1892 



('.LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



413 



FLORIDA. 



I.KXGTH OF TIIK llONI. V -KI.OW ; KATTLESNAKKS. 



The llrst tliinir wlicn I lake up (ii.KAXiNGs is 

 to look lip ill tlio tahlc of I'oiiti'iits ili(> word 

 Florida: but my eye is very seldom sralilied. 

 How ott<>ii I wish" that thi> talontod oiu's of 

 Florida hcp-kci'pt'rs would givo us some items 

 iificiicr than thi'v dol 



Wt'll. friend uVowii has taken groat pains in 

 iriving us his annual Florida report. I see by it 

 liiat some i)eople leaii us to think tliat they get 

 honey the "year round." Do they mean to get 

 a i-rop every day'.' Here in Orange County I 

 ean get honey only in Mairh. April. May, or 

 .liiiy and October. " Hetween tli(> tiiree distinct 

 crops of orange-blossom, palmetto, and golden- 

 rod, there is (|iiite a cut -off. 



Northern bee-keepers are sending their bees 

 here to gather in line orange-blossom honey, 

 and. I suppo.se. get back north in time for the 

 clover crop. A .Mr. Lane, from Michigan, has 

 visited my apiary, and consulted me with a 

 view of moving some bees liere. 



Dr. Harry Siites. of Harrisbiirg. Pa., has first 

 <eiit a carload of hives to .lupiter.oii the Indian 

 River, and. a week after, he sent a carload of 

 bees. They must have hummed in that car. 

 This was in March, our swarming time. My 

 first swarm came out the 15tli of March. 



I never thought that first swarms would de- 

 spise nice orange-trees as an alighting-spot, 

 and would take themselves tiway to the top of 

 a pine-tree a hundred feet or so from the apia- 

 ry. Well. I had such a case. Two sturdy ne- 

 groes blazed away with their a.\es on that giant, 

 which finally came down with a terrific crash, 

 bees and all. half of them mashed to jelly; but 

 the other, which I suppose was the better half, 

 went back to the hive sadder, but much wiser, 

 to all api)earances. 



Friend Olsen. from New Smyrna, writes me 

 that he lost 2:3 colonies out of 50. through some 

 greedy bears. Bruin evidently thought him- 

 self sadly in need of a la.\ative. Olson gave 

 him some strvciinine to put him in order. I do 

 not object to bears, especially in the oven: but, 

 as the croaker says. I liave no use for the rat- 

 tler. In finishing np my twenty-acre vineyard, 

 one of the boys very nearly stepped on one of 

 those "varmints." It was dispatched before 

 doing any damage. The rattlesnake measured 

 .5-._. ft., and was the happy possessor of four rat- 

 tles and a button. Mr. Root, if you come down 

 here ne.xt winter, as I know you must do, I will 

 show you that skin. J. B. LaMontagxe. 



Winter Park, Fla.. Apr. 2.5. 



CRANKS. 



ARE THERE ANY AMONG REE-KEEPERS? THE 

 GREAT INVENTORS IN HEEDOM. 



Some time ago I was talking with a man 

 about bees, and he made the remark that all 

 bee-keepers were cranks. I am a bee-keeper on 

 a small scale. This man knew it, and it did not 

 lake me long to recall my rhetoric to this ex- 

 tent: Major premi.se. all bee-keepers are cranks; 

 minor premise, you are a bee-keeper. Conclu- 

 sion ('.). 



I had never before been called a crank in such 

 an indirect way, and it rather surprised me. He 

 went on as though he were saying an -undisput- 

 ed thing: that h(» did not know whether they 

 were cranks before they commenced, or wheth- 

 er the pursuit made them cranks after they 

 took it up; but cranks they were, all of them. 



.Since then I have often thought of this con- 

 versation, and wondered if there might not be a 

 grain of truth in it. There is one point of re- 



sembhuice to cranks which we must acknowl- 

 edge. I never knew a Ikh'- keeper of two years' 

 exjierience but had a hobby. This hobby, how- 

 ever, changed as he gained exi)erience. Ho 

 rode them to death in short order, but still he 

 had ti) ride, and he tiOok a good many trials be- 

 fore 111' felt; |)i-operly mounted. A peculiarity 

 about this is, that every one thinks his hobby is 

 diU'erent from and a little better than that of 

 any one else. 



DoiTt you remember driving along the road 

 and coming to a farmhouse with an orchard and 

 lots of bee-hives scattered among the trees? 

 The sight of the hives gave you a sort of fellow- 

 feeling, and, notwithstanding you were a per- 

 fect stranger, you made up your mind to go in 

 and have a little chat. So you tied your horse 

 at the gate, and followi^d the family |)atli round 

 the house. There stood the bee-keeper by the 

 well, with some of his neighbors who had come 

 over to make him a call. How did you know 

 him ? Oh: I can't begin to tell all the little de- 

 tails of appearance by which you recognized 

 him : it was all these put together — his tout 

 ensemble. 



After introducing yourself you went out to 

 see the bees, and in five minutes you learned 

 from your host that he "s'posed " there wasn't 

 another man in the world that kept bees just as 

 he did. You were instantly on the (luivive to 

 learn something new; but five minutes more 

 disclosed the fact that his peculiarity consisted 

 in being just seventeen years behind the times. 



I have heard that cranks are great pairons of 

 the patent office. This may be an additional 

 point of resemblance, for I believe bee-keepers 

 haye a penchant in that direction. They are 

 great inventors, anyhow, though some of them 

 claim that the monopoly of a patent is wrong, 

 and contrary to the spirit of the profession. 

 This smacks of sour grapes, however. If one 

 finds hidden treasure, ought he not to be entitl- 

 ed to it, even if some one else has pointed him 

 on the road? Still, there are many who have 

 lived up to this doctrine, foolish as it may seem, 

 for I have met the inventors of all the most im- 

 portant features of modern bee-keeping, and 

 thev had not taken out patents, nor derived one 

 cent of benefit from their ingenuity. For in- 

 stance, within the last year I met two men who 

 were each the first to make and use comb foun- 

 dation. They told me so themselves. Dadant 

 must certainly be mistaken when he ascribes 

 this invention to Johannes Mehring. I have 

 also recently had the pleasure of meeting face 

 to face the inventor of the honey-extractor, and 

 it was not Major Hi Hruschka either. He of- 

 fered to take me out to his shop and show me 

 the crank to his old original extractor; but I 

 did not have time. I was satisfied to see him. 

 I regret to say that I am not ac(iuainted with 

 father Langstroth, but I have seen the man 

 who invented the hanging movable frame: also 

 the man who first imported Italian bees — every 

 one of him. * 



It has been a source of surprise to me that the 

 leading bee-papers do not use more wisdom in 

 selecting the contributors to their pages. Why 

 listen to such green hands as Doolittle, Miller, 

 Cook, and Root? They are still fussing about 

 hiving swarms, prevention of increase, winter- 

 ing, springing, maximum product to minimum 

 expense, etc.. while the woods are full of men 

 who solved these problems years ago, and who 

 would be glad to tell about it. They are not all 

 like the party I met a few days since. He was 

 never bothi'red with increase — oh. no I easiest 

 thing in the world to previsnt: but he kept the 

 method to himself. All the best bee-keepers of 

 his vicinity had watched him time and again 

 without learning the secret of his manipulation. 

 These things. I say. sometimes make me think 



