1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



375 



ance, since through it we are to de- 

 cide how far apart our apiaries should 

 be. 



During our Texas trip I met bee- 

 Iveepers representing some 35,000 

 colonies of bees, and one of the ques- 

 tions I asked was: How far do bees 

 fly for honey? L. B. Smith, a Texas 

 apiarist, has written repeatedly that 

 his bees worked by preference four 

 miles or more from home rather than 

 a mile or less. But the Texas apiarists 

 were almost unanimous in saying that 

 bees work and harvest honey mostly 

 within a mile and a half of home. 



In my New England trip, I made 

 the same enquiry. Although as 

 noted a beekeeper as L. C. 

 Root, author of Quinby's New Bee- 

 keeping, and one of the foremost au- 

 thorities, has found bees to go seven 

 miles from home, to a hill covered 

 with basswood; yet 32 colonies of his, 

 carried to the center of this basswood 

 yielded three times as much honey as 

 those seven miles away. 



Most of the practical beekeepers of 

 New England and eastern New York 

 seem to consider four miles a suf- 

 ficient distance apart for apiaries and 

 testimonials without end may be se- 

 cured to prove that at four miles of 

 distance the crops are often different 

 both in quality and quantity. — Editor. 



Mexican Bees and Beekeeping 



By Pierre Provensal 



THE Republic of Mexico stretches 

 out over a space of 1,600 miles 

 from north to south. It is 1,250 

 wide at its northern extremity and 

 130 miles at its narrowest point. Its 

 area is 748,000 square miles, about 

 four times that of France, or about 

 one-fourth that of the United States. 

 It could produce much more honey 

 than it does produce and perhaps as 

 much as the entire United States. 



The first swarms of bees were 

 brought from Spain by settling immi- 

 grants a few years after the conquest. 

 Some think the priests were influen- 

 tial in bringing them over, because 

 beeswax was necessary in the Catho- 

 lic ceremonies. The fact is that the 

 domesticated honeybee is still called 

 in Mexico "De Castilla" and beeswax 

 "Cera de Castilla." 



These names qualify the difference 

 between the domesticated honeybees 

 and the wild bees and their products 

 in Mexico, one variety of which is 

 still appreciated because of the 

 ocher-colored wax furnished by the 

 latter, used in the manufacture of 

 phonograph disks and other indus- 

 tries, cheaply taking the place of or- 

 dinary beeswax. 



Since colonization times, we may 

 say that beekeeping has made no 

 progress among the common people. 

 They still use the log gum. or a hive 

 made of four boards naileJ together. 



Those hives are not stood on end, 

 but are laid down horizontally, in or- 

 der that they be not knocked down 

 l)y domestic animals. They are 

 rarely protected in any way against 

 the weather. 



The honey is usually harvested 

 twice a year, in September-October 

 and in January-February, without 

 much consideration between brood- 

 combs and honeycombs, as the main 

 object is beeswax, for honey is very 

 little appreciated, although it is usu- 

 ally of good quality. 



Among the educated classes many 

 understand the possibility of progres- 

 sive beekeeping, and modern apiaries 

 are now being established by them as 

 well as by French, Italian, American, 

 Russian and Japanese immigrants. 

 The years of civil war which have 

 just elapsed have greatly retarded its 

 development. Many apiaries have 

 been destroyed, among which I will 

 mention those of Mr. Gabriel Raim- 

 bault, established near Me.xico City. 

 One of these was devastated and the 

 other burned by the Zapatistas. Since 

 the beginning of national reorganiza- 

 tion, beekeeping promises to attain 

 an unexpected development, as it is 

 inexpensive and fairly certain of suc- 

 cess, matters which are important for 

 people who have sustained severe 

 losses in other industries. 



An American writer, beekeeper and 

 student, published in the April num- 

 ber of the American Bee Journal a 

 map of the honey-producing regions 

 of North and Central America. If 

 the reader will refer to this map he 

 will see that Mexico is comprised in 

 part in the "tropical region," which 

 possesses the richest flora and the 

 most fertile soil in the world. 



The topography of Mexicp, happily, 

 tempers in part the effects of its trop- 

 ical latitude. The characteristic fea- 

 ture of the country is the great va- 

 riety of its vegetation, which 

 stretches from the most luxuriant 

 tropical growth to the barrenness of 

 the desert, from the plants and trees 

 ot the equator to those of cold coun- 



tries. In a few hours the traveler 

 who goes from Mexico City to Vera 

 Cruz, by rail, after seeing the cereals 

 of our northern countries, sees suc- 

 cessively rice and sugar cane take the 

 place of pines and oaks, or the palms 

 and cocoanuts follow the evergreens 

 of Siberia. This is due to the three 

 very distinct zones. 



The "hot lands" (tierra caliente) 

 form the richest vegetable zone. Un- 

 der the showers from a sky heated 

 by the tropical sun, yellow fever 

 reigns in an epidemic way, striking 

 not only the newcomers but even 

 some who are already acclimatized. 

 Vegetation is luxuriant. Side by side 

 with the high grass of the savannas, 

 tropical cultures are found; sugar 

 cane, cocoa, cotton, tobacco, palms, 

 bananas; trees furnishing woods 

 proper for cabinet work or dyes grow 

 in tangled thickets, bound with 

 climbing vines which hang to the 

 right and the left like garlands. 



The "temperate lands" possess a 

 curious mixture of tropical and 

 northern plants growing side by side, 

 on account of the moisture produced 

 by the melting snows of the moun- 

 tains above. By the side of the pines 

 the cocoanuts grow. The arauca- 

 rias grow near the coffee trees of Li- 

 beria or Arabia. The cinchona, the 

 pepper tree, the vanilla, the mango 

 grow ne.xt to exotic shrubs such as 

 the Japanese medlar. Rice and ba- 

 nanas are grown by the side of the 

 European orange trees. 



Even in winter, gardenias, camel- 

 lias, oleanders, magnolias and azaleas 

 bloom in perpetual spring. 



The cold lands are less productive. 

 This is caused less by the insufficien- 

 cy of heat than that of moisture, 

 which is more noticeable in the 

 north, where the spreading apart of 

 the two mountain chains prevents the 

 production of moist clouds in these 

 immense expanses. 



This lengthy explanation of the cli- 

 matic conditions of Mexico is in- 

 tended by me to prove that properly 

 installed apiaries would be supplied 



APIARY OF PEDRO PROVENSAL IN URUAPAxX. MICHOACAX, 

 NOTICE THE BROAD ROOFS ON THE HIVES. 



MEXICO. 



