982 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



is the best ; but next 

 year there is to be a 

 prize of ten shillings 

 (given by Mr. Pender, 

 of New South Wales) 

 for the best one-pound 

 pot of honey. Mr. S. 

 George Eieh is giving 

 a prize of ten shillings 

 to the one who gets the 

 most new members 

 during- the year for 

 the Victorian Apia- 

 rists' Association. As 

 is well knoAvn, some 

 large honey-producers 

 are not in this associa- 

 tion. If all " honey- 



gxubbers " would link up with us we might 

 be a power to reckon with. The photo- 

 graphs are some that I took at the Botani- 

 cal Gardens in Melbourne, where we spent 

 a very joleasant day at the close of the 

 convention. 



Snapped in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. 



Mr. F. R. Beuhne gave us proof that he 

 is a bee expert. He answered all questions 

 from the question-box in short order. He 

 also had some very interesting specimens of 

 pressed-gum leaves and blossoms. 



Port Fairy, Vic, Aus. 



MY OUTYARDS EXIST IN MEMORY ONLY 



BY L. K. SMITH 



Imagine, if you can, a straight lagoon, 

 one and one-half miles wide and seventy 

 long, and you have an idea of the Indian 

 River on the east coast of Florida. Now 

 locate your home apiary ; put a dozen eolo- 



Mr. Blarkburn, of England, one of the speakers 

 at the Victorian convention. 



nies across this river in a neighbor's yard ; 

 another dozen 2V2 miles south; another 

 dozen 2 miles north, a dozen 3 miles further 

 on, and another 7 miles, and then try to 

 care for the 7 colonies of a friend, and you 

 have my situation. 



Now for the ways and means to care for 

 this string of small apiaries. I had a sail- 

 boat, row-boat, wheelbarrow, extracting- 

 tent, and a wife and daughter. Right here 

 I must say that my wife was the bee-master, 

 and chief conspirator, while I was master 

 mechanic and sailing master, my daughter 

 being an able assistant. 



For some years we worked along this 

 way; then it fell to my lot to do the work 

 alone, and for a time I hammered at it 

 faithfully. But at last came doubts of the 

 advantages obtained by this out-apiary sys- 

 tem, and today those out-apiaries are mem- 

 ories only — memories of the hives either 

 over full of hone_y or full of moth — mem- 

 ories of postal cards received, which told of 

 swarming, of finding covers jiartly off the 

 hives, and finally of two colonies being stol- 

 en from one of tliese yards. 



When I believed in swarm control I 

 believed in tlie out-apiary, and was willing 

 to do the work necessary. I had to load up 

 my boats with extracting equipment, sail 

 and pole to the landing nearest the outyard 

 to be extracted, unload on the shore, wheel 



