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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



ing each colony a second story at the beginning 

 of the year, reducing to one story at harvest, 

 then at the close of harvest giving a second 

 story till time to take in cellar. 



7. The parallel, or "warm " system, as it is 

 called, has not found great favor among bee- 

 keepers in this country, although much used 

 across the ocean. The chief objection made is 

 that it does not allow so free ventilation and so 

 free entrance to any one of the frames. Per- 

 haps there isn't any very great difference in the 

 two systems. C. C. Millee. 



Marengo, 111. 



[I know of no real decided advantage in re- 

 versing, except getting combs built down to 

 bottom-bars as the doctor states. It was once 

 claimed that it would prevent swarming, and 

 kill queen-cells; but it does neither. Some- 

 times reversing at the right time will throw the 

 honey from the brood-nest to the supers.— Ed.] 



HONEY-PLANTS OF FLORIDA. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT POISONOUS HONEY. 



B A. P. W. 



I During the past four years I have been pay- 

 ing attention to trees, shrubs,'and plants which 

 afford pasturage for bees; and last fall, for the 

 first time, I found them busily at work every 

 day upon goldenrod, which is so very abundant. 

 They also worked very industriously upon the 

 wild portulaca which grows in Florida, and is, 

 I think, common in most of the Southern States. 

 This plant has s*;em and foliage like that of the 

 cultivated portulaca (grandiflora), and has a 

 purplish-pink blossom, which in shape is like 

 that of the single flower of the cultivated kind, 

 but much smaller. 



Then, too, the common, much-despised sorrel, 

 called in some States " horse-sorrel," is a plant 

 upon which bees work in such numbers that, 

 in passing by a field where it is plentiful, one 

 can hear their humming very distinctly, 

 though a good distance away. 



Among cultivated plants, cassava should be 

 given a high place in the estimation of bee- 

 keepers. (In this name the emphasis is upon 

 the first syllable.) The plant produces flowers 

 in great profusion, upon which bees cluster, so 

 that, at a distance of sixty feet from a " patch " 

 of it, their humming can be heard so as at first 

 to make the impression that a swarm is com- 

 ng- 



A small-leaved tree, of bush habit, growing 

 from fifteen to twenty feet high, and called 

 myrtle in South Florida, is a hardy evergreen 

 which grows abundantly on the edge of wet 

 places The profuse bloom is an insignificant 

 little thing in appearance, but it is covered by 

 bees on sunny mornings. The bloom comes in 

 February, hence its importance is evident. 



Ant cjonon leptopus (Rocky IN^ountain rose) 

 is another plant which attracts bees in crowds. 



It is a nearly hardy vine, a rapid grower, cov- 

 ering itself with rosy carmine bloom, and 

 should be planted in waste places in Florida, 

 and allowed to run at will. 



In February I visited a spot that was literal- 

 ly ablaze with the golden color of the bloom of 

 the lovely yellow jessamine (gelsemium). There 

 were bees in abundance; but whether they 

 were getting honey or pollen I could not tell, 

 because the flowers were all a little too high. 



I thought of the poisonous honey we hear of 

 sometimes, and recalled a remark I heard 

 made by a thoroughly educated and experienced 

 physician of North Carolina. Said he, " I have 

 made a study of the poisonous-honey question, 

 and have long been convinced that there is no 

 such thing as poisonous honey. It is true," 

 said he, "there have been many instances 

 where persons became ill after eating honey; 

 yet I have never known or heard of a death 

 that could undoubtedly be traced to that cause. 

 And It is also true that there are some with 

 whom honey invarinhly disagrees; and many 

 who, knowing that it disagrees with them, 

 forego its use entirely, or eat of it sparingly, 

 just as they should of that, or any thing else, 

 which they find unsuited to their digestion." 



In some cases eggs, no matter how prepared, 

 will bring on bilious colic; and in others onion 

 sauce' produces a similar effect;- and I once 

 knew an illness of several weeks following" an 

 attack^of colic produced by eating onion sauce, 

 and.very little of it. 



Souin view of these facts and of the great 

 quantities of honey consumed every year, in 

 which there must be more or less jessamine 

 honey, if it is a honey-plant, does it not seem 

 probable that the physician's conclusions are 

 correct, and that there is no universally poison- 

 ous honey any more than there are universally 

 poisonous eggs or onions?- 



Orlando. Fla. 



[The physician's remarks in regard to poison- 

 ous honey are doubtless generally true. Not- 

 withstanding, I think honey is sometimes 

 gathered (especially wild honey) that would 

 make all or nearly all who eat it sick — see the 

 incident mentioned in the ABC book. It is 

 not certain, however, that this honey comes 

 from laurel. My impression is, that the laurel 

 might, in certain localities, or perhaps in cer- 

 tain seasons, produce a honey that would 

 make all or nearly all who eat it sick. There 

 are plants like the poison ivy that poison the 

 majority of people who touch them. If the 

 poison ivy should produce honey, and this hon- 

 ey were eaten as food, it would be quite likely 

 to produce some effect. My impression is, how- 

 ever, that there is very much honey called 

 poisonous by mistake, and the doctor has the 

 right of it in the majority of cases. — A. I. R.] 



If you would like to have any of your friends 

 see a specimen copy of Gleanings, make known 

 the request on a postal, with the address or ad- 

 dresses, and we will, loifh pleasure, send them. 



