838 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1917 



FLORIDA THE PLACE TO LIVE 



i^estions Answered ^garding the 



Climate and the Possibilities for 



Beekeeping and Gardening 



By Jacob Alpaugh 



WE have 

 been great- 

 ly pleased 

 by the many vis- 

 its of friends 

 and re latives 

 since we pitched 

 our tent in Flor- 

 ida. However, 



it has become alniiost impossible to answer 

 all the private letters concerning this coun- 

 ti-y, its climate, possibilities for beekeeping, 

 etc., so I have decided to send these few 

 lines to Gleanings, where a good many of 

 our Canadian beekeeping friends will see 

 them. 



We spent two very enjoyable winters 

 here, and nearly every one told us that the 

 summers were just as pleasant as the win- 

 ters, if not more so. This we have since 

 vei-ified, for we find that the rainy season, 

 which commences anywhere from the first 

 till the middle of June, moderates the cli- 

 mate thruout the entire summer. We have 

 had ideal weather since June 12. On July 

 11 the mercury was standing at 75, for we 

 had a nice shower in the morning, which 

 kept it cool the rest of the day. 



Tlie rainy season here differs from that 

 of most countries where it drizzles for days 

 and weeks at a time. Most of our rain 

 comes in short spurts of showers lasting 

 fi'om ten minutes to half an hour, and per- 

 haps the rest of the day will be nice and 

 fine. It may rain nearly every day in June 

 and July, possibly in August or even 

 later. Even during the rest of the year we 

 ar-e liable to have rain any time. Strange 



as it may seem, 

 in this southern 

 extreme the 

 highest the mer- 

 cury reached, in 

 llie summer of 

 1916, at Lake- 

 land was 94. 

 As r e g a rds 

 the bee business in Florida, I am not very 

 well posted. Here at Lakeland the local 

 beekeepers tell me that some seasons the 

 bees do well, and other seasons quite poorly. 

 We have twelve colonies. Last July we had 

 a fine orange-honey flow, the trees being 

 full of bloom, caused by last winter's freeze 

 and dry weather following up to June 12, 

 since which date the rain caused the trees 

 to bloom more than usual for June. The 

 orange here is suj^posed to bloom in March; 

 bnt nearly every j'ear there is more or l?ss 

 of a June bloom. It is needless to say I am 

 keeping bees here only for pleasure, and 

 this is the place to keep them for that pur- 

 pose, as one can handle them every day in 

 the year if he wishes. 



I also take great pleasure in having a 

 nice garden, and shall have to admit that 

 I have had four times the satisfaction rais- 

 ing garden truck here that I ever had in 

 the North. It is only a couple of years 

 since we built hen?, therefore I did not have 

 any garden until last September, 1916, I 

 planted our first corn last February and we 

 had all the green corn we could usa in May 

 and June, and after that we had corn in 

 all stages, planting every two or three 

 weeks. It looks as if Ave should have green 



Jacob Alpaugh's new home in Lakeland, Florida, where he plays with his bees and his auto. 



