362 



GLEAJSIINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



The fact that beekeeping pays in Brazil, 

 and that the industry has developed to a 

 considerable extent, would seem to be prov- 

 en by the existence of a number of bee- 

 papers, the one mentioned above being in 

 its 16th year, and also by a number of bee- 

 keepers' associations. Brasilianische Bie- 

 nenpflege is the organ of the " Syndicato 

 Apieola Rio Grandense," and is edited by 

 Profesor Emil Sehenk, who also has charge 

 of the apicultural section of the Brazilian 

 Department of Agriculture. He has done a 

 great deal to develop modem beekeeping in 

 that wonderful country. 



5ome 



we may judge from a liberal sample sent us, 

 is some of the finest orange we ever tasted ; 

 in fact, we should call it pure orange honey. 

 Prof. Baldwin will have no trouble in dis- 

 posing of it. 



Lljgo by One Man 



Mr. Emilio Hernandez, of Cienfuegos. 

 Cuba, has on hand a crop of 850 barrels of 

 honey, or, moi"e exactly, 45,000 gallons. At 

 12 lbs. per gallon this would make 540,000 

 .lbs. or 270 tons. Perhaps Mr. Hernandez 

 will be willing to tell us something about 

 his extensive opei-ations in Cuba. We do 

 not know whether he produced these 850 

 barrels in one season or not; but we infer 

 that he did. Apparently his problem is not 

 so much to produce a crop as to sell it. 



Perhaps we ought not to stir ujd a hor- 

 net's nest; but just suppose there were a 

 few hundred beekeepers in the tropics like 

 Mr. Hernandez, and that we had free trade. 

 Free trade or protection, we do not imagine, 

 we have any need to fear very greatly, be- 

 cause we have nearly free trade as it is on 

 honey, and, moreover, we do not, and prob- 

 ably will never have a few hundred or even 

 a dozen beekeepers who will produce 850 

 barrels in a season. 



Prospects for this Season 



With one or two exceptions the re^Dorts 

 of wintering have been most excellent 

 throughout the country. The spring has 

 been favorable, and rains have been fre- 

 quent enough to keep the soil for clovers 

 sufficiently moist. But it is only fair to say 

 that in our locality, at least, the clovers are 

 not as promising as they were a year ago ; 

 that is to say, they are not as abundant, but 

 there may be enough to take care of the bee 

 season later on. There is no reason, how- 

 ever, to suppose there will not be a fair 

 crop of clover. Some of the heaviest honey 

 years have been when clover appeared to be 

 very scarce; but there have been other years 

 when clover was everywhere, and yet not 

 much honey. 



Some very fine crops of orange honey 

 have been secured in Florida. One crop, 

 by Prof. E. G. Baldwin, of Deland, Fla., if 



The first few numbers of El Apicultor, 

 the organ of the Porto Rico Beekeepers' 

 Association, have just been received, the 

 first number of which publishes a letter 

 written by Dr. E. F. Phillips, dated Decem- 

 ber 11, 1913, at Washington, D. C, in which 

 he promises to assist the said association in 

 any way that he possibly can. Dr. Phillips 

 expresses the opinion that the island of 

 Porto Rico offers a v\'onderful opportunity 

 for the beekeeper, and that the formation of 

 the society will undoubtedly help to pro- 

 mote the industry. 



Mr. J. W. Van Leenhoff is the editor of 

 the above-mentioned paper, and the said 

 gentleman is likewise the President of the 

 Porto Rico Beekeepers' Association, which 

 has been incorporated as a branch of the 

 National Beekeepers' Association of this 

 country. 



Beekeeping has developed in Porto Rico 

 in a most wonderful manner within the last 

 ten years, and we have no doubt that the 

 formation of this association and the publi- 

 cation of El Apicultor will help very mate- 

 lially to further the interests of the Porto 

 Rico beekeepers. 



Marchant^s Sclieme of Transferring 



On Images 345 and 346 of our issue for 

 May 1 we illustrated and described the A. 

 B. Marchant scheme of transferring bees 

 from box hives into movable-frame hives 

 on a plan that involved but little labor on 

 the part of the beekeeper. This scheme at 

 first worked out all right for Mr. Marchant ; 

 but later on it failed so many times that he 

 cannot now recommend it without at least 

 some modification, and has so advised us. 

 Our readers will, therefore, take notice and 

 be governed accordingly. 



We were somewhat skeptical, but as the 

 scheme had worked out all right up to that 

 time we thought it worth giving to the pub- 

 lic. The difficulty seems to be that the queen 

 will not go above in all cases. Her failure to 

 do this, of course, would make the scheme a 

 failure. 



If more of our correspondents would be 

 frank enough to admit that some of their 

 new schemes, after being tried out on a 

 larger scale, are not a success, it would be 

 better for the beekeeping public. Perhaps 



