Aug. I. 1911 



past spring and summer, had almost all his 

 nuclei eaten out by ants. He will use them 

 no more. 



Mr. Case is an unusually careful observer 

 of little points, exceedingly particular about 

 details of his art, and has succeeded for this 

 reason. He belongs to that pioneer coterie 

 of bee-men whose achievements in the days 

 of mangrove honey have never been ecjual- 

 ed, and have all written their names large 

 in the history of Florida's annals of bee cul- 

 ture. There is a simplicity and straightfor- 

 wardness about him that is very attractive. 



De Land, Fla. 



To be continued. 



BEE-KEEPING IN JAMAICA. 



463 



BY W. C. MORRIS. 



The l)ee-keeping industry in .Jamaica is 

 only in its infancy. There is flora to sup- 

 port ])ro{itably a million and a half colonies, 

 and there are only about 112,000 colonies on 

 the island, the greater part of which are in 

 home-made hives constructed of kerosene- 

 cases, similar to our two and five gallon can 

 boxes, which can be bought for about 5 cts. 

 each. Nine standard Hoffman frames just 

 fit these boxes, and the covers and bottom- 

 boards are made from this same %-ir\Q,h 

 stuff. Because of using this thin and sel- 

 dom i)ainted wood, the hives war]) and twist, 

 the covers check and crack, antl the heavy 

 rains kill thousands of larvae and bees. Un- 

 der these conditions it is imjHissible to build 

 u]) the colonies to projjcr strength for com- 

 mercial results. 



A large number of the bee-keei)ers go to 

 Kingston, to the commission men, and sell 

 their estimated crop before it is produced, 

 and get as much of the money as they can 

 in advance. Not all of the bee-keepers are 

 in this class; but the progressive men are de- 

 cifledly in the minority. There are some 

 with a thousand colonies or more, but the 

 average apiarv runs from 50 to 100 colonies. 

 The 1909 crop was about 2,500,000 lbs., and 

 .Jamaican honey is now selling in London, 

 where most of it goes, at '■^^l to 37 shillings 

 per 100 lbs. (112 lbs.), or, in other words, 1% 

 to 734 cts. a pound. When freight, com- 

 mission, and package are deducted, 5X to 

 i^y2 is left for the producer. 



There are big jiossibilities for bees in .Ja- 

 maica. A man witli a capital of $2000 or 

 more can go there and make a profit of sev- 

 eral thousand a year. Labor is clieap — from 

 25 to 50 cts. a day. Women can be had for 

 18 cts. a day. My assistant had a woman to 

 cook and take care of his house, and she 

 paid for her own food, for 87 cts. a week. 



Water is hard to get in some ])laces. At 

 I^'our Paths, where the American Jiee I'rod- 

 ucts Co. have their yard, it comes from a 

 deep well. It takes a horse to draw the wa- 

 ter, and twice a week water is drawn for all 

 that section of the county. A large hogs- 

 head is kept filled for the bees. 



Tlie railroad is a one-track affair — slow 

 and dingy. In the city of Kingston there 



