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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



"Yes," said he, "my father owns the 

 largest prickly pear estate in Queens- 

 land." The silence of awe was his 

 reward. But to .Australasians the [oke 

 is the fact that the Queensland Gov- 

 ernment will give away first-class 

 land to any person who is willing to 

 clear it of "pear." 



But the story contains a libel on 

 the great northern state. It is a mag- 

 nificent land with a semi-tropical cli- 

 mate and heaps of bananas and pine- 

 apples, sugar cane and cattle — and 

 hone}' — and no foulbrood or much bee 

 disease of any kind. Of course, there 

 is prickly pear on the land, and the 

 water-hyacinth on some of the 

 streams, but these are mere trifles 

 compared with the wonders of the 

 forest. Yes, some honey is gathered 

 from prickly pear, but the melliferous 

 wealth of the indigenous trees is be- 

 yond belief. 



Some of your readers will remem- 

 ber (American Bee Journal. Septem- 

 ber, 1915, page 313) one of our illus- 

 trated articles depicting a spine-bill 

 honey-eater rifling the curiously- 

 shaped flowers of the silky oak 

 (Grevillea robusta). The writer has 

 shaken branches of these trees and 

 received a heavy shower of nectar. 

 In the "bush" there are all sorts of 

 climbing plants like the clematis 

 (Assitata) and other species. This 

 plant secretes a nice honey of a 

 slightly greenish hue, but Queens- 

 land is typical in that the main crop 

 of honey is derived from the indigen- 

 ous gum-tree. 



As a matter of truth, while a few 

 eucalypts may be common to two or 

 more states, the yellow box (E. mel- 

 liodora), for example, each state has 

 species peculiar to it, and each spe- 

 cies has its distinct period of flor- 

 escence, so that not a month passes 

 but some portion of Australia is har- 

 vesting a heavy crop. So, to make 

 the fact of local application, each dis- 

 trict has its own particular favorite. 

 One district claims red-gum as its 

 "banner" tree — that's America — • 

 Another puts its money on yellow 

 box — that's a sporting term. Yet an- 

 other will say, "My oath, that snap 

 gum is a bonzer" — that's pure Aus- 

 tralian. By the way, don't think that 

 the preceding paragraph is applicable 



to Queensland only; it applies to the 

 whole of the great commonwealth. 



Along with the usual list of wattles 

 or Acacias, the state owns a large 

 number of gums; there is the grey- 

 leaver and the broad-leaved iron- 

 barks(E. melanophloia) and (E. sider- 

 ophloia), the coolibah (E. microthe- 

 ca), narrow-leaved ironliark (E. 

 crebra), blackbutt E. uiluralis), white 

 gum (E. haemastoma), white stringy- 

 bark (E. acmenioides), spotted gum 

 (E. maculata)). But we cannot do 

 justice to half the honey plants of 

 Queensland. The "Apicultural Jour- 

 nal," the official organ of the bee- 

 keepers' association, is published at 

 Brisbane under the editorship of E. 

 L. Jones, with E. M. Tarte as secre- 

 tary of the publishing company. The 

 writer of these articles is the illus- 

 trator. It is nicely "bot up" and the 

 printing generally is good. They are 

 all practical men who control the 

 subject matter. Queensland is blessed 

 with many progressive apiarists and 

 the State Association is a live one. 

 At present there are three bee jour- 

 nals published in "Aussie," but the 

 ".'\ustralasian Beekeeper," Editor W. 

 S. Pender, is the oldest and enjoys 

 the largest circulation. The Queens- 

 lander is very enterprising and 

 spends a fair amount on illustrative 

 reproduction. The Victorian Journal 

 is the newest, but more stodgy in its 

 make-up. We like a good cover de- 

 sign, and the Victorian Journal is 

 lamentably deficient in that respect. 

 (By the way, speaking from the ar- 

 tistic aspect, it is time the "Western 

 Honey Bee" selected a new dress. 

 Considering the goods inside, it re- 

 quires a better showcase.) 



Queensland apiarists have an en- 

 ameled medallion for their members 

 and generally they are well up to 

 date. 



Tasmania 



The "Apple Garden,' 'or "Tassie," 

 has a more southerly latitude than 

 any other state, and while it grows 

 very huge trees, they are better 

 suited for the saw-milling industry. 

 They throw up giant clean boles for 

 hundreds of feet and. as mill logs, are 

 unsurpassed. The small feathery 

 tufts of foliage that crown these 

 trunks do not carry much bloom. It 



is generally true that th'e stunted 

 trees with large spreading tops are 

 the greatest yieldcrs of nectar. The 

 true blue gum (E. globulus), so well 

 known to Californians, is limited to 

 Tasmania and Victoria. Tasmania 

 grows plenty of clover and harvests 

 honey from that source and, of 

 course, there are the apple trees; but 

 you should see its sheep and the wool 

 therefrom. In conclusion, Mr. Editor, 

 we would like to make one request of 

 your readers : "Please do not write 

 for seeds." We are interested in the 

 drawing of the plants and also the 

 honey from gum-trees, but not in the 

 sale of seeds or plants. 



Field meet of Scott County, Missouri, beekeepers near Benton 



Selling Honey 



By A. Gordon Dye 



Your interesting article on the 

 honey selling campaign of the New 

 York Globe leads me to add a word. 

 The people of our cities like honey 

 and will buy readily in 5 and 10 pound 

 pails if it is brought ito their atten- 

 tion and steps taken to keep them 

 regularly supplied. But to do this 

 work, cultivate a demand for honey, a 

 study must be made of city people's 

 habits of buying. You must win their 

 confidence as to the purity, quality 

 and reliability of your goods. 



Honey flavors vary, and people's 

 tastes vary, so honeys should be 

 graded and labeled so that customers 

 may buy the flavors they prefer, and 

 be sure of getting them. City people 

 are accustomed to having their needs 

 supplied at regular intervals and only 

 a small proportion will take the trou- 

 ble to order by mail or telephone, and 

 for the present they have not formed 

 the habit of buying honey in large 

 containers from the stores. This 

 means that orders must be solicited 

 if we are going to reach a large pro- 

 portion of the consuming public, and 

 the same territory must be covered 

 regularly. This will require a large 

 supply of honey which you can back 

 as to quality and flavor. Agents and 

 delivery service must be maintained 

 for twelve months of the year. It is 

 evident that individual beekeepers 

 cannot do this work alone advan- 

 tageously for several reasons: First, 

 most beekeepers are of necessity too 

 far from ithe large cities to conduct 

 what must be a city business. Second, 

 few beekeepers would have a suffi- 

 cient supply to maintain such a busi- 

 ness with one or more agents and de- 

 livery service. Third, few producers 

 are qualified for or have the time to 

 manage both the production end and 

 the sales end of the business. And it 

 is demoralizing to good business to 

 have a number of beekeepers spas- 

 modically putting a limited amount of 

 honey on the market, of indefinite 

 quality, in varied containers and at 

 widely divergent prices. 



Agents and delivery service started 

 wi'th sufticient lioncy back of an en- 

 terprise of this kind, with the right 

 kind of a man to manage the busi- 

 ness, beekeepers could be assured of 

 a good market for their honey and 

 the consumer could have the best 

 honey on his table at a cost of from 

 10 to IS cents a pound above whole- 



