SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 133 



keepers are adopting the latest styles of supplies, and doing away with the 

 old box hive. 



As to our pollen and honey plants, bees begin to gather pollen here 

 about the first of January, and it lasts about four weeks. Our next is red 

 elm in February which furnishes abundance of pollen. Maples are our 

 next. Maple begfins blooming in March, and furnishes some honey for two 

 weeks ; and fruit bloom and blackgum furnish a little honey. Then our main 

 honey-flow is from poplar, beginning -about the middle of April. It gives us 

 a heavy flow, and lasts from three to four weeks. Honey from it is of a 

 dark-amber color, and of a good quality. Then we have a flow in June from 

 wahoo and rattan, which is of a very fine grade. Our surplus generally runs 

 from 50 to 100 lbs. per colony. Then we have a little all along during the 

 summer and fall from cotton and wild flowers. 



This is a sketch of my locality. I will now give the names of some 

 Alabama bee-keepers : 



R. O. Cox, Greenville; Elix Whitten, Greenville; B. L. Perdue, Green- 

 ville; W. J. Forehand, Ft. Deposit; Holmes & Garret, Letohatchee; D. S. 

 Hurst, Letohatchee; Brown & Knight, Haneville. The last four names are 

 located in Lowndes County, in the sweet-clover reigons. It begins blooming 

 in May, and lasts three weeks. The yield per colony is from 150 to 20c 

 pounds. They also get some fine cotton honey in Lowndes County on the 

 prairie lands. It is very light in color and of excellent flavor. 



E. A. Simmons, 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF BEE-KEEPING IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Woffer, S. C 

 South Carolina is not famous as a honey-producing State, and we have 

 not as large apiaries as some other States ; but although modern bee-keeping 

 is in its infancy, yet enough has been accomplished to show that bees, prop- 

 erly managed, can be made to give large yields of splendid honey; and "in 

 this locality we usually are able to get two crops — one in the spring, the 

 other in the late fall. In the lower half of the State, where they do not 

 have the wild aster, the fall flow may not be so heavy; but in that section 

 where the gall-berry abounds along with other splendid honey-bearing flora 

 the crops of honey are often heavy. In this locality, middle-western South 

 Carolina, we usually harvest crops of very distinct and different grades, but 

 which have about the same market value. In the spring the bees build up 

 rapidly on the elm ; then the maple, and then comes fruit-bloom, poplar, black- 

 berry, black gum, then the persimmon, from which we get most of our sur- 

 plus. 



THE FALL FLOW. 



The bees keep in strong condition during the summer months on sour- 

 wood and field crops, such as corn, peas, melons, and, best of all, summer 



