422 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



mound of watermelons on his place. This man was 

 a traveling salesman out of Cincinnati. He came 

 here seven months ago and bought ten acres of sec- 

 ond-class pine land. He grubbed it and cleared it. 

 He told me that he had sold $1300 worth of melons 

 off the tract, has two more carloads to ship, and has 

 set out a ten-acre grapefruit grove. He said he 

 made more money, and had more fun in the six 

 months' residence in Florida, than a year's hard 

 v.ork "on the road." And this is land which you 

 are abusing. This man mixed some Ohio brains with 

 the soil, and that will grow any thing in Florida ex- 

 cept Presidents ! 



Tampa, Fla.. June 6. W. B. Powell. 



My good friend, we submit your letter to 

 our readers as j'ou request, and I would sub- 

 rait the matter to them as to whether you 

 or I show a "malignant spirit," as you put 

 it. If you have been reading Gleanings 

 right along I think you must agree that I 

 have been giving both sides of the matter 

 pretty fairly. What you say about old peo- 

 l^le getting a longer lease of life, comfort, 

 happiness, etc., I believe is generally true 

 over nearly ail of Florida ; and may Grod be 

 praised that we have at least one State in 

 the Union where we are comparatively free 

 from frost and snow. But at the same time 

 you have not explained to our readers how 

 the St. Cloud syndicate justify themselves 

 for pa.ying 80 cents or $1.00 an acre for 

 land, and then selling it to the old soldiers 

 for $20.00 or $30.00 or more an acre. 



Perhaps I might suggest to our readers 

 that, as secretarj^ of the Board of Trade of 

 the beautiful cit}' of Tampa, your opinion 

 and ideas may be somewhat biased. I am 

 glad to see people stand up for their own 

 State, town, and county — yes, and for their 

 oAvn neighborhood; and I am well aware 

 that large numbers of my Florida friends 

 are ]iained and sometimes vexed at me when 

 1 mention such trifling things as redbugs, 

 long C^YJ spells, damaging frosts, etc. "Well, 

 I am tr^ang hard to give our readers, now 

 scattered in almost all nations of the earth, 

 the real truth about every spot on the globe. 



ST. CLOUD, FLORIDA, AND SOMETHING ABOUT 

 IT AS A HOME FOR BEEKEEPERS. 



The following, clipped fi-om the St. 

 Cloud Tribune, explains itself: 



G. A. Bleech came here two years ago in .January 

 from Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he was en- 

 gaged in the bee business. His health then being 

 poor, he decided to try Florida to see what the cli- 

 mate would do for him. "When he first came he 

 brought with him three high-grade queen bees, and 

 from them has 12 colonies. They are doing well, 

 and he expects to fill his hundred hives vinthout 

 trouble. He thinks this an ideal country for honey- 

 making. He has experimented enough to satisfy 

 himself that he can do better than in Michigan, with 

 flowers every month ; and with orange, peach, and 

 magnolia blossoms in season he says as fine honey 

 can be produced here as anywhere in the country. 

 It requires care and watchfulness and work, lie 

 says; but that is true of any industry if a nian ex- 

 pects to succeed. Mr. Bleech says his health is all 

 he could desire, and he's here to make this country 

 his home. He is incensed at A. I. Root, of Glean- 

 ings IN Bee Culture, who seems to take pleasure 

 in saying ill-natured things about St. Cloud, ^vriting 



to his publication at Medina, O., from his winter 

 home at Bradentown, Fla. Mr. Bleech asked the 

 Tribune to reply to an article in the May issue of 

 Gleanings, but life is too short. This is not Mr. 

 Root's first offense; but St. Cloud is growing, and 

 will keep on growing, in spite of Mr. Root and other 

 grumblers and soreheads. Mr. Root likes Braden- 

 town, but doesn-t like St. Cloud. Mr. Bleech doesn't 

 like Bradentown, but likes St. Cloud. And there 

 you are. We are glad Mr. Root likes Bradentown, 

 if he does; but a man who is everlastingly trying 

 to control the affairs of the universe is a pretty 

 hard man to be suited anywhere. 



As I have remarked before, our good 

 l^eople in Florida, as well as in other local- 

 ities, do not like to have any thing said 

 (esiJecially in print), against their own 

 town and locality. I do like St. Cloud ; but 

 1 do- not like the idea of charging old sol- 

 diers thirty or forty dollars an acre, or ever 

 so much more, for land that cost the pro- 

 moters only eighty cents or a dollar per 

 acre. Our good friend Bleech has been 

 only a short time in St. Cloud, as I take it ; 

 and I tliink he will soon discover that neither 

 in St. Cloud nor in anj^ other place in Flor- 

 ida, are there flowers enough to produce 

 honey, to amount to any thing, "every 

 month in the year." During the past sea- 

 son my neighbor Rood, with several hun- 

 dred colonies, has secured so little honey 

 that he is just now wanting to purchase 

 some in order to supply the demands of his 

 regular customers. Once in a while we have 

 a season when Florida gives wonderful 

 crops of honey; but, like almost all other 

 localities, so far as I can learn there are 

 also seasons, or special times during every 

 season, when bees will starve unless they 

 are fed. If I am not right in regard to the 

 above I wish the veterans in the bee bus- 

 iness would correct me. I do not believe 

 it is true that I "take jDleasure in saying ill- 

 natured things" about St. Cloud or any 

 other place. 



EXAGGERATED STATEMENTS IN REGARD TO 

 FLORIDA, ETC. 



On page 356, June 1, I gave a letter pro- 

 testing against our accepting certain ad- 

 vertising from the Seaboard Airline Rail- 

 way. I made a clipping of this and for- 

 warded it to headquarters of the S. A. L., 

 Norfolk, Va. Below is their reply; and as 

 it gives some valuable facts I publish it en- 

 tire : 



Mr. A. I. Root: — This will acknowledge receipt of 

 your kind letter of June 10, accompanied by some 

 criticisms on the part of Mr. A. W. Foreman, White- 

 hall, 111. 



The land area of Florida is 54,861 square miles; 

 and while the correspondent has doubtless been in 

 Florida, his article would indicate that he did not 

 spend sufficient time to investigate conditions in so 

 large an area. The result of the efforts of Mr. Root 

 is a complete answer, and can be multiplied many 

 times by individual instances in the Manatee sec- 

 tion. We do carry an advertisement in the Rural 

 New-Yorker, and read that valuable journal regu- 

 larly. Mr. Foreman refers to the entire area as 

 being sand. The 54,861 square miles in Florida 



