133 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



July 



The foregoing is in reference to the 

 honey frOni the blossom, but in late Fall 

 another grade of honey is obtained from 

 the berry. The berries develop in great 

 clusters, often six or eight of these to the 

 "bud," or terminal head of the tree, from 

 a quart or two to a peck or more often 

 being gathered from one of these. These 

 herries are from the size of an olive to 

 about twice that, and of like shape and 

 seed, though the seed is much smaller in 

 proportion to the size of the fruit. Hun- 

 dreds of tons of these berries are gather- 

 ed each season and s-hipped to chemical 

 works where their very valuable proper- 

 ties are extracted and made into medi- 

 cine to go to all the world. It is only a 

 few years since it was discovered that 

 this fruit contained a large per centage 

 of the oils of bromine and iodine, the 

 only source of the latter from any dry 

 land plant known, I believe. Sansmetto 

 is made from this and sandalwood. The 

 increasingly popular summer drink, 

 "metto," is also made from this berry. 

 After the fruit becomes fully ripe the 

 rich juice oozes through the skin and 

 stands in thick syrupy drops on the out- 

 side, from where the bees gather it, 

 often filling their hives with a rich store 

 almost at the close of the year. There 

 has been no analysis of this honey so far 

 as the writer knows, but there seems to 

 be little doubt that it is of far more value 

 as a medicine for all throat and lung 

 troubles, as well as for the healthful 

 development of the glands of the body, 

 than almost any nostrums now offered 

 suffering humanity. Hogs, cattle, bears, 

 people, all get fleshy and robust when 

 feeding on the berries. This curious 

 tree and its fruit have a future that we 

 of the present can only guess at. For- 

 tunately the supply is almost unlimited, 

 though its growth and fruiting in great- 

 est perfection is largely confined to the 

 sea coast. 



Hawks Park, Fla.: June 11. H>01. 



"Bees range ordinarily within two or 

 three miles in all directions from their 

 homes, but sometimes go farther." 



UNPAINTED HIVES. 



A Criticism of Mr. Doolittle's Defense, 

 in the May Number. 



BA' .\UTHIJK C. MI1,I-EK. 



APPARENTLY Mr. Doolittle always 

 considers any criticism of his ex- 

 pressed views as a personal at- 

 tack, and in his replies often gives way 

 to his feelings. Such an attitude, be it 

 due to whatever cause it may, makes it 

 particularly unpleasant to those who. 

 believing his views erroneous, have to 

 controvert them. In his reply to my 

 article on unpainted hives he has plainly 

 evinced such feeling, and used forms of 

 expression which are not conducive to 

 good feeling, nor what we should expect 

 from one who says: "Trying to hold an- 

 other up to ridicule does not count for 

 anything in an argument." 



In the reply alluded to he has made 

 some misleading statements and asser- 

 tions to which, for the protection of my- 

 self and of those who, relying on Mr. 

 Doolittle's prominence, assume a thing is 

 so because he says so, I must make 

 answer. 



To save space, instead of repeating 

 my original remarks, I will refer those 

 interested to the January American 

 Bee-keeper. Freed from its verbiage, 

 Mr. Doolittle's reply is this: As moisture 

 cannot pass through the walls of a paint- 

 ed hive, it condenses on the inside; that 

 paint is expensive, in twenty-one years 

 equalling two and one-half times the cost 

 of the hive; that in painted hives the 

 combs would be all covered with ice after 

 a spell of zero weather; that the propolis 

 "cheeks" and lets the moisture through: 

 that a chaff hive should be painted, 

 "that the chaff walls or dead air space 

 would allow the moisture from the bee? 

 to pass off and out;" that "nearly all 

 bee-keepers in the North now winter all 

 single-walled hives in the cellar;" that 

 " all practical bee-keepers use a shade- 

 board;" and that his are covered with 

 tin. 



To which confusion of ideas 1 would 



