68 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 31. 



be kept separate, it would be the finest flavored honey pro- 

 duced in the State, but bee-meu do not go to the trouble to 

 keep it separate from the wild plants and flowers which grow 

 everywhere which yield a nectar the honey of which Is a pecu- 

 liar flavor, and spoils the rich flavor of the orange. 



The writer, in his travels through the State, has found 

 only one man who has produced absolutely pure orange-blos- 

 soiu honey, and that was only a small quantity. The flow 

 should be watched carefully, and extracted daily, to secure 

 pure orange-blossom honey. 



In April Mr. Brown takes his bees over to the east coast, 

 where in May and part of June they gather honey from saw 

 palmetto, and from June to August they gather the mangrove. 



The next stop was at Glenwood, one of the principal 

 orange sections of the State. Here Mr. Brown had 160 colo- 

 nies of bees from November, 1893, to April. 1894, and se- 

 cured 80,000 pounds of mixed orange and palmetto honey. 

 This place consists of one street for three miles, of solid 

 orange groves on either side, the houses being mostly of frame 

 set neatly in front of their groves of from 4 to 20 acres, with 

 nice flower gardens and palm trees in front. The lawns do 

 not amount to much in winter, as the grass mostly dies down, 

 and the sandy soil does not permit the fine lawn grass to 

 thrive like it does in the North. 



De Land, a few miles further south, is also a great orange 

 center, Jno. B. Stetson, by having spent thousands of dollars 

 here in improvements, has one of the most complete orange- 

 packing houses in the South, as well as building a university, 

 halls, ice factory, water works, etc. Yellow pine trees are 

 more numerous through the city than most places. Here the 

 writer thinks of locating a branch apiary to breed early 

 queens for delivery in February, March and April, returning 

 to Pennsylvania in May, in time to breed earlyquetns for that 

 climate. 



Five miles further south is Orange City, where the Gard- 

 ner Brothers' apiary is located, which produced, this year, 

 nearly a barrel of honey to the colony, several colonies giving 

 400 pounds each. The writer would say right here that most 

 of the colonies of bees in this State are what we would call 

 double colonies in the North — 2 stories, 8 and 10 frames each, 

 some with 12 frames, and both stories having most of the 

 frames filled wiih bees. They then tier up in the honey-flow, 

 sometimes four tiers high. Gardner Bros, are living alone, 

 "batching it" on nice, high hammock ground. They have 

 about 75 to 100 colonies of bees, and a promising young 

 orange grove. 



Lake Helen, just east of here, is a beautiful place on the 

 banks of Lake Helen, and in a solid grove of pine trees— a 

 most beautiful location. Here resides Mr. Geo. W. Webster, 

 another migratory bee-keeper, located a mile south of town. 

 He moves his bees to Smyrna in the summer, bringing them 

 back in the fall. Eleven 500-pound barrels of honey from 

 55 colonies was his crop in 1894. 



About 21 miles east of here is New Smyrna Beach, on the 

 Atlantic Ocean, where the writer, on Dec. 11, had as fine a 

 bath in the ocean as one would have at Atlantic City in Au- 

 gust. New Smyrna is on the Hillsboro river, where the 

 famous mangrove grows. It is a large bush, or bushy tree, 

 growing in salt marshes, blooms abundantly, and yields im- 

 mense quantities of a pure white honey that is considered the 

 purest honey in the State; but, like all honey in the State, 

 very little of it is gathered pure. A wild plant blooms at the 

 same time and produces honey, and, mixed with mangrove, 

 gives it a strong taste like tobacco stems. The writer bought 

 several barrels of honey at the different places where the 

 flavor was different, to take home and test it. I would say 

 that three-fourths of the mangrove produced is mixed with 

 this strong plant. Mangrove is very white honey, and easily 

 candies, and in this condition could not be distinguished by 

 its looks, when broken up, from confectioners' sugar. It is 

 used here for sweetening coffee, tea, canned goods, etc. 



Very large apiaries are located on both sides of the river, 

 a full description of which will be given in my next. 



One final thought as to the honey yield of the State in 

 1894 being such increase over previous years. It is explained 

 by the fact that in 1886 a heavy frost killed the mangrove, 

 or froze it all but the roots, and this is the first year since 

 that it has commenced blooming. Also, about the same time 

 cattle men in several parts of the State burnt off the palmetto 

 to help the grass, and this has not happened in the last year 

 or so. Each bee-keeper claims superiority for his own sec- 

 tion, but only a disinterested party from another State can 

 give a satisfactory explanation of the best honey and the best 

 localities for producing it. A fuller and more detailed account 

 will be given in my next communication. 



