The American Apiculturist 



ENTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEM, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



Published Alonthly. S. M. LoCKE, Publisher & Prop'r 



VOL. 11. 



SALEM, MASS., JUNE t, 1884. 



No. 6. 



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BEE-CULTURE IN THE 

 SOUTH. 



By G. W. Demaree. 



Dr. Brown of Georgia in an 

 able article — the doctor's articles 

 are always well written and interest- 

 ing — published in the New England 

 Apiarian, expresses his belief that 

 the flow of nectar in the south is 

 never so copious as it is in the 

 colder northern regions ; though 

 he notices the fact that the hone}' 

 harvest is far more extended in du- 

 ration in the south. Of course he 

 speaks particularly of the wanner 

 portions of the great south. If there 

 is any place on the earth where the 

 flow of nectar is more profuse than 

 it sometimes is in Kentucky, and 

 other like climates and surround- 

 ings, I cannot imagine how the 

 bees can manage to handle even a 

 small portion of it. The black 

 locust, in the locality of the writer, 

 l-t 



is a most profuse nectar-bearer. 

 The only drawback with it is, that 

 it comes so early in the season that 

 it is likely to be partially lost by 

 the intervention of rain and cool 

 weather. Still, with these dangers 

 at hand, I have experienced but 

 one entire failure with it for 

 seven or eight years past, and 

 that one failure was caused by a 

 late frost killing the bloom one 

 night just before it was ready for 

 the bees. To give some idea of 

 the locust as a honey-producing 

 tree with us, I relate the following 

 circumstances. Two years ago, 

 my apiary came through the win- 

 ter in good health, but alarmingly 

 short of stores; and, as many of 

 the fruit buds were winter-killed, I 

 had to feed nearly every colony in 

 my apiary during the months of 

 March and April, and to the ninth 

 of May. Well, on Sunday before 

 the second Monday in May, my 

 bees made a little start on the lo- 

 cust, as a few trees began to un- 

 fold their flowers. I saw that feed 

 was at an end, and on Monday 

 morning left home to attend court 

 for the week. I was absent from 

 my apiary till the following Satur- 

 day morning, at which time I com- 

 menced to open such hives as I 

 had been feeding to keep alive up 

 to just one week previous. You 



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