APRIL 1, 1914 



BEES AND GOOD LAND. 



But you say, " What has all this garden- 

 truck land to do with beekeeping?" Very 

 much. Bees will not thrive where the soil 

 is poor. Mark that down strong. For ex- 

 ample, the saw or scrub palmetto, one of 

 the principal sources of nectar in the State, 

 will not yield honey of any account on poor 

 land. In order to make the keeping of bees 

 profitable, the saw palmetto should be three, 

 four, and (better) six feet high. Land that 

 will gi'ow it as high as that will also grow 

 the gallberry and the pennyroyal ; and in 

 some sections near the streams the black 

 mangrove, the ty-ty, and the tupelo. Loca- 

 tions that will not show a vigorous and a 

 heavy undergi'owth should be avoided. 



OUR CRUISER TRIP DOWN THE EAST COAST. 



Mr. W. A. Selser, who spends his winters 

 at Stuart, Fla., engaged for our party a 

 40-foot gasoline-cruiser so that we might 

 the better study beekeeping conditions from 

 Stuart to Miami. I will not at this time 

 go into details of the big fish we did or 

 didn't catch ; of the places where I stopped 

 and took notes and snapped the kodak, as 

 these will be given in these columns later 

 with the pictures. Mr. 0. 0. Poppleton, the 

 most extensive and successful migratory 

 beekeeper this country has ever known, was 

 our guide for a part of the distance. What 

 he doesn't know about this most southerly 

 bee territory in the United States is not 

 worth recording. I had an exceptional 

 opportunity to interview him and others 

 along the route, and, more important, stop 

 our boat and see the territory under con- 

 sideration. 



Another member of our party was Charlie 

 Repp, of the famous Repp Bros., the great 

 apple-growers of New Jersey. The Repp 

 boys are authorities on the relation of bees 

 to apple-growing from the standpoint of 

 the fruit-gi'ower. Of course, I interviewed 

 Charlie, and, as the newspaper man would 

 say, he gave me some " good dope " that I 

 shall give to our readers. I say " Cliarlie," 

 for that exactly expresses the kind of genial 

 good fellow that he is. Then we had Mr. 

 Selser and wife and Mr. Gray and wife; 

 and last, but not least, captain (the owner 

 of the boat and a friend of Mr. Selser), Dr. 

 F. S. Slifer,' of Philadelphia. He is not 

 only a physician of standing, but someAvhat 

 of a naturalist, although he might demur at 

 the last-mentioned title. Mr. Gray and wife 

 were old college mates, and Mr. Selser and 

 wife, of course, need no introduction. To 

 say that the trip was enjoyable is putting it 

 mildly. 



As a preliminary statement to what I 

 shall Pay later concerning this trip T may 

 add that Southern Florida is not a paradise 



for bees. While a comfortable living can 

 be made, it has come to be largely a matter 

 of the survival of the fittest. Only the 

 " stayers " are in the field now. Some think 

 I hey would have made more money north 

 with their bees; but they had to move South 

 for the climate, which Florida surely has, 

 whatever we may say about the land. 



OUR BEES IN APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA. 



The cold weather in the North, with the 

 spells of frost and freezing in Florida, 

 even as far south as Palm Beach and 

 Miami, made me fear what might happen 

 to the success of our experiment in making 

 increase from our 300 colonies on the river. 

 When I saw how the tomato-plants by the 

 acre had been frosted down in Southern 

 Florida, and read of the freezing weather 

 in the northern part of the State, I began 

 to wonder if the cold would not kill off the 

 ty-ty and the willow, upon which we were 

 depending for our pollen and nectar for 

 early breeding. If breeding at this stage 

 should be stopped it might practically put 

 a quietus on the whole proposition. Late 

 letters from our Mr. Marchant in charge 

 showed that, while hopeful, he Avas not sure 

 that he would escape trouble. 



It was with some trepidation that I took 

 the train northward after leaving the 

 cruiser. I scarcely dared ask Mr. Marchant, 

 on arriving at Apalachicola, what he knew. 

 Greatly to my relief he met me with 

 a reassuring smile. " We are going to get 

 there yet. The cold — yes, it has put us 

 back; but the bees are busy on the willows, 

 and have just begun on the black tupelo. 

 The cold weather has held back the black 

 tupelo so that it Avill come more gTadually." 



This will build up our colonies better 

 than if the flow were faster. Mr. Marchant 

 thinks, the black tupelo will last two or 

 three Aveeks. This will be foUoAved soon by 

 white tupelo, Avhich is the main source for 

 honey here. Yesterday I visited the yard 

 and found about 100 colonies Avith upper 

 stories, and queens in both; and there are 

 many more that will soon need upper sto- 

 ries. All conditions so far, in spite of 

 the previous bad Aveather, point to a good 

 yield from both tupelos. It is not wise to 

 count our chickens before they hatch; but 

 we feel that the venture is going to be a 

 success after all. 



There is one thing I did not count on ; 

 and that was that a freeze in Northern 

 Florida does not begin to do the damage 

 that a frost does in the southern part of the 

 State. It transpires, then, that, beyond the 

 loss of time Avlien the Apalachicola bees 

 could not fly io gather pollen or nectar, 

 little damage Avas done. 



Apalachicola, March 17. E. R. Root. 



