1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



329 



In the dry districts the flows are 

 very distinct, and great skill is needed 

 to keep bees strong at the proper time 

 to catch the full benefit of the yield; 

 for often for weeks bees will do noth- 

 ing; then the cashaw or logwood 

 blooms suddenly open, and fairly 

 drips with nectar; and the careless 

 bee-keeper will lose nearly all of it 

 while the bees are raising a force 

 strong enough to gather the abundant 

 harvest. So it is often the case that 

 he goes to work and extracts too close- 

 ly, and his bees starve or abscond, or 

 "the moth" plays havoc, and "bee- 

 keeping doesn't pay." But there are 

 some wide-awake apiarists who have 

 the best modern appliances, and are 

 quietly increasing the number of col- 

 onies, and starting out-apiaries, and 

 Avho will surely reap a well-deserved 

 harvest. In the district about Spanish 

 Town there is complaint that the 

 hundreds of acres being cleared up 

 and planted to bananas— under irrig- 

 ation--is reducing the flows very 

 materially; but there are large areas 

 still untouched. Cocoanut palms also 

 yield honey, as do nearly all of the 

 palm family. 



Leaving the plains, and getting up 

 into the hills, we find a more varied 

 flora; for the rainfall is greater, and, 

 with decent care, bees will never need 

 feeding, as they often do on the dry 

 plains, for there are nectar-yielding 

 plants in bloom all the year round. 

 Logwood, which is found sparingly 

 on the dry plains, here grows with 

 great luxuriance, and is found in 

 nearly all the pastures on the great 

 cattle-ranches — here called "pens" — 

 which abound throughout the island, 



About Christmas, bees get more or 

 less honey from a convolvulus-like 



bloom called "Christmas pop," that 

 stimulates brood rearing, which is of 

 great value, as it puts the bees in 

 good shape, if properly managed, for 

 the harvest from logwood in January 

 and February, which lasts from four 

 to eight weeks. Oranges abound in 

 many parts of the island, and, where 

 plentiful, give considerable honey, 

 following closely after the logwood. 



The list of nectar-yielding plants in 

 the hills is quite a large one, includ- 

 ing many large trees as well as small 

 weeds and vines. A good many 

 swarms have escaped to the rocks and 

 many caves that are found through- 

 out the hill country. With the facil- 

 ities of good roads — none better any- 

 where — and convenient railway trans- 

 portation, it is a wonder some of the 

 apiarists on the plains have not moved 

 their bees into the hill country after 

 the cashaw flow has stopped. J. S. 

 Morales, the enterprising secretary of 

 the Jamaica Apicultural Society of 

 Spanish Town, not only handles Root's 

 goods, but rides a bicycle to his out- 

 apiary, and is much in request by a 

 number of beginners in various parts 

 of the island. Friend Morales finds 

 a wheel invaluable in his business, as 

 does the writer; for with the magnif- 

 icent roads everywhere through the 

 island "it's just fun" to wheel through 

 the lovely and varied tropical scenery. 



I again invite A. I. R. to visit this 

 island next winter. He will find many 

 things that will interest him as much 

 as any thing he has seen on any of 

 his travels — immense fields of bananas 

 grown under irrigation; great water- 

 falls, wonderful medicinal springs, 

 large sugar plantations, truck-growing 

 under irrigation, great caves, etc., as 

 well as a wealth of tropical vegetation 



