218 



THE AMERICA!^ BEE JOURNAL. 



is but little left for humanity to sub- 

 sist upon except tlie food-resources of 

 the coast and the ^euiiil climate, 

 which, in many instances, prolongs 

 life wl'en disease has taken a tirm 

 hold upon the system." Well, the 

 last part of this quotation is undoubt- 

 edly true, and I will vouch for it, but 

 the lirst half will truly be a surprise 

 to most of the good people of this 

 State who claim to know something 

 of her resources. Let us compare 

 Bome of our other industries with tlie 

 two mentioned, and see where they 

 stand in relative production and gross 

 income : Manager Ives, of the Florida 

 Fruit Exchange (than whom no one 

 is better al)le to judge), estimates the 

 crop of Florida oranges for 1885-86 at 

 1,000.000 boxes ; this at S2.50 per crate 

 ready packed, which is surely a liberal 

 average, would give the State $2,500,- 

 000 for the year's crop. In 1884. prob- 

 ably the honey crop of the State was 

 heavier than ever before, or than it 

 was tlie past season. The State sta- 

 tistics show a production of 210,357 

 pounds for that year, about one half 

 of which was produced iu this imme- 

 diate neighborhood. As most of our 

 honey is extracted, I consider 10 cents 

 per pound a fair price at which to 

 estimate the crop ; that being some 

 higher than extracted honey sold for 

 that year, and considerably lower 

 than the price of comb honey. Stating 

 it thus, 210.357 pounds at 10 cents per 

 pound, amounts to $21,035.70, making 

 our best showing in the way of a 

 honey crop. 



By referring again to statistics of 

 Florida's production in 1884, we find 

 that there was produced of corn, 

 3,857,200 bushels (worth from 60 to 70 

 cents per bushel in Jacksonville) ; 

 potatoes, 70,848 bushels ; oats, 494,000 

 bushels ; cotton, 60.000 bales ; molas- 

 ses, 1.290,860 gallons ; tobacco, 224,239 

 pounds; lumber, $3,060,291 worth. 

 We have shipped to Cuba during the 

 last ten years 167,736 head of cattle, 

 brijiging $2,469,747 to the State, be- 

 sides what has been used at home and 

 shipped elsewliere. In 1881 eight 

 counties in ttiis State owned 205,714 

 neat and stock cattle. 



Of the 60,000 bales of cotton 24,987 

 bales were "sea-island;" over one- 

 third more than was produced in all 

 other sea-island localities put to- 

 gether, and worth more than double 

 the price per pound of ''short staple." 

 Our sea-island cotton is of such su- 

 perior quality tliat the Coat's Thread 

 Company moved down to the cotton 

 fields so as to be sure of a good supply 

 of it. The cotton crop of 1884 brought 

 $3,000,000, notwithstanding the low 

 prices then ruling. Five hundred 

 thousand crates and barrels of garden 

 truck and 300 car loads of mellons 

 were shipped the same year, and from 

 West Florida alone a business of 

 $633,388 was done by her fisheries. 

 Jacksonville hotels entertained 60,011 

 guests, to say nothing of her scores 

 of boading-houses. and the increase 

 for this season is some 20 per cent. 

 over that of last season, up to this 

 date. 



Our timber interests are immense, 

 and count away up among the mil- 

 lions, pine being found in the greatest 



quantity, but cypress, live-oak and 

 cedar also being of great importance. 

 Live-oak enough to amount to more 

 than all the honey ever shipped by 

 Florida, all taken together, has been 

 taken from this (Volusia) county in 

 one winter, for Government ship- 

 building. Yes. this has been done 

 several seasons. The cedar for the 

 pencils of the world came from this 

 State. The Faber Pencil Company 

 moved their nianufactories into the 

 cedar woods of West Florida to secure 

 their supply of it. Our naval stores, 

 sugar, cigar, sponge, fibre, rice, 

 lemon, piue-apple, cocoanut, grape, 

 strawberry, poultry, and many other 

 industries are of as much importance, 

 and some of them vastly more, than 

 that of bee culture. Verily, Florida 

 need not hang her head in shame for 

 lack of inducements for immigration, 

 even were the orange and honey in- 

 terests taken from her. Give us en- 

 ergetic men to develop our resources 

 and we will surprise our sister States. 



5. Now of her losses by the late 

 freeze : The orange crop was the 

 principal and almost only one really 

 worthy of serious consideration by 

 the people of the State at large. 

