234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 15 



fruit-blossoms; and these, by the way, are 

 a little ahead of any thing else we have ever 

 seen in the shape of a photograph of bees at 

 work. The Australians are well to the front 

 in the art of photography and engraving. 



Mr. Beuhne, in this January issue of The 

 Journal, has a very interesting article on 

 "The Production of Comb Houey," which 

 also proves that the bee-keepers of Austra- 

 lia (and Mr. Beuhne especially) are not be- 

 hind the rest of the world. 



FLORIDA NOTES NO. 3; HONEY POSSIBLLI- 

 TIES; THE GOOD AND POOR LANDS; 



THE mosquitoes; the ed- 

 itor RETURNED. 



I DID not get back to Medina till the 5th 

 of April — twenty days later than I had an- 

 nounced. The fact is, I found so much of 

 interest and value that I concluded I could 

 not afford to rush through so much impor- 

 tant bee territory as I found in Florida. I 

 shall not have time nor space to go info de- 

 tails at this lime: but I will say this much, 

 that Florida is destined to become one of 

 the most important States in the Union in 

 the production of honey. The seasons are 

 longer, and the honey-flows, in some sec- 

 tions at least, are heavier. For example, in 

 Northwest Florida, or, perhaps T should say, 

 in the region of the Appalachicola River, 

 there has been produced as high as 1900 bar- 

 rels of honey of between 500 and 600 lbs. 

 each in one year. The territory is not over- 

 stocked, strange to relate, and it probably 

 never will be, for the simple reason that 

 conditions in that part of the country are 

 so very different that it would take the aver- 

 age bee-keeper years to learn the localitv. 

 The ordinary bee-keeper from the North 

 butting into this country, I don't guess but 

 know, would make a failure for the first two 

 or three years. The matter of securing 

 plenty of bees for the honey harvest baffles 

 even the old-timers in the locality at times. 

 And, again, there are very few places along 

 the river where bee-yards can be placed; 

 and some of them located there are put up 

 on stilts six or eight feet above the ground, 

 to provide against high water at certain 

 seasons of the year. 



On the west coast, and south of Tampa 

 Bay, considerable pure orange honey is 

 produced.. The statement has often been 

 made by bee-keepers in Florida that there 

 is no such thing as pure orange honey. 

 Persons making such statements are prob- 

 ably not familiar with this territory. In 

 . the region where there are immense orange- 

 groves, and where no other source is in 

 bloom at the time, considerable pure orange 

 honey is produced. 



The drouth that was affecting the whole 

 of Florida up to about the 20th of March 

 was relieved by copious rains all over the 

 State — rains that lasted off and on for a 

 week. While this was a little late for some 

 sections, it came early enough to help out 

 the bee-keepers in the tupelo regions of 

 Northwest Florida. 



By the way, that section of Florida, espe- 

 cially in the region about Tallahassee, has 

 better soil than most of that I have seen 

 on the west and east coasts of the peninsula. 

 While there are fine hammock lands all 

 over Florida, their areas are comparatively 

 limited. Indeed, it would be my guess 

 (that may be far from right) that 90 per 

 cent of the land in Florida is inferior, if not 

 almost worthless, and only about 10 per cent 

 is really productive. It would naturally 

 follow, then, that there are thousands of 

 people who are buying land (paying big 

 prices for it) that is good for nothing but 

 pine-trees and scrub palmetto. But that 

 does not signify that there is not plenty of 

 good land for sale at fair prices. As I said 

 before, any man who will invest on the rep- 

 resentation of a real-estate agent in northern 

 cities without going to look at the property 

 is taking a risk. In this connection do not 

 get the impression that there are not honest 

 men selling land in Florida. 



Florida has a bright future before her; 

 and during the next ten years one will see a 

 tremendous development, especially in cities 

 on either the east or west coast, or along the 

 inland lakes. Northern men with their 

 millions are pouring into the State by the 

 thousands. Of all the lonesome towns, it 

 seems to me it is those that are located along 

 the regions remote from any water. 



It seems strange to me that the north- 

 western portion of Florida — that portion in 

 and around Tallahassee — has not been more 

 exploited. There are plenty of promoters 

 to boom the east and west coasts, but we 

 see almost none in the northwest part of 

 the State. 



The worst things T see about Florida are 

 the mosquitoes, sandflies, and fleas. While 

 their depredations can be mitigated to a 

 great extent by screens and mosquito-can- 

 opies over the beds at night, they manage 

 at some seasons to make a tourist mighty 

 uncomfortable. Old residents don't seem 

 to mind them much. Whether it is be- 

 cause they become immune to the bites, or 

 because the "varmints" seek only "fresh 

 stock," I can't say. — E. R. Root. 



CONTROL OF SWARMING BY TIERING UP; 



PRODUCING COMB AND EXTRACTED 



ON THE SAME HIVE. 



In Mr. J. E. Crane's article on page 207, 

 last issue, he refers to a plan to control swarm- 

 ing in the production of either comb or ex- 

 tracted honey that we used quite successful- 

 ly some ten or fifteen years ago, and which 

 we at the time gave iii these columns. As 

 we have many new subscribers who possi- 

 bly would like to know what it is, and some 

 old ones who may have forgotten it, it may 

 be well for us to give the plan at this time, 

 particularly as the discussion of it was scat- 

 tered over a good many journals. 



There was nothing particularly new about 

 it, but. rather, a modification of the plan 

 used by the Dadants ^nd others. The lat- 



