38-J. 



gleaki:ng8 in bee culture. 



May 



tlic'ir benefit, riiilier tliiui to their injury; for it sets 

 tlietn to hreeding-, so that. l)y the time they are set 

 out, tliey will have brood about liatching, or about 

 to baioh, aud this in time to take the place of the 

 bees which die of old age. However, I should not 

 want them to breed earlier than three weeks be- 

 fore setting- out. G, M. Doolittle. 

 Borodino, N. Y., May 1, 1888. 



O. O. POPPLETON IN CUBA. 



IIIC TKI^LS US WHAT IS UEING DONE TO INTRO- 

 DUCK ENIj1GHTENI:U liEE CUiyrURE THERE. 



TT may he interesting to our readers to 

 ^f know that our friend O. O. Poppleton, 

 W recently of Hawks Park, Florida, is 

 ■^ now located in Cuba, witli Mr. Dussaq, 

 Apartado 278, Havana. Mr. Dussaq 

 has an immense bee-ranch, and Mr. Popple- 

 ton is to take charge of it, as Mr. Osburn, 

 who formerly held this position, is about to 

 leave for the United States. We vi^rote to 

 Mr. Pop])leton that we should be glad to 

 hear iiora him in his new locality. In a 

 private letter he replies, and we give an ex- 

 tract from it below : 



Friend Root:— We have been in Cuba only a little 

 over two months. What information 1 yet have of 

 bee-keeping here has been obtained from Mr. Os- 

 born; and his principal work while in Cuba has 

 been in building up apiaries more than in running 

 one already establislied, so you see we are working 

 a partially untried field. So far we are very well 

 pleased with the outlook, both as to bee-keeping 

 and to the comforts of living. In this last respect 

 cPi)eciall.v we have been very agreeably surprised. 

 1 am also well pleased with the kindness ard friend- 

 liness of our neighbors, and with all whom we 

 have dealings Avith. Owing to the tact that the 

 honey crop is obtained during the two coldest 

 months of the year, it has been found best to lo- 

 cate the apiary in a valley, and to closely surround 

 it with bushes as a windbreak. This makes it im- 

 possible to obtain a good view of the apiary; and 

 both Mr. Dussaq and myself have looked the 

 ground over, and decided that it will hardly pay to 

 attempt it. 



I know of but three movable-comb apiaries in 

 Culia. One of them, belonging to Mr. Casanova, 

 contains between 200 and 300 colonies, and is situat- 

 ed some 30 miles east of here; one now starting 

 in charge of A. J. King, near the center of the isl- 

 and, and this one where we are located, consisting 

 at present of about 400 colonies, with empty hives 

 aud shed-room for .51."> in all. When nearly all the 

 hives arc filled we shall pi-obably have one of the 

 largest and best-fltted moxable comb apiaries in the 

 world. 1 am free to praise it what I think is right, 

 as the planning and work have so far been Mr. 

 Osborn's and not mine. 



By the way, won't it pay you largely in the mat- 

 ter of health to take a month ne.vt winter from 

 your business, and take a Hying trij) to Florida and 

 down here? I think it will. O O. Poi^pt-.ETON. 



Havana, Cuba, Mar. 31, 1888. 



Friend P., we are greatly obliged to you ; 

 but after you get to work a little more we 

 w^ant you to give us more of the details — 

 write them out fully. We all know that 



you have a remarkably happy faculty of tell- 

 ing us all about any thing we want to 

 know. 1 know there are lots of your old 

 bee-friends who would be very glad indeed 

 to hear about bee culture in Cuba. 



P0NEY g¥^¥Ig5iqC5 



FROM ALL PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



In order to read understandingly the reports given below, it 

 will be necessary to observe the foll<^wing points: First, the 

 State is given; then next in their order are the names of the 

 reporters, witli their respective postothces. To indicate local- 

 ity, the usual ahbrevations are nsed N, S.. E.and W., for 

 north, soutli, east, and west; N. E. for north-east, etc. The 

 letter C indicates the word ■' central;" E. C. east central, etc. 

 In the following list, the first figure represents the month, and 

 the second figure the date at which the report was rendered. 

 The small italic letters, a, b, c, d, etc., indicate the answers to 

 the questions propounded in questions a, b, c, etc., just below 



E herewith present our readers with 

 the second installment of statistical 

 reports. As this is a large country, 

 those questions which would apply 

 to the Northern States would not 

 be applicable to those in the South. You 

 will observe, therefore, that we have pre- 

 pared two sets of qviestions. Tlte resident 

 bee-keepers in the North answer the first 

 set, and those of the South answer the sec- 

 ond set. Those who are located on or about 

 the dividing line sometimes answer all of 

 the questions. The questions which our 

 correspondents answer are as follows, and 

 the replies are indicated by the correspond- 

 ing letters in italics : 



QUESTIONS ANSW^EKED BY ItKrORTEKS 



LOCATED IN THE NOKTHEItN 



STATES. 



(a) Whatper cent of your bees hare winlercdf 

 lb) What per cent of the been iv i/our locality 

 do you estimate have winter edf 



(c) Wh<it method of wintering ., in your locali- 

 ty, seems to be preferred— that is. cellar vnnter- 

 ing, or wintering on sunmier stands? 



(d) WJiat are the prospects for a crop of hon- 

 ey this coming season, at the time of writing? 



QUESTIONS AN8WERED BY KEl'ORTEKS 



LOCATED IN THE IMIDDLE AND 



SOUTHERN STATES. 



(e) What per cent of an average crop of ho7i- 

 ey has been secured in your locnlity. as nearly 

 as you can estimate up to the time of your 'writ- 

 ing? Yoti may not yet have secured your full 

 crop, but has it (leveraged as welt as it usually 

 does, so far? 



if) From what source vms it gathered.? 



W. p. W. Duke, Nettleborough. S. W. 4-;;0. 



e. Full crop. f. Principally from poplar and persiniinon. 



J. M. Jenkins, Wetumpka. C. 5-1. 



d. About as good as usual; better than last 2 years, e. if rem 

 various sources, but probably more from poplar (tulip-tree) 

 than any thing else. 



ARIZONA. 

 J. I. tJregg Tempe. C. i-U. 



e. From 100 hives, 100 gals, to date; about a-s u.sua'. f. From 

 <a great variety of tlowers. Wild desert currant, batta mota. 

 willow, yellow' blossom in the fool-hills, and alfalfa. 



ARKANSAS. 



A C. Behrens, Malvern. C. 6-1. 



6. No surplus; bees just starting in supers, t From huckle- 

 berry and sweet gum . 



CAT.ni'ORNIA. 



W. W. Bliss. Duarte. L. A. Co. S. E. 4-25. 



e. But little honey yet; .season not open yet for extracting. 

 Average, good— above what it usually is. f. From fruit-bloom, 

 orange-trees, buck-thorn, etc. 



