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Xhe Weatlier since the ushering in of 

 1889 has been exceedingly peculiar. Things 

 have been mixed up generally. We had 

 May weather in February, and then the 

 February weather came in May and June. 

 Such "mixing up" is neitlier pleasant nor 

 profitable. Many of the colonies of bees 

 which were populous in the early Spring, 

 have dwindled to weak and dispirited ones. 

 Feeding has been practiced quite largely, 

 and many bee-lseepers have had "the blues." 



Mr. (i. K. Hubbard expresses the follow- 

 ing as his views of the situation, in the 

 Prairie Farmer of last week : 



We do not remember of there ever being 

 a spring when bees were in greater need of 

 being fed after the fruit trees bloomed, than 

 this spring. The early part of the season 

 was favorable indeed, and the bees were in 

 prime condition at the close of fruit bloom, 

 but at this writing (June 10), we have had 

 three weeks of cold, wet weather, and not a 

 few bees have actually starved. We noticed 

 the first white clover heads on May 19, and 

 during all this time there has not been a day 

 when the bees would fly freely all day. The 

 hives were then full of bees and brood. 

 Since that time many have starved to death, 

 and brood-rearing has been carried on very 

 lightly. A large colony of bees will con- 

 sume a considerable amount of stores. In 

 addition to this, the large amount that is 

 used in rearing brood has made a three 

 weeks' stand-still in honey gathering, hard 

 to bridge over, and therefore many bees 

 have starved, and a greater number that 

 liave not died, have lived constantly on the 

 verge of starvation. At such times, spring 

 feeding is highly necessary, and the bee- 

 keeper who has practiced it will find him- 

 self well repaid if good weather does com- 

 mence soon. 



Fortunately now the weather has changed, 

 and it is warm, and the atmosphere is moist 

 —making the best kind of honey-weather. 

 We expect to hear a marked change also in 

 the tone of our correspondence. It will 

 soon be time to get reports about the yield 

 from the lindens. In western Minnesota 

 the lindens are ruined by striped worms— 

 but we hope that such is not true of other 

 localities. In our next issue we hope to be 

 able to give encouraging reports generally. 



Bee-Keepins: in Blissoiiri.— -Mr. 



E. Listen, writes as follows in the Jerico, 

 Mo., Optic, concerning the honey-resources 

 of that State : 



My experience covers a series of twenty 

 years, and in that time I have had two years 

 of total failure— so far as surplus houey is 

 concerned. Although in those two seasons 

 bees gathered enough to winter on. 



The apiarist who does not read up in the 

 science, and keep Italian bees, or lets his 

 bees set back in the weeds in some fence 

 corner, would not do so well. He would 

 have many failures in that time. The larg- 

 est yield I ever had was in 1875, and was leo 

 pounds per colony average the whole apiary 

 through. ^^ ^, 



With proper attention bees are profitable 

 all over our county. It is the easiest money 

 1 make. But locations are best near our 

 creeks, where there is a plenty of sumac 

 and persimmons on the bluffs, and also the 

 bottom timbers, maples, elms, locust, plum. 



and many other varieties of wild bloom. In 

 our valley, sand-stone, prairie farms we 

 have a yellow flower (in the fall) commonly 

 called Spanish-needle (Coreopsis), which 

 never fails to produce honey, and of a good 

 quality. Our finest honey is from black 

 sumac, and is as fine as linden or clover. 



We are too far south— have too much hot 

 sun— for buckwheat to pay for either grain 

 or honey. I was raised in the mountains in 

 the East, in a buckwheat country, and 

 know all about it. I tried it here nine years 

 and quit 



All fruit-growers ought to keep bees to 

 fertilize their fruit flowers. We would have 

 much better crops of fruits if we could have 

 more bees in the country to carry the pollen 

 from flower to flower. I am sorry to say 

 there is an ignorant idea amongst many of 

 our people that bees injure grapes and other 

 varieties of fruit, which is in nearly all cases 

 an error, except where the skin is broken 

 first by birds or other insects. I know they 

 will in some cases work on red raspberries 

 wlieu honey is scarce, and berries are over- 

 ripe. Bees are fruit-growers" friends, and 

 our people should read up and inform them- 

 selves before they bear false witness against 

 the fruit-growers' best help. I am engaged 

 in both industries, and read up in both of 

 them, and would there be any consistency 

 in me keeping one to tear down the other ? 



Influence of Climate on Kectar. 



—Albert Vought, of Illawara, La., on June 

 13, 1889, writes as follows : 



Last year I sent to the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture for some Chapman honey-plant 

 seed. He replied that he had none, but in- 

 stead of that, sent me a package marked 

 " Bee or Honey Clover." I sowed it this 

 spring, and it has been blooming for the 

 past three weeks. I presume it is sweet 

 clover. It resembles clover, prows about 13 

 or 15 inches high, and has a bluish blossom. 

