453 



destroy the bees if left to themselves. 

 Our home market for honey is very 

 small. The only way we can ship our 

 honey to market is to extract it. At 

 present prices the cost of transporta- 

 tion almost eats it all up, leaving very 

 little for the man who did the work 

 and got the stings. 



I believe bees are crosser here than 

 anywhere else. I have some hybrids, 

 and no cold-draft smoker does them ; it 

 wants direct action, and strong at that. 

 But they beat anything in my apiary 

 for honey, and a moth miller or robber 

 has no business fooling around their 

 entrance. But if there are any sweets to 

 be stolen they are sure to be there. I 

 think bees rob worse here than North. 

 There is hardly ever a time when they 

 will not trouble any one that is extract- 

 ing out of doors, at least that has been 

 my experience here. 



I. am much interested in the reports 

 of the different Bee-Keepers' Conven- 

 tions which are given in your valuable 

 Journal. I hope we shall have a Flor- 

 ida Bee-Keepers' Association, with 

 smaller societies in each county, before 

 many years. So long as we do not have 

 them ourselves, I advise every bee- 

 keeper in the State to subscribe for the 

 American Bee Journal, where he 

 can find all of the doings of the vari- 

 ous Associations, as well as a notice of 

 everything that is useful and necessary 

 in the apiary for the comfort of the bee- 

 keeper or the bees themselves. 



Daytona, Fla., Aug. 16, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



In Memoriam. 



DIED— Suddenly at his home in Appleton, 

 Outagamie Co., Wis., on Tuesday, July 

 29, 1879, at 7 o'clock p. m., Alexander H. 

 Hart, aged 74 years, 11 months and 22 

 days ; a veteran hee-keeper of the North- 

 west. 



His health had been failing for more 

 than two years past. A very severe 

 and prolonged attack of neuralgia in 

 the summer and fall of 1877, brought on 

 by excessive labor in the apiary during 

 the abundant honey harvest of that 

 year, and from which he never fully 

 recovered, left him in feeble condition. 

 Though he attended to all the interest 

 of bee-culture with unabated zeal, he 

 has not since been able to endure ex- 

 posure or fatigue as in former years. 

 For a few days previous to his death 

 he was more feeble than usual, suffer- 

 ing extremely at times, although able 

 to walk about his room. The day on 

 which he died he was very much bet- 

 ter, was about the house during the 

 day, and at evening, as was his custom, 



went to the bee-yard where he was 

 found a few minutes after lying on the 

 ground in an unconscious state, in 

 which he immediately expired. 



Mr. Hart was born in Amsterdam, 

 Montgomery Co., N. Y. He was left 

 an orphan in early childhood, depen- 

 dent entirely upon his own exertions 

 for support and education. His boy- 

 hood and early manhood was passed in 

 his native State, where he was known as 

 an excellent mechanic and a most skill- 

 ful maker of iron implements ; but of 

 late years he has lived on a farm and 

 devoted much time to bee-culture in 

 which he took great delight. In 1835 

 he moved with his family to Ohio, 

 where he became identified with the 

 anti-slavery society, in which he was 

 an active an zealous worker, acquainted 

 personally or by reputation with many 

 of the prominent leaders of that move- 

 ment. In 1848 he came to Wisconsin, 

 and in 1853 was elected member of the 

 Assembly of this State. For 13 years 

 was a resident of Stockbridge, Calumet 

 county ; while there he was a long time 

 superintendent of the Congregational 

 Sunday School, and a communicant of 

 that church more than 50 years. Nine 

 years since he came to Appleton where 

 he formed a large circle of appreciative 

 friends. 



Mr. Hart was a man of large and 

 varied information. He gave much 

 time to study, and received several pat- 

 ents on important inventions. He read 

 many books ; very few laboring men 

 own a library as extensive as his. In 

 former years he read and purchased 

 many medical works, and could have 

 practiced medicine creditably to him- 

 self and acceptably to others, had he 

 wished to do so. In sickness he was 

 the counselor of his neighbors, and in 

 all matters pertaining to bee-culture 

 his opinion and teaching was considered 

 standard authority. 



His sympathies were always with the 

 poor and oppressed ; no wronged or 

 injured person, especially if a child, 

 ever escaped his observation or asked 

 his aid in vain. Always progressive, he 

 was interested in every reform ; was 

 ever active in the temperance cause, 

 and at the time of his death was a 

 member of the order of the Temple af 

 Honor. The life of Mr. Hart from 

 infancy to old age was crowded with 

 disaster and affliction, but his genial 

 nature was never soured by trouble or 

 sorrow, He was remarkably cheerful 

 and social — a pleasant word for all and 

 wonderfully kind to children, by whom 

 he was familiarly known as ''Uncle 

 Abe." 

 Three times during his eventful life 