Against Certain Bee-killing Ideas. 



BY EDWIN BKVINS. 



Allow me space in your columns, Mr. Editor, for a few 

 words of argument and entreaty in behalf of the threatened 

 bees. There is no good reason perhaps why I should consti- 

 tute myself their champion, for i remember some early exper- 

 riences that were very disastrous to them, but the harm done 

 was chargeable to Ignorance and not to design. Since those 

 early days I am sure I have experienced some of the satisfac- 

 tion which attends the transition from ignorance to knowledge 

 and from knowledge to confidence, but my attitude is yet that 

 of a learner at the feet of the Gamaliels of apiculture. It is 

 because no one of those has yet opened his mouth in condem- 

 nation of the gigantic bee-killing scheme of John McArthur, 

 that I venture to open mine. 



Somehow I can't help looking upon this scheme as a piece of 

 — shall I say it? — barbarity, that has no sufficient justification 

 in human need. The man with ability to manage an apiary in 

 a way to make a living out of it, is able to get his living in 

 some way that calls for no such sacrifice. There is a genera- 

 tion of apricultural writers, now passing oft the stage, who have 

 labored long and well to teach us a better bee-morality, as well 

 as better methods for the construction of our hives. Shall we 

 profit by the mechanical part of their teachings, and pass by 

 the ethical part unheeded? Are we going bacl< to the sulphur 

 pit, and multiply it by a hundred? Is retrogression, and not 

 progression, the order among bee-keepers from this time on? 

 Mr. McArthur contends that there is the same justification 

 for killing the bees that there is for killing the calf. I will 

 contend otherwise. The two cases are not exactly parallel. 

 In the case of the calf, it is reared for human food, if not as a 

 calf, then at some later stage of its existence. It lives always 

 with the slaughter-house in view. It owes everything to man's 

 care and labor — shelter, food and all, from birth to death — 

 and there is no way it can repay its owner for these except by 

 surrendering up its life. It is not so with the bees. Their 

 sustenance calls for little or no expenditure of human toil. 

 They gather for themselves and us while living, sweetness 

 that would otherwise be wasted on the desert air, and, when 

 dead, their bodies are worthless for human food. Man has no 

 just claim to any portion of their garnerings, beyond a reason- 

 able compensation for the inexpensive house they live in and 

 some labor given to protect them from winter's cold. 



If the flowers yield nectar in the future as they have in the 

 past it is reasonable to suppose that the bees will gather 

 enough for their own sustenance, and a surplus that will more 

 than recompense man for all that he does for them. If they 

 will not do this, then I say let us abandon the pursuit. 



In conclusion, let me entreat bee-keepers everywhere not to 

 lend any encouragement to Mr. McArthur's bee-killing scheme, 

 but, on the contrary, to stamp it hard and early with the seal 

 of their reprobation. Leon, Iowa. 



That Italian Bee-History Controversy. 



TiY O. .1. ROBINSON. 



Mr. Editor:— On page 679 (1894) you apprise me that 

 I am required to produce certified copies of certain records 

 which you say are on file in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, to "sustain my position," alleging "that the 

 United States lost more or less money in the transaction" — 

 the so-called "Parsons importation of Italian bees." 



It appears that as yet you have not been fully and cor- 

 rectly informed of the facts in the case at issue. Mr. Bald- 

 ridge, you say, "claims to be in possession of the entire his- 

 tory, but has, up to this time, (a period of over 34 years !) 

 made no attempt to make it public, preferring to ' keep in the 

 dark,' so as to draw me out," and then controvert my " state- 

 ments "{?). He is " in possession" of awfully long-winded 

 patience, but his knowledge of current bee-literature is very 

 circumscribed, else he would have been aware that in 1861 I 

 was called out in the Country Gentleman by E. W. Rose, Esq., 

 of New York, who was the first iiuUindual that imported bees 

 from Italy, landing late in the season of 1861, imported per 

 steamer " New York," in care of a young Austrian (Bodmer), 

 who came over in charge of the ten colonies consigned to the 

 United States Government, and the ten hives consigned to 

 Parsons. 



My "statements" about the consignments are corrob- 

 orated by Mr. Langstroth — see American Bee Journal, page 

 82, 1881 — and by a perusal of the Annual Report — Public 

 Documents — of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 readers may learn from Parsons' report to his chief that he 

 purchased " ten hives of bees " in Italy on the order trans- 



