858 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



ports from Colorado are rather discourag- 

 ing. The season, unquestionably, will be 

 hght in that section. In Texas, "Mr. Udo 

 Toepperwein reports as follows under date 

 of Aug. 3: 



Mr. E. R. Root: — Replying to your favor of the 28th, 

 I beg to state that the conditions for a late honey crop 

 have not improved since last report, and, if any thing, 

 they are more discouraging. We have just had another 

 storm with some rain, which, I suppose, has finished up 

 mesquite. However, we have had quite a nice little 

 flow from cotton blossoms in different parts of the 

 State; and the reports I am getting by letter, and the 

 reports made at the convention of the Texas bee-keep- 

 ers at College Station last week, show that bee-keepers 

 are, throughout the State, expecting a fall flow from 

 different weeds, broomweed being the main plant. I am 

 looking for a pecan honey-flow. We had a heavy crop 

 from this last fall, and indications are that we shall have 

 a crop of pecan honey-dew this year. This pecan honey 

 is something like buckwheat honey. A good many peo- 

 ple like it; but as it is very dark we usually sell it to the 

 biscuit and cracker companies. The bees are all in very 

 good condition, having plenty of stores for winter. 

 San Antonio, Tex., Aug. 3. Udo Toepperwein. 



Taking it all in all, I am inclined to think 

 the aggregate yield will not be less than 

 last year in the clover belt; but Texas and 

 Colorado honey will run considerably short 

 of last year. All reports indicate that clo- 

 ver honey is of very fine quality, what has 

 been secured, and a great deal of it will 

 rank fancy. 



Bee-keepei-s should not make the mistake 

 of holding their honey too long. The mar- 

 kets are not now glutted; and, while the re- 

 ceipts are light, good prices will be realized. 



In the meantime let the postal-card re- 

 ports come in. Give us the exact facts, 

 good or bad, for your locality in one or two 

 sentences. 



,1)00'' 



^ 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE ISLAND OF BARBA- 

 DOS. 



Some Misconceptions about the Industry Cor- 

 rected ; Blacks Inferior to the Yellow Race. 



BY W. G. HUTCHINSON. 



I regret that I can not. in accordance with 

 the invitation in Gleanings for April 1st, 

 treat of this island as a honey-producing 

 place in comparison with Cuba, as I have 

 never been there; and, being a distant place, 

 and till of late a Spanish colony, there has 

 not been much intercourse between the two 

 islands, and there is no bee-keeper here, I 

 find, who has had experience with both of 

 them, and of which experience I might avail 

 myself. The affinity of nations is shown up 

 with great clearness in the West Indies. 

 There is always emigration going on from 

 this island to other West Indian colonies, 

 and it is other British; then the Danish, 

 then the Dutch, then the (late) Spanish, 



and, lastly, the French colonies, that attract 

 emigrants. The French are the nearest of 

 foreign colonies, but they have the least 

 drawing power over emigrants. 



One of your contributors predicts that the 

 future of bee-keeping lies within the trop- 

 ics. Not all the future, perhaps. There 

 seems to be a vigor about bee life in tem- 

 perate climates that is lacking in warm 

 lands. We read of yields of 400 lbs. to the 

 colony in the former; but I have not heard 

 of any one in this island getting even the 

 half of that. I suppose that, as in other 

 departments, it will be found in time that 

 the tropical bee-keeper will derive help from 

 his brother in temperate climates, and vice 

 versa. We are flooded every year with 

 tourists bent on escaping the winter of their 

 country, while our doctors sometimes order 

 us away to a cold climate for the same rea- 

 son. Again, two-thirds of the sheep butch- 

 ered in our markets come from the States, 

 while at present we are exporting large 

 numbers there, as they are found to stand 

 the winter better than the native-bred ani- 

 mal, though this may be found to apply, as 

 with West Indians of the human species, to 

 the first or at most the second winter only. 

 In the tropics we shall want in queens the 

 " go " that is begotten in the States, while 

 bee-keepers here may come to want West 

 Indian queens if they have characteristics 

 like our sheep. We have one advantage— 

 no trouble about wintering. Still, in the last 

 and first months colonies often dwindle. 

 A neighbor of mine had three in a flourish- 

 ing condition in July last year but they 

 dwindled; and, early this year, they became 

 extinct. We have a further advantage in 

 a second honey-flow in November and De- 

 cember, but again the honey gathered there 

 is usually mixed with honey-dew, and so its 

 quality is marred. 



There are people in every class of society 

 here interested in bee-keeping, from the 

 Governor (who has recently left us) to this 

 neighbor of mine who is a superintendent 

 on a sugar-estate; but no one has so far re- 

 linquished a living for it. Honey is slow of 

 sale; and last year prices ruled as low as 8 

 cts. a section. Most of our trees and shrubs 

 yield nectar; but practically wherever the 

 sugar-cane can be planted these have been 

 destroyed, so that I doubt whether, outside 

 the suburbs of the town where gardens and 

 trees abound, any yard would support a hun- 

 dred colonies. Last year Mr. Seale, our 

 oldest bee-keeper, took count of ten of his 

 colonies, and found that they yielded 885 

 sections, and this may be regarded as a fair 

 yield. 



Some on your side of the water favor 

 half-breeds, and others see some good in 

 blacks. My experience here goes to show 

 that the more the black strain prevails the 

 less the' value of the bee as a honey-gather- 

 er, putting aside the crossness, t find the 

 best half-breeds are not equal to Italians of 

 ordinary quality. If it is true that it is the 

 fittest that survives, then the Italian strain 

 is the fittest; for the cliffs and bottoms of 



