566 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI 



A GLIMPSE OF THE FIVE ACRES OF CELEKY NEAR BRADENTOWN, FLORIDA, GROWN THE 



FIRST YEAR ON WILD LAND; THE OWNER, MR. C. L. LATTIMER, REFUSED $5000 



FOR THE CROP JUST BEFORE HARVESTING. 



live in a shanty, unless he buys or builds a 

 good house; and this is something he ought 

 not to do until he has been there a year or 

 two, and become familiar with the country, 

 so as to choose wisely in reference to future 

 pasturage. 



As I have already said, the foundation of 

 all is the location — one with an abundance of 

 berries, and around this must cluster all of 

 the other conditions. The most desirable 

 pasture may not be the most desirable place 

 in which to live; but I doubt if any location 

 will be so inaccessible that the bee-keeper 

 won't be able to get his honey out to market 

 if he secures a crop. On the other hand, 

 this new country has its compensations: The 

 streams are all stocked with speckled trout; 

 the pine barrens are often purple with the 

 ripening huckleberries; in August and Sep- 

 tember a man can eat his fill three times a 

 day of the great, luscious, shining, spicy wild 

 blackberries that have grown in the shade; 

 he can tap the giant maples and make sugar 

 in the spring; he can rejoice in a wood fire 

 simply by cutting the wood; and, if inclined 

 to be a sportsman, he will find plenty of op- 

 portunity for hunting or trapping. To the 

 right man, there is a fascination about a re- 

 gion where still lingers some of Nature's 

 wildness. 



But, to return: How can a man find a de- 

 sirable location? This is the question that is 



asked me the most often of any. There is 

 only one way, and that is to go into this re- 

 gion and hunt for it. Very little can be de- 

 pended upon what settlers say, unless they 

 are bee-keepers, as they seem to have no 

 conception of what is needed. To illustrate: 

 One man who had lived in that part of the 

 State several years told my brother and my- 

 self, with great enthusiasm, of a tract, on 

 the banks of the Manistee, where, for miles 

 and miles, there was a perfect sea of rasp- 

 berries. As it happened, we had that day 

 driven through that very sjjot. The ground 

 had been burned over, and, while there was 

 quite a dense growth, it was mostly black- 

 berries, with an occasional patch of short, 

 scattering raspberries. We were disappoint- 

 ed so many times, after driving miles to see 

 some promised land, that we ceased to put 

 any dependence whatever upon what some- 

 body told us. As I have said, these men are 

 not bee-keepers, and don't understand all 

 of the points as I have given them in 

 these pages, and are almost certain to be 

 misled. 



The best time to look for a raspberry loca- 

 tion is in the spring, after the snow has gone, 

 and before the trees and bushes have put 

 forth their leaves. The berry-canes have a 

 ruddy, brown, or purple color, very easily 

 distinguished, at a long distance, from other 

 brush. After the berries aad other bushes 



