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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIIE. 



Nov 



SHIPPING BEES FKOM FLORIDA TO 

 THE NORTH. 



CAN IT BE MANAGED SO AS TO PROFIT ALL TAH- 

 TIES, IXCLUUING THE EXPRESS COMPANIES? 



WISH to continue the subject-matter of Mr. J. 

 H. Martin's le tor, and jour remarks, on p. 6«1, 

 |r Gleanings for Oct. 1. I am g-lad j'ou feel j'ou 

 ought to help the Florida bee-keepers, and I 

 am sure we are willing- to help the Northern 

 bee-men. But, can we help each other in a business 

 way? Can shipping bees bj' the pound from Florida 

 to the North be carried on so as to leave a pi'Oflt at 

 both ends of the line? If we could only get in our 

 crop of honey, and then send you our bees in time 

 to gather yours, how nice it would be! but I fear we 

 can not do this completely. How late in the season 

 could the Northern bee-keepers receive bees in or- 

 der to gather both basswood and white-clover lion- 

 ey? In sections of Florida where the cabbage-pal- 

 metto and mangrove grow, the bee-keeper would 

 not want to dispose of his bees in May, because 

 these plants bloom in midsummer; but in all sec- 

 tions like this where I am, there is only the orange 

 and saw-palmetto. The former, last spring, was 

 unusually late, I was told, and I presume the saw- 

 palmetto is generally in bloom the latter part of 

 April. Now, it seems the Northern bee-men could 

 afford to pay a good price for bees, if they could get 

 them in time for Avhite clover and basswood; and it 

 seems the Southern man would profit by disposing 

 of his surplus bees at a moderate price, after the 

 saw-palmetto bloom fades away; so the difference 

 between a "good price" and a "moderate price" 

 would go to help the express companies, that you, 

 Mr. Editor, seem to have so much sympathy for. 

 How many bee-keepers in the North are anxious to 

 undertake Mr. Martin's plan next year? I am anx- 

 ious to study into the matter, and talk it over with 

 some of the Florida brethren, and we can let you 

 know what we are ready to do. Of course, to make 

 a success of it we must profit by Mr. M.'s experi- 

 ence. I presume transportation facilities were in- 

 complete in his case. This place, Orlando, is con- 

 nected with the North by an all rail foute, and 

 trains leaving it arrive in New York in 50 hours, and 

 in Cincinnati in about the same time. 



Now in conclusion, Mr. Editor, let me ask you to 

 make some remarks on the subject— show us your 

 " German thought and Yankee ingenuity " by plac- 

 ing before us some of the things which lie behind 

 the scenes. 



My bees have been working nicely for a week or 

 so on goldenrod and other fall flowers. The weath- 

 er is delightful. Oranges are not ripe yet; but 

 lemons are picked before they are yellow, and were 

 being shipped all last month and this. 

 Orlando, Fla., Oct. 1.5, 1S8.5. L. W. Gray. 



Friend (iray, it does not seem to me as 

 tlunigh there "is very much left for me to do 

 in regard to the matter. You in Florida 

 will have to decide how low you can fiu'nish 

 bees by tln^ pound, and get your express 

 a<i;ent to have his company decide how low 

 they can atford to carry packages of bees by 

 the hundred pounds— say to New York anil 

 Cincinnati, as you have it ; then we in the 

 North will have to decide what we can 

 afford to pay ; and if we get up a trade, all 

 that remains is to work out some plan that 

 will enable the bees to stand a lifty-hour 

 trip safely. It just now striKes me "that it 



would be much more agreeable to the bees, 

 and better for all parties, if they could be sent 

 to some Northern point by water instead of 

 rail. I think they would stand 100 hours by 

 water better than •"() hours by rail ; and very 

 likely they would be worth more when they 

 got to their destination. Can you or some- 

 body else tell us how many hours it takes a 

 steamboat to make the trip, and could it not 

 be managed so that the expense of shipment 

 would V)e less':' We could not afford to pay 

 a good price for bees unless they could get 

 here before the white-clover l)loom. althoiigli 

 a little further north they might gather 

 quite a crop of honey, even if they did not 

 arrive until the tirst'of July. 1 am inclined 

 to think that nuclei might be lietter than 

 packages of bees by the pound, because you 

 could then put in good full combs of brood : 

 and shipping bees in the shape of brood is a 

 very compact and safe way. where you can 

 manage to avoid having the combs broken 

 down. With wired combs, and transit by 

 steamship, there ought not to be a bit of 

 trouble ; and to make the thing work nicely, 

 some man located at a point where the 

 steamships stop should buy the bees in large 

 quantities, keeping, say, 1000 colonies to till 

 orders. He could then ptirchase large con- 

 signments, and he could ship l)y express to 

 the interior of the States, and sell at a mod- 

 erate figure. The same thing could be done 

 along the line of our large rivers. We are 

 doing considerable in this line, but we pur- 

 chase our bees from parties who raise them 

 within five or ten miles of us; for we are 

 not located so that we could afford to pur- 

 chase profitably from the South. 



A NEW NAME FOR HONEY-DEW. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I have just read the interest- 

 ing article by Prof. Cook, on " Plant-louse 

 Nectar," on page 703, Gleanings for Oct. 15. 

 I see a distinctive appellation is wanted tnat 

 will characterize this product, without con- 

 veying any unpleasant or unfavorable impression, 

 and yet be literally true. I would suggest that we 

 call it 



PLANT-NECTARINE,* 



for the following reasons: Because it is descrip- 

 tive; it implies the origin and the (juality of this cu- 

 rious product. 



Strictly speaking, its origin is in the plant, although 

 it undergoes its transformation in the body of the 

 plant-louse; therefore it may be truly describe* as 

 p?a»itnectarine. The word "louse" is useless. 



The origin of honey is in the flower; but it under- 

 goes its transformation in the body of the bee. But 

 we do not use the word "bee" in connection with 

 honey, and therefore we may dispense with the word 

 "louse" in this case also; and in getting rid of it we 

 lose all the unpleasantness that it suggests, and of 

 which you complain. The same may be said of the 

 Latin word apis, though it is, perhaps, less objection- 

 able. 



We will not speak of "bug-juice." You rightly 

 say that both "honey" and" nectar" are misnomers, 

 when used to describe this secretion; neither is 



Prononnced Nek-ta-ri'n, not rine. 



