1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



4.51 



reason only I think it would be best to obtain white 

 pine from the North. 



The prevalence of insects, such as fleas, mosqui- 

 toes, sand-flies, etc., is, without question, the great 

 pest of Florida, and I have yet to see that part of 

 k the State that is free from them. A few simple 

 precautions will usually keep fleas from troubling- 

 much. Mosquitoes are everywhere, but especially 

 along- the coast, it being a popular saying that 

 mangrove-bushes breed them. The further south 

 in the State one goes, the more plentiful arc mos- 

 quitoes; and whoever lindsagood bee location in 

 Florida will be certain to find a flrst-class mosquito 

 location also. They can be kept from troubling 

 much in houses, by the use of screen doors and 

 windows, and netting over the beds at night. lam 

 told thai they are excessively bad only a short time 

 in summer, but one is never entirely free from 

 them. Building one's house in an open, airy situa- 

 tion is (juitc a in-otection from them, as well as 

 from sandflies. These last are an unmitigated 

 nuisance; but I think from what T could learn that 

 they remain only a few weeks in the spring. Red- 

 bugs and seed-ticks abound, but they troubled me 

 very little indeed, although I was around in the 

 pine woods and swamps Avhile there, ten times as 

 much as any resident needs to be. Scorpions arc 

 a needless terror to some people, their sting being 

 but little if any worse than a bee-sting. Neither 

 wife nor 1 was stung by one during our seven 

 months' resilience there, and no one I'i-mi-s them 

 at all. 



Insect enemies of bees are bad. .Mosqiiito-luiAvks 

 arc very thick for a while in tiic spring, and it, is 

 yet a question as to how serious is the harm they 

 do. A Avriter in one of the bee-jouwials lately stat- 

 ed that they were extremely destrueti\e to young 

 (jueens while out on their flight, sometimes destro.^- 

 ingSOper cent. The little e.\-i)erience I have had 

 with young (|ucens down there, leads me to believe 

 that to be a decided overstatement, the large loss 

 being from other and more controllable causes; but 

 they probal)l.\- do some mischief in that line. 



Red ants would be a much worse pest if the.v were 

 not so easily controlled. These ants work mostly 

 at night; but after they once get commenced on a 

 colony, they keep at it until the colony is used up, 

 or until the bee-keeper heads them olf. 'I'hey have 

 ttieir nests in old stumps and logs, and when work- 

 ing on a colony they can easily be traced to their 

 nest by the line of ants going to and fi-om ants' 

 nests, and all can then be eH'eetually destroyed b.\- 

 fire. An energetic b(>e-keeper will in time destroj- 

 every ant within danger distance of his ai)iai-y. 

 Both Mr. Olson and Mr. Hart, and. I think, Mr. 

 Sheldon, told me that their losses had Ix-cii insignifl- 

 cant from this source. 



Bee-moths are, of course, much more plentiful in 

 warm than in cold climates; but these Ikinc ceased 

 to be bugbears to trut^ bee-keepers. 



The difficulty of obtaining reliable information 

 abo\tt any special locality in Florida is (piitc an in- 

 (•onvenienee. Nearly e\cry resident there thinks 

 his own locality is unciuestionably the very best one 

 in the Stat(>. This is (|uitea common state of affairs 

 in all new sections; but 1 ha\e never seen it any 

 thing like as much so anywhere else as it is there. 

 Ask a resident in almost any part of the State about 

 the quality of laud in his neighborhood, and he will 

 tell you that " It is first class, good enough to raise 

 splendid orange-groves without the aid of fertiliz- 



ers at all ;" but right over in the next county, south, 

 the land is so poor it won't " sprout cow-peas," an 

 expression equivalent to our Northern one of being 

 too poor to i-aise white beans. Ask him if it is un- 

 healthy, and he will answer that they " never have 

 the chills," but right over in Sumter, or some other 

 county, it is so " pesky sickly " that even the 'gators 

 can't live there without getting the shakes. Ask 

 about mosquitoes, .and he will give a similar an- 

 swer, all the time slapping with his hands, at some 

 imaginary object, of course, between every other 

 word. This trait, or, rather, habit, of overestimat- 

 ing one's own locality, and underestimating all 

 others, is entirely too common to be comfortable: 

 and all intending settlers should take the advice of 

 some reliable friend there, or else wait until they 

 know something about the country themselves 

 before selecting their location. I know several per- 

 sons who were turned away from the cast coast 

 by fabulous stories told them in Jacksonville 

 about the mosquitoes and sand-flies of that region, 

 but who are now satisfled they would have done 

 much better than they have done, but for the in- 

 fluence of those stories. 



The soil and elinmtc of Florida are not adapted to 

 the raising of the staple articles of food demanded 

 by Northei-n .ippetites, such as dairy products, 

 wheat, iiotatoes, etc.. and these all have to be pur- 

 chased from stores, of course not so cheaply as we 

 get them north. All intending settlers want to 

 take this into consideration when making their 

 plans. Sweet potatoes, however, can be cheaply 

 j and abundantly raised almost anywhere in the 

 I State, as also many of our common garden vcgeta- 

 I bics. Fish are very abundant in nearly every sec- 

 1 tion of the State, especially so near the coasts, and 

 j nuigniflcent oysters aie also lound in many places 

 I along the coasts. The great abundance of flsh is 

 aptly illustrated by the reply of a native youngster: 

 " Fish in summer and Yankees in winter." made 

 to a tourist when askeil what people in Florida 

 found to live on. 



I will no^^• give some opinions or suggestions 

 which may be of use to those going there intending 

 to make a business of lioney-raising. 



Mangrove sustains an eciual and I think a moi-e 

 imi)ortant relation to b(>e-keeping in Florida than 

 white clo\er does in our Northern sections; there- 

 fore only good mangrove locations must be sought 

 after and relied on. I have already stated where 

 such locutions can probably be found: but others 

 now in that State can in-obalily give much addition- 

 al information on that i->oint. 



Before going there, get all the information you 

 can about the State at large. 1 think the most cor- 

 rect impressions I obtained were got from the 

 writings of sportsmen, who have no interest in the 

 State, except as a field for sporting and ci-uising. 

 The best of these books 1 have seen ar(> " Camping 

 in Florida. " by Charles Halloek, of the Forest and 

 Stream Publishing Co., and a later work, "Camp- 

 ing and Cruising in Florida," by Dr. J. A, Henshall, 

 of Cynthiana, Ky. (.>\iite a number of bee-keepers 

 have written short articles from that State, some 

 of them valuable, some wortliless; but decidedly 

 f he most voluminous on beekeeping subjects that 

 we have has been lurnishcd by Mr. Hart, of New 

 SmyiMia, who, in my opinion, is an uncommonly fair 

 and candid writer. Persons settling in Florida 

 must expect to have to rely mainly on their own 

 judgineDt ill selecting proper locfitions, etc., and 



