380 



November, 1916. 



American Vae Jonrnal 



does the new clay belt in the north 

 seem like a beekeepers' paradise. One 

 of the former inspectors for foulbrood, 

 Mr. Wm. Agar, has located there, and 

 while he has only had bees in this new 

 territory for the past two seasons, his 

 crops are startling to the beekeepers 

 of the more settled districts. The effects 

 of the timber fires and slashing have 

 yet to be seen, but present indications 

 are that this will be a grand bee county 

 when developed. 



Like every other part of the globe, 

 the beekeepers are from all walks in 

 life — doctors, lawyers, merchants, 

 preachers, teachers, farmers, bankers, 

 printers, etc Some are more exten- 

 sively interested than others, but all 

 are finding it a pleasant and profitable 

 undertaking. The greater numbers of 

 the beekeepers are farmers having bees 

 as a sideline. While some are looking 

 to this sideline as a means of employ- 

 ment for members of their growing 

 families, others regard the bees as a hit 

 or miss proposition that sometimes 

 pays and at other times only holds its 

 own. 



Centers for beekeeping have sprung 

 up in different parts of the province. 

 The former so-called apicultural 

 schools, conducted by prominent exten- 

 sive beekeepers, gave men a practical 

 insight into the business, and no doubt 

 tended to increase the beekeepers in 

 their neighborhoods Others saw that 

 bc'-s could be kept profitably and en- 

 tered the business, and in this way bee- 

 keeping grew in centers. In many 

 cases the growth overcrowded the dis- 

 trict, and the overstocking resulted in 

 smaller averages both to the extensive, 

 as well as the small beekeepers. The 

 smaller men in some cases became dis- 

 couraged and soon dropped beekeep- 

 ing, while in other cases the congestion 

 was relieved by the larger beekeeper 

 moving to new territory. Such centers 

 were established around Woodstock, 

 London, Trenton, and in the extremely 

 eastern parts of the province. 



The Provincial Department of Agri 

 culture annually compiles a spring re 

 port of beekeeping conditions. The 

 report of 1916. taken from 8UU replies, 

 showed 30 colonics per apiary to be the 

 average. The 80il beekeepers reported 

 have 674 extractors of which no less 

 than 21 were power machines, 2i)l 2- 

 frame and 178 were 4 frame extractors. 

 Undoubtedly some of those reporting 

 priduce comb honey exclusively, and 

 hence have no e.xtractor. If a census 

 were taken of the extractors in use at 

 present, a far greater number would 

 likely be shown, as many beekeepers 

 have purchased this past summer to 

 handle the heavy crop. 



The use of the motor car in apiary 

 work is steadily increasing, and espe- 

 cially with the specialist b ekeepers is 

 it being successfully employed. Large 

 trucks are sometimes used, but gener- 

 ally the lighter cars are preferred. In 

 some cases the rear seat is replaced by 

 a rack for the load, while in others a 

 trailer is attached and the car is used 

 only for its locomotion. Sixteen cars 

 .were in use last spring— many more 

 will be used next season. 



A crop report taken by the Ontario 

 Beekeepers' Association gave the aver- 

 age yield of light honey per colony to 

 be 89 6 pounds. This, of course, has 

 been a very good season, yet the aver- 



age is only about 30 pounds higher 

 than last year's average. It is esti- 

 mated that there are at least 10,000 bee- 

 keepers in Ontario keeping an average 

 of 30 colonies each, or a grand total of 

 300,000 colonies. With this year's aver- 

 age of 89 6 pounds per colony, 2-5 880 000 

 pounds or 12.940 tons were gathered by 

 the bees. It would take between 8 and 

 9 trains of between 50 and 60 cars each 

 to carry this crop to market if it were 

 all marketed. Large quantities are 

 used for home consumption, and only 

 occasionally is any one market over- 

 loaded. 

 Guelph, Ont. 



Porto Rico and Its Beekeepers 



BY HENRY BRENNER. 



■ ARRIVED in San Juan, Porto Rico, 

 . in February, and had the good for- 

 tune, in a few days after landing, to 

 form the acquaintance of Mr. Elton 

 Warner. Mr. Warner is, to my knowl- 

 edge, the largest beekeeper on the 

 island. He is a progressive and up-to- 

 date apiarist as his well kept apiaries 

 bear witness. They are all in first-class 

 condition and fitted out with every 

 modern convenience and improvement. 