 1 have never seeu a bee on it. I do not 

 know how to account for it. I was highly 

 delighted when I received the package, and 

 thought, " Now I have it ; when all things 

 else fail, I will have sweet clover to fall 

 back on ;" but I am doomed to disappoint- 

 ment, as I also am on mignonette, of which 

 I sowed a nice bed. Not being able to pro- 

 cure the mammoth at our local store, I 

 sowed some selected from D. M. Ferry's 

 seed-box. Can you explain why the bees 

 will not work on the two named plants ? Is 

 it because the bees find better pasture ? 

 (they are '■ rolling '" the honey in) or do the 

 plants secrete no honey in this climate ? 



The alfalfa is doing nicely ; the Alsike is 

 small and scarce. I sowed both with millet, 

 and expect to cut a crop of hay. Will this 

 injure the young crop of clover, provided it 

 is not cut again, or pastured too close this 

 fall? 



The American Bee Journal is an in- 

 valuable friend and adviser ; without it I 

 could do nothing. I rely wholly upon it and 

 my judgment. I have not a bee-keeping 

 neighbor within thirty miles, so you see I 

 have no one to go to for advice. I am " the 

 beeman" in this section. 



The only reason for the bees neglecting 

 the sweet clover and mignonette must be 

 the absence of nectar in the flowers. That 

 can be accounted for probably in some 

 climatic conditions. Here they work on it 

 eagerly. 



To cut the alfalfa and Alsike clovers once 

 win be no detriment to it. It is often done. 



Mr. ^i. H. Hunt intends to make a 

 large display of everything pertaining to 

 Bee-Culture at the Detroit Exposition, next 

 September. 



W. S. Hart, of Florida, is well-known 

 among the bee-keepers of America. He has 

 attended many of our National Conventions, 

 and has been a very successful apiarist and 

 enthusiastic orange-grower. The New 

 Smyrna Breeze thus tells of his enterprise : 



At Hawks' Park, on the first street back 

 from the river, stands the unpretentious 

 ivy-clad home of Mr. W. S. Hart, a bache- 

 lor from the Granite Hills of New Hamp- 

 shire. 



Mr. Hart arrived in this State from the 

 West 14 years ago, and a few years later 

 became one of the three earliest settlers at 

 Hawks' Park. Being of an enterprising 

 turn of mind, and having taken an active 

 part in every advance movement, he has 

 made his mark in this section, and evidences 

 of his handiwork are to be seen in all direc- 

 tions. Both officially and as a private citi- 

 zen he has contributed largely to the open- 

 ing up and improvement of roads anil 

 streets, the building of school-houses, a 

 Town Hall that is a credit to the place, and 

 many other enterprises calculated to ad- 

 vance the public welfare ; nor has he neg- 

 lected his own interests, but both as an 

 orange-grower and apiarist has had marked 

 success, and is also the owner of consider- 

 able of as good and well-located real estate 

 as can be found on this coast. His system 

 of setting groves, is to put them out in 

 about two-acre lots, leaving a belt of heavy 

 timber between, for protection against 

 winds and possible frosts. 



Of these groves he now has eight, with 

 land cleared for one more. Although all of 

 these groves are in good condition, there is 

 one or 202 trees in which he seems to take 

 particular pride, he having picked IS boxes 

 of oranges from the trees in one month, be- 

 fore they had been two years set. 



In his apiary the hives are arranged in 

 long double rows, shaded in the summer by 

 a light roof of palmetto leaves, or the ample 

 foliage aud fruit of the Thomas and Tender 

 Pulp grapevines. Not aiming to keep a 

 large apiary, he makes the 100 or 150 colo- 

 nies pay the profit of a much larger number 

 handled with less care and skill in manipu- 

 lation. Up to the time of the great freeze, 

 the lowest average yield per colony was ISO 

 pounds of extracted honey, while in 1884, 

 88 colonies, spring count, gave 2.3,000 pounds, 

 which filled 55 40gallon barrels, and made 

 an average of 255 pounds per colony, while 

 the apiary was increased to 117 colonies. 



The honey-house is 10x30, with three 

 floors, the attic being used for storing empty 

 hives, the floor below for storing frames, 

 wax, empty combs, and for ordinary manip- 

 ulations connected with the apiary. 



Here comb foundation is made for his own 

 and neighbors' use ; and here is the large 

 Stanley automatic houey-extractor, taking 

 four frames at a time, and reversing them 

 without removal from the can. From this 

 extractor the honey passes into a tank of 

 1,300 capacity, from which it passes by a 

 pipe through the wall into a large sun evap- 

 orator, in which it flows a distance of 110 

 feet uuder glass, while the heat of the sum- 

 mer sun cures it perfectly, and puts it in the 

 very best condition for shipping, keeping or 

 eating. 



From the evaporator it runs into a mov- 

 able tank standing on a track below ; as 

 soon as filled this tank is run back to the 

 basement, where the honey is barreled and 

 made ready for market. 



Mr. Hart is well-known throughout the 

 bee-keeping world by his writings, and his 

 having served for many years as Vice-Presi- 

 dent for Florida of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society ; as an active work- 

 ing officer and member of th« State Horti- 

 cultural Society, one of the fruit committee 

 for this State of the American Pomological 

 Society. Also the delegate selected to rep- 

 resent Hawks' Park, New Smyrna and 

 Glencoe in the orange-growers convention 

 at Palatka, on June 5, 1889. 



