970 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



E.G.Baldwin 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE I "eiand. Fia. 



Bees seem to be in lunisually fine 

 conditioii ibis fall all over Florida. 

 Rains bave been plentiful but not 

 sevei-e, eneouraging vegetation, but 

 still allowing bees fair wentber for 

 satlierinc 



How manj' in our land of sunsbine bave 

 ever planted or grown to flowering- size 

 either or both the Bigonnia venusta and the 

 Antigonon lentotus or Mexican pinkvine? 

 They will pay well for the beauty, and the 

 bees are " crazy " over them. The latter 

 blooms from May to frost, the former only 

 in early spring, but both are a riot of color. 

 » * * 



SWEET CliOVER AND ALFALFA IN FLORIDA. 



Several inquiries have come in regard to 

 sweet clover in Florida. So far as I knoAV, 

 sweet clover has not been acclimated in this 

 state. I can only hope that it may be at 

 some future date. If the government ex- 

 perts can succeed in discovering- a species or 

 variety of sweet clover that will grow in a 

 warm moist climate in sandy soils, it is sure 

 that Florida will be doubly valuable as a 

 honey or forage state. They sent the alfal- 

 fa line north fi'om about Denver to Canada, 

 and into Canada; and why may they not 

 sweep the hand of the floral dial away to 

 the Southland, for both sweet and alfalfa 

 clovers? Alfalfa is growing to a slight de- 

 gree already along the drainage canals of 

 the east coast in St. John's Co. But it is 

 as yet very limited in area, and lives only 

 three years. Then it dies and must be re- 

 planted. Probably it gets '' wet feet " by 

 its roots I'eaching Avater level. 

 «■ * * 



FINAL NOTES ON THE HONEY CROP. 



Honey-crop reports for the state are now 

 pretty well in. Orange was poor in quanti- 

 ty and quality ; saw palmetto only about a 

 third of a crop ; mangrove the same ; but 

 cabbage palmetto was a surprise. It not 

 unusually ends by July 20; but this year 

 bees were gathering from it as late as Aug. 

 ]4. In most locations the honey from the 

 cabbage palmetto is mixed by the bees with 

 other honeys — for instance, on the east 

 coast with mangrove. But it is secured in 

 almost its original and pristine purity on 

 the west coast between Bradentown and Fort 

 Myers. Pennyroyal will soon begin bloom- 

 ing in the southern portions of the penin- 

 sula. Partridge-pea honey is quite abun- 

 dant in the high pine sections; but it is al- 

 ways dark-red, strong in flavor, and unde- 



sirable as a table honey. In the tupelo 

 sections our correspondents indicate a good 

 flow from the tupelo, but poor from the ti-ti. 

 Taking the state as a whole, I should say 

 the season of 1916 has been about an 

 average, perhaps slightly below. 



Apropos of the honey from the cabbage 

 palmetto (Sahal palmetto)' referred to 

 above, we might mention a letter received 

 from a beeraan in the southern half of the 

 state. He writes of that honey : " The less 

 I have of it the better I like it. It may be 

 some other ti-ee, flower, or shrub that blooms 

 at the same time that yields the worst honey 

 I get. It is so thin it runs like water ; and, 

 Avhen first uncapped,, often bubbles like gas 

 in all the cells. It is acrid and very acid, 

 the nice-colored." I am sure our corre- 

 spondent is " getting Ms mixed." The clear 

 color, the thinness, the bubbles, all prove 

 cabbage palmetto. These three qualities 

 inhere in no other one honey in Florida, so 

 far as I can determine. But the acidity and 

 acridness — no! No honey has less of both 

 qualities than cabbage palmetto. In fact, it 

 is, when pure, the purest and mildest honey 

 in the state; and, tho thin, it is delicious in 

 every way. The bubbling when first un- 

 capped is very characteristic of this honey; 

 but it is not due to fernientation, and all 

 bubbles disappear on extracting the honey. 

 They show only in the cells just after they 

 ai'e uncapped. Therefore our correspon- 

 dent's bees must be gathering some other 

 clear but pungent honey at the same time 

 tliat they gather from the cabbage palmetto. 

 What it is I have no data for determining. 

 « » * 



NECTAR FROM COW PEAS. 



Another aj^iarist, writing- from Fort Og- 

 den, Fla., wishes to know what it is that 

 his bees gather from cow peas. He says he 

 never sees the bees on the blossoms, but only 

 at the base of the pod where it joins the 

 stem. In the case of certain plants the bees 

 gather nectar, not from the blossoms, but 

 from the stem bases. For example, the 

 Cassia chammaclirista, or sensitive jDca, this 

 year the bees seemed to work on the blos- 

 soms in the early morning, on only the stem 

 bases and leaf bases of the stalks later in 

 the day. Usually they work not at all on 

 the blossoms. But I have not heard it said 

 or noticed personally that they do not work 

 on the blossoms of the cow peas. It may 

 be that our correspondent's bees are gather- 

 ing the secretions of certain aphides or 

 ])lant-lice, tho it is possible that the cow pea 

 also secretes nectar at the i^cd-bases. 



