box hives for a number of years, as well 

 as upon a few months' personal experi- 

 ence and observation, and should, there- 

 fore, be received cjim quano sulis. The 

 box-hive men say that 50 lbs. of honey 

 per hive is an average yield for good 

 years. You can probably determine 

 from this data what would be the yield 

 with improved hives and good manage- 

 ment. 



I saw a statement in the Journal 

 from a Mr. Bayard, of this county, to 

 the effect that bees could not make 

 comb here after June 1st. I do not wish 

 to discredit Mr. Bayard's statement, 

 which is douhtless true when applied 

 to his and similar localities, but it does 

 not apply to the one in which I reside. 

 It is a well-known fact that bees can 

 build comb when they can obtain honey, 

 even when contined, wax being simply 

 a secretion from saccharine matter. 

 But to facts. My bees have been build- 

 ing comb quite rapidly during the past 

 and present month. A case holding 8 

 sections put in the brood chamber of 

 one of my hives about the 1st inst., was 

 rilled with comb and honey in 10 days. 

 A colony hived from a tree a few days 

 since, are now building comb satisfac- 

 torily. 



There are only certain localities of 

 this county that are naturally adapted 

 to bee-culture. I have little or no ac- 

 quaintance of the State beyond the 

 limits of Orange county, though I 

 think the statement will hold good of 

 all peninsular Florida. A far greater 

 area of this county is covered with 

 pine timber, interspersed with beauti- 

 ful clear-water lakes. This portion is 

 well adapted to the growing of semi- 

 tropical fruits, and affords delightful 

 places of residence for those engaged 

 in their cultivation, but it is not at 

 present suited to bee-keeping. When 

 the numerous orange, lemon and other 

 tropical fruits, now being cultivated, 

 come into bloom and bearing, its char- 

 acter will be materially changed and 

 bees may be kept with good results. 

 The best results are now obtained in 

 the vicinity of hemlock and swamp 

 lands, which generally border the large 

 lakes, the St. John's river and smaller 

 streams. 



I will give you a list of the honey- 

 producing plants and the order and du- 

 ration of their blooming, so far as I am 

 acquainted with them from a limited 

 and casual observation : January — 

 Maple, about a month. February — 

 Pennyroyal, about 6 weeks; orange and 

 lemon, 1 month ; willow, 3 weeks ; oak, 

 dewberry. 3 weeks. March — Alder, 

 nearly all the time ; oak ; blackberry, 

 about 3 weeks. April— Blackberry, a'l- 



405 



der. May — Low palmetto, until July — 

 very nice honey ; magnolia, 6 weeks; 

 variety of bays, 1 month ; gallberry, 

 3 weeks. June — Low palmetto, mag- 

 nolia, bays. July— Cabbage palmetto, 

 about 1 month — very nice honey ; par- 

 tridge pea, duration of bloom unknown. 



The pennyroyal, so-called by the na- 

 tives, is a small plant, very numerous 

 in places, having small blue flowers on a 

 cone-shaped burr, stems rather trail- 

 ing, no limbs, short narrow leaves on 

 the stems. It seems to be very rich in 

 honey by the number of bees frequent- 

 ing it. The odor of the plant is some- 

 what like pennyroyal, hence its name. 

 I regret I did not send some specimens, 

 while in bloom, to Prof. Cook to ascer- 

 tain its true name. There are a great 

 many other flowers of secondary im- 

 portance with whose names I am unac- 

 quainted. Those that bloom the re- 

 mainder of the year I am also unac- 

 quainted with, having never observed 

 before this year. Goldenrods are nu- 

 merous, and I think bloom in August 

 and September. 



When the millions of orange and 

 other semi-tropical fruit give their full 

 capacity of their sweets to our bees, in 

 addition to flowers already named, do 

 you not think we can compare favor- 

 ably with other boasted honey produc- 

 ing regions of the Union V 



It is needless to say that articles on 

 wintering and feeding and descriptions 

 of chaff hives, are read by us simply to 

 satisfy curiosity. It is exceedingly rare 

 that our bees are not on the wing gath- 

 ering stores. 



Not having tin convenient, I used 

 recently paper for separators, putting 

 it perpindicularly around the case and 

 prize boxes, leaving the usual space in 

 each side of boxes. Laterally it would 

 not hold the boxes securely. 



Clifton Springs, Fla., July 22, 1879. 



P. S. — My bees would not allow of 

 the use of paper for separators, having 

 gnawed it in pieces and carried it out 

 of the hives. Bees are industriously 

 gathering honey from cabbage palmet- 

 • to, cow peas and many smaller flowers. 

 The partridge pea, which is very plen- 

 tiful, does not bloom till next month. 



Clifton Springs, Fla., July 26, 1879. 



From the Michigan Homestead. 



Style More Important than Quantity. 



FRANK BENTON. 



With most bee-keepers the one object 

 seems to be to produce the largest possible 

 amount of honey. 



Important as a large crop is to bee-keep- 

 ers, we believe there is another tiling of 



