140 SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 



but there is great room yet, and much fertile land to be developed. Natu- 

 rally, apiculture is in its infancy here, but it is making great progress, and 

 •soon we shall have a long list of extensive bee-keepers. 



To the prospective bee-keeper South Georgia presents a poor appearance, 

 ior somehow they have been wrongly informed, and are looking for dense 

 swamps, along large streams. Hundreds of letters of inquiry have come 

 to my desk asking about the Okefenoke Swamp in the lower edge of South 

 Georgia, as a bee pasture. It is a poor one, of course, and other dense 

 swamps are no better. South Georgia is well watered, and contains much 

 waste land not in or near dense swamps and here we find our best bee-pas- 

 ture along creeks and their sources. What will be found in such locations 

 in the way of honey-plants will be about as follows. In January, alder, our 

 first pollen-plant, will begin to bloom. About the first of February maple will 

 begin to bloom, which is plentiful, and great pollen-plant. It yields some 

 nectar if the weather is warm during the height of its blooming, and great 

 progress is made in the brood-nests. It continues to bloom until wild plum, 

 redbud, May haw, and fruit-trees around farm houses begin to bloom. 

 Then cypress, beech, and sweet gum continue the supply of pollen and a 

 little nectar until about the first of April. By this time all colonies that have 

 received the proper attention are boiling over with bees, and in the best 

 possible condition for the first honey-flow, which now begins from tupelo gum, 

 which is plentiful in the beds of the creeks and branches as well as along 

 the banks, and scattered through the narrow swamps. This flow is followed 

 by another one, about the loth of April, from poplar which is plentiful all 

 over waste or low lands ; also holly and black gum, which begin to bloom, 

 and the heavy flow is continued on from these sources until the 5th or loth 

 of May. when the gallberry, which covers the forest from three to five feet 

 deep, unbosoms mother Elarth of her much desired treasure, nectar, and con- 

 tinues the flow on until about June i. Then the ti-ti, which is in abundance 

 along creeks, branches, and low wet land, begins to bloom, and continues 

 the flow on for forty or fifty days. During this time the farmers have 

 thousands of acres of the fleecy staple, cotton, in reach of our bees, growing 

 and flourishing, and about the loth of July it has bloomed enough for the 

 "bees to leave the ti-ti and take to the cotton-fields, which extend the flow on 

 to frost. 



South Georgia honey is nearly all light in color, and has a good body 

 and flavor. But honey from the cotton-plant turns to sugar the first cold 

 spell, if it is extracted, but will remain liquid if seakd in the comb. 



Our annual average per colony is between 40 and 100 pounds. The flow 

 from cotton is long and sure ; and bees winter on cotton honey, and but little 

 if any feeding is ever required. The Author. 



BEE-KEEPING IN FLORIDA. 



Ft. White, Fla. 

 As I begin to write I would rather give this another headline and say 