 They are situated on good automobile 

 roads and each contains from 200 to 

 500 colonies of bees, a honey and ex- 

 tracting house and a comfortable 

 dwelling for the apiary manager. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Warner 

 I became acquainted with Mr. M. K. 



Means of Transporting Sugar Cane on 

 THE Island of Porto Rico 



Fletcher, of La Isabella Grove, one of 

 the largest citrus fruit plantations in 

 Porto Rico. The bees at La Isabella 

 are managed by Mr. Warner's men. 

 While I was there, however, Mr. Wal- 

 ter Fletcher, Jr., established another 

 large apiary of his own upon a part of 

 the plantation. I have had a letter re- 

 cently from him and he advises that 

 this new apiary has done well even in 

 its initial year. I shall never forget the 

 pleasant time spent at Mr. Fletcher's 

 hospitable home. He and his good 

 lady have a way to make a guest feel 

 that he is really welcome. 



La Isabella lias its own electric plant 

 for lights, power, etc. It has a well 

 equipped machine and blacksmith shop, 

 warehouses, packing sheds, me-srooms 

 and kitchens for the employees, a com- 



missary store, and even a rail track 

 through the entire plantation for the 

 hauling of the fruit. I was surprised 

 at the large number of employees and 

 the friendly spirit prevailing between 

 the management and the laborers. 



During the great strike on the north 

 coast in the sugar and citrus fields, all 

 the hands on the Fletcher plantations 

 stayed with him. There was no trou- 

 ble, no cessation of work at La Isa- 

 bella. 



On the north coast I have also to 

 thank Mr. F. E. Hartwell and the Ger- 

 man Consul, Mr. Hepp, who contrib- 

 uted to make my stay pleasant. I vis- 

 ited apiaries in about ten different 

 places and twice had the pleasure of 

 taking a 15-mile horseback trip. Once 

 I had the unique experience of a 12- 

 mile "hike "on foot along the beauti- 

 ful country roads into some of the less 

 frequented places. At Naranjito I met 

 Mr. J. M. McCall, the owner of a large 

 and prosperous cigar manufactory with 

 a branch distributing house in New 

 York. He is deeply interested in api- 

 culture and I received a kind letter 

 from him since my return home, urg- 

 ing me to make his home my headquar- 

 ters when I visit the island again. 



Along the coast runs the Porto Rico 

 railroad, and there are also two regular 

 automobile lines across the islandfrom 

 north to south. This latter way I used 

 in going to Ponce. 



At Ponce I met Senor Rudolfo del 

 Valle, an enthusiastic beekeeper and an 

 old friend of the American Bee Journal 

 and of its editor. When Don Rudolfo 

 learned that I was stopping at a hotel 

 in Ponce he came at once and took me 

 to hi- town residence where his lady 

 and family joined in making me feel at 

 home. That evening we went to his 

 country home outside of Ponce. I was 

 surprised to find in Porto Rico, which 

 some of us have pictured as a far off 

 island possession, a dwelling with all 

 the modern comforts. Here was a 

 complete system of water works, an 

 electric light plant and such a garden 

 as only the tropics can produce. 



Through Don Rudolfo's kindness I 

 met Senor Don Rafael Serra at the cof- 

 fee plantation, Bureness ■ in - the - Hills, 

 which became my home while on the 

 south ciiast. Senor Serra is one of the 

 most learned and versatile men it has 

 ever been my pleasure to meet. He 

 can talk as interestingly of the life of 

 ancient Egypt, 1000 years B C, as if he 

 had personally enjoyed its splendor. 

 He is as conversant with the activities 

 of mediaeval Greece and Rome as he is 

 with modern history and literature. My 

 dearest memories of the island are the 

 long evenings we spent in discussing 

 astronomy and ancient philosophy 

 while at his hacienda. During my stay 

 Don Rafael started an apiary, and I am 

 glad to learn from recent letters that it 

 is prospering. 



Here again I was astonished at the 

 labor conditions I found a small army 

 of employees, each family in a nice 

 clean house and every one happy and 

 contented. Every soul on the planta- 

 tion seemed to be always in good 

 humor At this hacienda everything is 

 Spanish. Ther' are no American em- 

 ployees. There is a patriarchal condi- 

 tion between Senor Serra and every 

 soul on the place. If a laborer or any 

 member of his family gets hurt or sick 



