NOVEMBER 15, 1914 



895 



60 or 70 days, begin- 

 ning about April 1, 

 ending' from June ] to 

 the 10th. . 



The yield is usually 

 good, but what about 

 the honey? It is un- 

 wholesome in the ex- 

 treme, or totally unfit 

 for food. It is sweet 

 a little, bitter a little, 

 strong a little — in fact, 

 it seems to have a little 

 of every kind of un- 

 pleasant taste. There 

 is not much of any 

 one; but the combina- 

 tion is bad. Then it 

 lias also an unpleasant 

 odor — so much so thai 

 a lover of good honey 

 would hardly get a 

 "slug" of it to his 

 mouth, much less take 

 any. During the first 

 part of this flow the 

 apiarist handling the 

 bees will very often 

 become very sick from 



inhaling the odor as he opens the hives, for 

 the fresh, sickening odor floats into the air 

 from the comb where it is being evaporated. 

 A great deal of the offensive smell leaves it 

 as it becomes thicker. When linally ripened 

 it is heavy and dark. 



Some reader may wonder why I describe 

 such a honey-plant. "Well, because it is a 

 great honey-plant after all, even if the 

 honey has no market value, for it takes the 

 place of the better article in the hive; and 

 for bee-production it has no equal. It might 

 be asked, " "Would bees take to it where it 

 was used for feeding purposes °? " I should 

 say they do. If there is a honey-dearth 

 when it is in the hives, it makes frame 

 manipulation almost impossible. I have over 

 30 apiaries in this section, and all the sur- 

 plus from this source is used for feed wher- 

 ever feeding is to be done. Tor this purpose 

 we have never used any thing quite so good. 

 It is baiTeled up in the extracted form, and 



Fig. 2. — The chin 



capin growing Unuriiintly in burnt-over timber 

 land in Florida. 



shipped to different parts of our field, and 

 at the proper time used as feed for making 

 increase or for stores where colonies are 

 short. Hundreds of barrels of it have been 

 used in this way; and by feeding it we are 

 able to take from the bees the better gi'ades 

 of honey much closer than we otherwise 

 could. This makes it a great factor in our 

 business ; but is this all ? 



Again, nearly all our combs in sections 

 and in frames are built during this flow; 

 and as soon as it is over, the honey is 

 extracted from the storing apartments, and 

 the comb in sections and frames is set back 

 on the hives; and when the flow of good 

 honey comes on, the bees have nothing to do 

 but fill the ready-built comb. The next flow 

 usually laps into the chincapin flow just a 

 little; but it is a weak one, coming on 

 gradually. 



Cordele, Ga. 



THE SNOWBEMEY IN IOWA 



BY DR. A. F. BONKEY 



With this I send you photo of the snow- 

 berry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) . 



Description. — A shrub 3-5 feet high; 

 leaves oval or ovate, entire or undulate (?), 

 glabrous above and below (under a 4-diame- 

 ter lens) ; two and three bunches of flowers 



which are in short axillary clusters; pink 

 in color ; corolla bell-shaped ; fruit a purple- 

 black berry. 



Distribution. — Rocky woods and wooded 

 pastures; but I do not know where it is 

 found other than in Crawford County, 



