abun- 

 dance of sealed stores he put in an additional 

 story and set in a dish of honey, and this dish 

 of honey caused the robbing. To stop it he 

 had kept the bees shut up for three days, so 

 they would not know where their old home 

 was. We let them out, and in ten or fifteen 

 minutes they organized a guard aronnd the en- 

 trance, dragged out their dead, and took care 

 of themselves. Friend Hart says he has never 

 had this disease kill a colonv in his own apiary. 

 Sometimes it disappears of its own accord, and 

 it almost always does after giving the bees a 

 new queen. By the way, I am told by all the 

 bee-keepers I have met that foul brood has 

 never yet been seen in Florida. If bee-keepers 

 could unite and stamp it out at the outset, if it 

 ever does appear, it will be worth thousands 

 and thousands of dollars to the State. 



Our next visit was at E. A. Marsh's. To 

 reach the place I made a trip of eight miles on 

 the wheel, and the most of it through the soft 

 sand. For the first time since my severe cold 

 and hoarseness, contracted about Christmas 

 time, I rode in my shirtsleeves, with vest un- 

 buttoned, and bareheaded. After my trip, 

 while wet with perspiration, I took a bath in 

 the salt water of the Hillsboro River, and did 

 not take a particle of cold; in fact, I knew I 

 shouldn't. The thermometer was up to be- 

 tween 80 and 90°. 



Friend Marsh's people have come all the way 

 from INIassachusetts, and have lived here about 

 nine years. They put up a temporary dwelling 

 for camping out. and they laughingly said 

 they were "camping out " .sfiff. with no desire 

 to go back up North. In one respect, at least, 

 they are a remarkable family. For instance, 

 while there an intelligent, beautiful-looking 

 horse bv some hook or crook got into the gar- 

 den stuff down in the hammock. Friend Marsh 

 stood in the door and called to it away across 

 the lots. The horse came up at once, and part 

 of the way at a very brisk gallop. Now, he did 

 not come because he expected to be fed. for, as 

 soon as the gate was opened, he went straight 

 to the stable where he belonged. Mrs. Marsh 

 said the pigs and chickens would do the same; 

 and by way of a crowning exhibition of what 

 intelligent training will do for the animal king- 

 dom, her daughter, with a bit of cake in her 

 fingers, called some beautifully plumaged blue- 

 jays out of a neighboring tree. They alighted 



