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THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



In iB}^ locality we have no linden 

 timber to amount to anj'thing — 

 not over a dozen trees in reach of 

 my apiary, but in its stead we 

 have the locust, which gives a per- 

 fect shower of honey — enough at 

 least to prepare the colonies for 

 the surplus apartments as soon as 

 the white clover begins to yield 

 nectar. The greatest drawback, 

 with which the apiarist in the 

 south has to contend, is the com- 

 paratively long period which inter- 

 venes between the close of the 

 white clover and the fall bloom of 

 nectar-yielding plants, the princi- 

 pal of which are the golden rods, 

 heart's ease — called "large smart 

 weed" with us — the several varie- 

 ties of asters, wild sunflowers, etc. 



The only plants that yield nec- 

 tar with us during the dry hot 

 interval are catnip, figwort, giant 

 hyssop, motherwort, milkwort, car- 

 rot berry — best known as " buck- 

 bush" — sweet clover or mellilot, 

 and our second crop of red clover. 

 The latter is visited only by the 

 yellow race of bees, and the crosses 

 between them and the native bees. 

 No living man ever saw a pure 

 native bee, black, brown, or gray, 

 attempt to extract nectar from the 

 deep tubers of the red clover blos- 

 som of this climate. How absurd 

 it is then, to talk about crossing 

 the " Brown germans " with Ital- 

 ians to get "red clover bees." 

 These plants yield just enough 

 honey to keep up excessive breed- 

 ing and not enough to supply the 

 daily wants of the hoards of young, 

 hence the stores laid up during the 

 white clover harvest gradually 



fade away, but are generally re- 

 plenished by the fall nectar-yield- 

 ing flora, if the weather is pro- 

 pitious, otherwise the bee-master 

 must feed to supply that which is 

 lacking. For the past seven or 

 eight j^ears I have had no expen- 

 sive feeding to do except in cases 

 of weak colonies and nuclei. 



Having mentioned some of our 

 resources for honey, the reader 

 will naturally want to know what 

 our bees have accomplished for us 

 the present season. I am a little 

 disinclined to "rush into print" 

 to make a boast of just what I 

 make out of my business, whether 

 it be beekeeping or any other. 

 I believe the " big reports " so 

 freely trumpeted to the world, 

 while the failures are kept in the 

 background, have done a great 

 deal of mischief to the occupation 

 of beekeeping. 



I have noticed the past honey 

 season that most persons who have 

 visited my apiary, and viewed the 

 interior of the apiary store room, 

 were at once smitten with bee en- 

 thusiasm and proposed to purchase 

 bees from me right there and then. 

 Did I take the advantage of their 

 "enthused" state of mind to 

 " turn an honest dollar" by selling 

 them some bees at a big price? 

 Not a bit of it. I would say to 

 them, bee-culture is a " trade," a 

 business that must be "learned." 

 It Avould be throwing away money 

 for you to " invest" in bees, simply 

 because you have not " learned the 

 trade." A man should be a 

 " showman " before he invests his 

 money in an elephant. 



