526 



Gleanings in Bee Cuitu e 



Fig. 1.— A group of button sage in bloom. The taller sprigs are of a hybrid variety. 



tion, having ke)>t bees there continuously 

 for o9 years. Wlien he moved into Calhoun 

 Co., no one there had ever seen a moval)]e- 

 frame hive. He now owns seven out-yards, 

 averaging 200 colonies per yard. Notice 

 how much larger the yards run here than in 

 8outh Florida. The reason has already 

 been given; viz., the prevalence of forest 

 fires in the soutliern portions. Mr. Alder- 

 man produces both comb and extracted 

 honey, but finds more profit in the latter. 



One peculiarity of the region is the lack 

 of pollen. As a result it is often necessary 

 to migrate with the bees for that very nec- 

 essary article. The bees are i)laced on Hat- 

 boats' and hauled up tlie river to the cotton- 

 fields of Alabama for the pollen, and 

 brought back in winter. This is done after 

 the How from tupelo is over. Mr. Alder- 

 man, too, uses full sheets of foundation and 

 the ten-frame L. hive. 



lleference has already been made to the 

 recent trouble Mr. Alderman has had wilh 

 tints and bears. I have likewise alluded 

 above to the very choice sample of white- 

 tui>elo honey received from Messrs. Higgins 

 & HoUingef. This grouj) of apiarists, oji- 

 erating in the tupelo-belt, are broad-mind- 

 ed, gladly sharing with their brother bee- 

 keepers any ideas they may have develoi)ed 

 in the successful running of large apiaries— 

 a si)irit, by the way, that I have found very 

 general over our State. Trobably tliere are 

 some small-minded, narrow bee-men in 

 Florida. No State could exi.ect to be with- 



out at least a modicum of them. Tiie \\ rit- 

 er, however, has never yet run amuck of 

 such in the land of tlie jiahii and the i)ine. 

 De Land, Fla. 



TIte Etui. 

 -^♦-^ 



THE CALIFORNIA SAGE, ILLUSTRATED. 



BY P. O. CHADWICK. 



The illustrations in connection with this 

 article give a good idea of the button or 

 black sage, and also the white sage, the for- 

 mer being the king of all our honey-plants, 

 as it produces on an average more than all 

 the others combined. The orange-blossom 

 alone exceeds in the quantity of honey 

 yielded: Vnit the orange covers only a small 

 area, and the blooming season is much 

 shorter. The Ijtitton or black sage begins 

 blooming in April, as a rule, and lasts until 

 about June 10, producing the very finest 

 water-white lioney, of a heavy body, for 

 which there is a world-wide demand. 



A liybrid sage shown in Fig. 1, and espe- 

 cially in Fig. o, is a cross between the white 

 and the button or black sage. It does not 

 abound to any great extent. It sometimes 

 favors the black and sometimes the white, 

 according as the individual crosses hajjpen 

 to run. Fig. ;> fa\ors the white decidedly 

 in leaf and stalk, but has the distinct " but- 

 ton " nevertheless. 



Fig. 4 shows a range nearly a mile wide 

 and about two miles long of practically im- 

 broken white sage. The roadway shown 



