636 



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Superiority of Florida Honey. 



— John Craycraft, Altoona, Fla., ou 

 Sept. 11, 1889, writes : 



The American Bee Journal has 

 been with us so long that I do not wish 

 to part company with it. Its words of 

 advice are good and timely, and much 

 of the correspondence is a delight, but 

 some of it is not necessary or applica- 

 ble to this climate. My crop of honey 

 was fair — 8 gallons per colouj'. and as 

 fair a grade and as good as could be 

 wished for. I have only 20 colonies, 

 but I obtained 160 gallons of honey, 

 and all sold at $1.00 per gallon. I 

 could sell a great deal more of such 

 honey. My bees are along the St. 

 Johns river at St. Francis. The honey 

 gathered along the river is of the very 

 best kind — far superior to the honey 

 out on the pine lands. This I know 

 from experience, by having bees in 

 both places. I do not want to see 

 Florida honey classed as "Southern 

 honey," and sold at a price as such is 

 usually sold. The orange-blossom 

 honey, the wild grape-vine honey, and 

 the palmetto honey, cannot be sur- 

 passed bj' clover or linden. 



Susquciianna Co., Convenlioii. 



— H. M. Seeley, Harford, Pa., on Sept. 

 16, 1889, writes : 



The Susquehanna County Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association ftiet at New Milford, 

 Pa., on Sept. 14, 1889, with only a 

 small number present. The following 

 subjects were freely discussed : How 

 to prevent an increase of stock ; and 

 how to prepare bees for winter. The 

 honey-crop was reported light, with 

 bees working on hone3'-dew to some 

 extent. The next meeting will be 

 held at the Exchange Hotel, at Hop- 

 bottom, Pa., on Saturday, May 2, 1889. 



< > a * » 



Foul Brood. — Mr. G. F. Davidson, 

 Fairvicw, Tex., on Sept. 26, 1889, 

 writes : 



I verj' much fear that foul brood is 

 among nij' bees, although I cannot 

 tell, a.s 1 never saw any bees affected 

 with it. I have about 100 colonies, 

 and have not bought any queens from 

 the North on account of this disease, 

 though there has been considerable 

 foul brood around San Antonio, some 

 30 miles distant. I will describe, as 

 nearly as I can, the way my bees are 

 affected. 



In early spring I had one colony 

 that showed a brown, sticky substance 

 on the alighting-board, and on the 

 ground in front of the hive. The col- 

 ony soon perished. I gave the combs 

 to other colonies, and about two 

 months ago I noticed the same thing 



in front of another hive. In the mean- 

 while, I had read several articles in 

 the Bee Journal on foul brood and 

 its sj'mptonis ; I examined the hive, 

 and found dead larvas in all stages in 

 the cells, thougli it was perfectly white, 

 and had no offensive smell, and no 

 concave cell-caps, as described in the 

 Bee Journal. I destroyed this col- 

 ony immediately, and burned the 

 combs and frames. Now I have 

 another colony affected in the same 

 manner ; they drag out the larvw and 

 bees ready to hatch, in front of the 

 hive, clean and white without any 

 smell. I treated them with strong 

 brine, and in about two hours I went 

 to the hive, and the ground in front 

 was black with dead and dying bees. 

 They looked as though they were 

 gorged with honey. Upon mashing 

 them, I found it to be thick, yellow 

 matter, very much like pollen. I will 

 wait until I get information from some 

 one of experience, before doing any- 

 tiiing more. 



Light Crop of Honey C. E. 



Woodward, Xeuia, Ohio, on Sept. 23, 

 1889, says : 



The honey crop in the southern sec- 

 tion of Ohio is veiy light this season, 

 owing to the drouth. Bee-keepers will 

 not realize half a crop. Swarming has 

 been the order of the day. Bees are 

 mostly in good condition. The fall 

 crop amounts to nothing. 



Castor-Oil Plant — Dr. G. W. 



Bristline, Mount Pleasant, Texas, on 

 Sept. 21, 1889, writes : 



Can any of the readers of the Bee 

 Journal give information as to the 

 value of castor-oil plant as a honey, 

 plant ? It grows very well here, and 

 the bees work on the bloom from its 

 first appearance in June until frost, 

 and last 3-ear they were gathering pol- 

 len from it after Christmas. It is not 

 planted here for market, and I have 

 only a li)nited number, so I cannot tell 

 as to its value for honey, but the bees 

 will not leave it for any other flower ; 

 and they work all day, over and over 

 again, crowding each other off the 

 bloom. Will some one living in a 

 locality where it is cultivated for mar- 

 ket, please give us this information ? 



Getting; Bee§ Out of Supers. — 



J. M. Burtch, Morrison, Ills., on Sept. 

 19, 1889, writes ; 



On page 600, James Heddon says : 

 " The bee-keeper is away behind the 

 times at present who does not get the 

 bees all out of his supers before he 

 takes them from the hive." He will 



confer a favor upon myself and other 

 " away behind " bee-keepers, if he will 

 tell us how to get them out ; or, better, 

 give us the most approved method of 

 removing surplus cases. I have tried 

 two methods — one, that of smoking 

 them down, which is not succcs.sful, as 

 frequently they will not budge, no 

 matter how hard you smoke them : the 

 other, that of raising the cover or the 

 case, on a cold night, which is more 

 successful, but is too cruel to be 

 practiced. 



[We asked Mr. Heddon to reply to 

 the foregoing, but he says that the 

 method of getting the bees out of the 

 supers before they are taken from the 

 hives is not his invention, and the in- 

 ventor does " not wish to have it pub- 

 lished at present, if ever." — Eu.] 



Flowing with IMilkand Honey 



— Daniel Sheldon, Strawberrj- Point, 

 Iowa, on Sept, 24, 1889, says : 



Bee-keepers in this part of the State 

 are well satisfied with the results of 

 the season. Truly this part of the 

 Iowa dairy-belt is " a land flowing with 

 milk and honey." Bees have swarmed 

 profusely, favoring those who wanted 

 an increase of colonies. They have 

 stored honey in the greatest abundance. 

 Those problems in bee-keeping which 

 looked so hard, look easier now. after 

 reading the American Bee Journal 

 for two years. My son shot a king- 

 bird lately ; it was crammed with bees. 



Golden-Rod as a Honey-Plant. 



— W. A. Harris, New York, N. Y., ou 

 Sept. 23, 1889, writes : 



I notice on page 585, an article by 

 Mr. Eugene Secor, relative to the 

 "golden-rod" lieing ' over-rated ; this 

 has long been my opinion. Would it 

 not be worth while to call for an ex- 

 pression of opinion in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, as to its value as a honey-pro- 

 ducer ? Mr, Doolittle said to me some 

 years ago, that he " had never ob- 

 tained a pound of honey from golden- 

 rod, to his knowledge." In this locality 

 the whole country is covered with it, 

 yet we very rarely see a single bee on 

 it, or find any honey being brought 

 into the hives. We have two varieties 

 here only — perhaps some of the other 

 varieties maj' produce nectar while 

 these may not, I have watched it for 

 many seasons, in the hope of its pro- 

 ducing in some year, but I have always 

 been disappointed. I wish it were 

 otherwise, as it is so abundant. 



[Yes ; let ns have a general expres- 

 sion of opinion on the subject. We 

 want the facts, — Ed.] 