 True, most of the tropical trees and 

 fruits in this tier of counties, and 

 farther north, were killed, but they 

 are only grown here mostly for home 

 use. In the lower portions of the 

 State, where they are grown as field 

 crops, they are still alive and flourish- 

 ing. 



Of the 1,000,000 boxes of oranges 

 produced this year. Manager Ives, 

 Bradstreet's, and others of the best 

 informed, estimate that one-half were 

 still upon the trees when the freeze 

 came, and that 90 per cent, of that 

 was lost. These oranges were of best 

 quality, and would, according to the 

 estimate of the editor of the Florida 

 Times, have netted the growers $2.30 

 per box, or $1,035,000 ; add to this the 

 loss to pickers, packers and transpor- 

 tation lines, and still the loss is less 

 than 13-4 million dollars, and this is 

 purely a money loss. 



From the same cold wave Texas 

 lost $3,000,000 by the freezing and 

 starving of her cattle alone, while 

 from the States north of her come 

 reports, not only of loss of property, 

 but harrowing tales of suffering and 

 loss of life, whole families having 

 perished together. And now the 

 papers are full of the great losses in 

 Massachusetts by the floods — much 

 greater losses than ours in value of 

 property— coupled with statements of 

 homes destroyed, and whole neigh- 

 borhoods of people driven into the 

 streets to subsist on the charity of 

 others, ilow often are our sympa- 

 thies excited by such tales coming 

 from the West — often accompanied 

 with the list of those who perished in 

 the flood— the wreck-strewn track of 

 which shows losses amounting to 

 many times that of the Florida orange 

 crop. 



Drouth and grasshoppers have 

 paralyzed for years in succession the 

 prosperity of whole States, and 

 brought the cultivators of the soil to 

 want, and in many cases starvation 

 was only prevented by the timely 



help from other States that for the 

 time being were more prosperous. 

 The word cyclone " covers so much 

 of loss and suffering that many people 

 in the West shudder to hear it. 

 Florida residents do not expect eter- 

 nal exemption from misfortune, but 

 feel thankful that by reason of our 

 climate, many of the more serious 

 ills of the North and West can never 

 reach us here. 



We feel the loss of our oranges, but 

 it has increased our confidence in 

 orange culture by showing us that the 

 trees will stand a lower temperature 

 without injury than we had supposed. 

 The great tumble in real estate that 

 many expected, has not come, but on 

 the contrary, land is selling readily at 

 as high prices as before the cold snap, 

 and new groves are being planted in 

 all directions. In Levy county 175,000 

 acres of land changed hands within 30 

 days after Florida's great freeze. 



Hawk's Park,© Fla. 



ror tne American Bee JuumaL 



New anil Novel PrinciBles. 



PKOF. A. J. COOK. 



Mr. Editor :— I wish you would 

 repeat the excellent words of Mr. G. 

 M. Alves, found on page 168, which 

 are as follows: "I affirm that the 

 Ileddon principles are novel and can- 

 not be found in literature or else- 

 where. Let those who deny adduce 

 the proof. The rubbish that has 

 already been lugged forward does not 

 deserve a critical man's attention." 



Mr. Editor, I have no interest in 

 this matter at all, only the grand in- 

 terest of justice and f.iir play. For 

 shame on us, if we are to repeat the 

 Langstroth outrage ! There is no 

 bee-keeper of intelligence in the 

 United States who has the faintest 

 shadow of an idea that this hive, 

 method or discussion would have 

 been brought forward had Mr. Hed- 

 don kept silent. Mr. Heddon told 

 me a year ago that he had a method 

 that he believed would revolutionize 

 our business. Why did I have to 

 wait a year to know what it was "i* 

 Only because it was original with Mr. 

 H., and remained locked up a year 

 longer. If any one honestly believes 

 it, let him say it is a worthless hive 

 and system. But. alack the day 1 

 when any considerable number of bee- 

 keepers say it is not Mr. Heddon's. 

 Firmly believing Mr. Langstroth to 

 have invented the practical movable 

 frame, I have ever stoutly maintained 

 it ; and I as truly believe Mr. Heddon 

 to be the originator of the new system, 

 and if found valuable, as I firmly be- 

 lieve it will be, I shall ever defend his 

 rights. 



Agricult. College, J Mich., Mar. 23. 



Are you Entitled to a pension ? You 

 may be and may not know it. If you ex- 

 amine the Guide and Hand-Booli you will 

 soon find out. Thousands of things woi'th 

 knowing- will be found in it. The Bek 

 Journal for 1S86 and the Guide Book will 

 both be sent for tl.30. 



