1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



685 



and that it can be told from the rest, or poorer 

 hee-papers, by the color of its cover, and that 

 they can always know they have Gleanings 

 in its purity (?), that best paper in the world, 

 by its greenish-yellow cover, and they believe 

 me. Then the cover of Gleanings is changed 

 from an unimportant point to an important 

 one ; and should the publishers send it out in 

 a red or blue cover, I should be denounced as 

 a liar and a fraud, no matter how good its 

 contents, and no matter how much I shouted 

 something about being " in danger of splitting 

 hairs," etc. And this latter position is just 

 where we are to-day regarding Italian bees, if 

 the letters I am receiving are any criterion to 

 go by ; and rather than have our queen - 

 breeders denounced as frauds and liars, I 

 started out to have a little light shed on what 

 is to-day an important matter, the coloring 

 and purity of Italian bees. 



[I do not know whether I ought to say any 

 thing on this question or not. I partly agree 

 with friend Doolittle, and I partly disagree ; 

 but as I believe the question of color of Ital- 

 ians, whether maroon or yellow, is unimpor- 

 tant, I ought to practice what I preach. But 

 why unimportant? We sell anywhere from 

 .$2000 to $3000 worth of queens every season ; 

 and the way orders have poured in, it is evi- 

 dent we shall sell more this year than ever 

 before. If there has been a complaint coming 

 in to us with regard to this color matter, I do 

 not remember to have seen it. Why friend 

 Doolittle should have received them and we 

 not, is a conundrum unless it is upon the 

 score of "locality," as Dr. Mason would say. 



I will say this much : I agree with friend 

 Doolittle, that the only way to determine the 



purity of Italians is by their markings ; and I 

 am rather of the opinion that he is right in 

 saying that placing bees on a window, before 

 the light, is an extreme and perhaps unreliable 

 test for the determination of the purity of the 

 bees in question. — Ed.] 



HOW THEY GROW PINEAPPLES ON THE WEST 

 COAST OF FLORIDA. 



BY J. M. LASSITER. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — I take the liberty of send- 

 ing you a small crate of pineapples. I want- 

 ed to send them so you could have them for a 

 dinner July 4th, but there were none ripe at 

 that time, so I hope they will suit you, even 

 if they are a little late. I had one that weighed 

 as much as these two, but it was of ugly shape, 

 and such as would not ship well. I want to 

 send you a photo of the pickers in the pinery 

 picking the fruit for shipment. I did not try 

 to send the largest, by any means. I wanted 

 to send something that would taste nice and 

 look fairly well. There are about one and a 

 half acres in this patch. The pines that are 

 raised in this vicinity are so large that it is 

 necessary to support them by tying them to 

 the shade-slats overhead. You will see the 

 owner standing at the left in the photo. He 

 is 5 ft. 9 inches tall, so you can see about 



GROWING PINEAPPLES ON THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA. 



