I'tihllsltl WeeUly at llf-i i/ic-li/ij-aii Stree*. 



Irll.iK) ij Veai — Sample Copy Free. 



37th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 10, 1897. 



No. 23. 



"THE LAND OF FLOWERS." 



Bee-Keeplug Thoughts, Observations and Ex- 

 periences in South Florida. 



BY 11. E. HILL. 



LContlnued from page 338.] 



Last summer we moved a small apiary to the Indian 



River Narrows mangrove region, about 50 miles from Spruce 



Bluff. As previously noted in these columns, the mangrove 



particular locality, and I decided to utilize an old, abandoned 

 dock during my brief stay. A part view of this migratory 

 apiary is herewith presented. Tho confined to such limited 

 space, our only difficulty during six weeks' bee-keeping in the 

 Indian river, arose from a general swarming-fever, which 

 could be controlled only by a wholesale caging of queens with- 

 in the hives. 



Time and space at this time forbid relating at length 

 many amusing circumstances Incidental to the life of a migra- 

 tory bee-keeper, in this most interesting country, some of 

 which would rival Rambler's trip to Santa Catalina. We 

 have no snow-capt mountains, burning deserts, gulches and 

 precipitous canyons which echo the howl of coyotes, " where 

 the lion roareth and the whangdoodle mourneth for his first 

 born," but, tho oft repeated, the charms of Florida, when 

 coming from a northern winter, are intensified by each succes- 

 sive experience ; the Ice and suow have vanisht, roses bloom 

 by the wayside, and from amid the rustling leaves of stately 

 palms feathered songsters of gaudy plumage send forth 

 melodies as of gratitude for this glad rendezvous where winter 

 blasts can never come. Mighty oaks, towering magnolias and 

 sweet bay trees supporting massive festoons of Spanish moss, 



Part View of a Florida Migratory Apiary. 



failed to secrete in that locality last season, tho we 

 secured some 500 pounds of comb honey, and 1,300 pounds 

 of extracted, from cabbage palm, during our stay upon an old 

 bulkhead adjacent to the islands. Owing to shoal water it 

 was difficult to effect a landing near the islands. To this was 

 added the fear of ants, which are very destructive in this 



artistically draped by the hand of Nature, wave o'er bead, 

 swayed by fresh Atlantic breezes, as dancing rays of tropical 

 sunlight through the foliage fall upon marble-white roads of 

 sand and shell. 



In January of last year I arrived in New Smyrna, 125 

 miles south of Jacksonville, where, in order to have my boat 



