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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



call it (but I call It a dug-out), is on the 

 north hill slope 7x15 feet, and 7 feet 

 high, the ridge pole being braced by five 

 6-inch posts, and covered with poles, 

 and about 3 feet of earth on them. The 

 door is in the north side. I claim it is 

 frost proof, and I can winter 1 or 100 

 colonies with safety in it. Of course, 

 the more bees the more ventilation. I 

 wintered 29 colonies in this cellar last 

 Winter, without a single loss. 



Thos. Johnson. 

 Coon Rapids, Iowa. 



Florida Climate. 



On page 658 is an article by Mrs. L. 

 Harrison on " Florida Bee-Keeping." I 

 know that her lady friend has never 

 been to this region, or she could not 

 speak so about the dampness. That 

 lady's broom-handle would have to be 45 

 feet long to reach water on my place, 

 and as we sleep on the ground floor, and 

 do not dry our clothes every morning, I 

 am sure we cannot live in "that local- 

 ity." I have traveled from one end of 

 the Indian River to the other, and never 

 experienced the dampness desqribed by 

 Mrs. Harrison's friend. As an actual 

 fact, the moisture or humidity is about 

 76 per cent, which is about the same as 

 Los Angles, California. Bees do well 

 here on mangrove and scrub palmetto 

 blossoms, and I would not like to see 

 apiarists kept away by statements that 

 are at variance with the facts. In the 

 Summer the dampness is greater than in 

 Winter or Spring, the average humidity 

 being 78 per cent. This is not excessive, 

 considering that we are on the seashore, 

 and subject in Summer to constant 

 showers. John Aspinwall. 



Eau Gallic, Fla., Dec. 9, 1891. 



Honey in Better Demand. 



I have 150 colonies of bees, and my 

 crop of honey this year is about 3,000 

 pounds — one-third being comb-honey 

 and two-thirds extracted-honey — which 

 brought 8 cents for comb, and 6 cents 

 for extracted. My comb-honey was put 

 up in 1-pound sections. The demand 

 was better this year than ever before, 

 owing, perhaps, to a scarcity this year. 

 We had a cold, rainy spell here in April 

 and May, at the time the cactus and 

 cat's-claw were in bloom, and there was 

 no honey stored until July, as horse- 

 mint did not bloom in May. As usual, 

 the honey gathered in July was from 

 mesquite, which blooms only in very dry 

 weather. We had no rain from May 15 



to Sept. 15, and none from the latter 

 date until to-day. Two years ago I 

 wrote you that I had foul-brood in my 

 apiary, but found that it was not foul- 

 brood, but was caused by heat and want 

 of ventilation. I use the 10-frame sim- 

 plicity hive, and the frames were so 

 close to the bottom that there was no 

 chance for ventilation. Raising the 

 hives % of an inch from the bottom- 

 boards, by nailing cleats on the bottom- 

 boards, will prevent swarming most 

 effectually. I have been using some 8- 

 frame hives this year, and will report 

 next year with what success. I would 

 like to hear from some bee-men in South- 

 western Texas, through the Bee Jour- 

 nal. G. F. Davidson. 

 Fairview, Tex., Dec. 12, 1891. 



Honey as Food and Medicine. 



The extensive use of sugar on fruit is 

 not as bad as the cake mania that rages 

 in so many kitchens. The fruit acids 

 largely neutralize the indiscriminate and 

 injudicious use of sugar. It is no seri- 

 ous thing to eat considerable saccharine 

 food in a pure state, but not in the form 

 of pure refined sugar. 



If eaten and taken in the form of 

 honey it at once becomes a valuable 

 medicine and food. Instead of having it 

 given us in this form in a mixture with 

 bulk foods, as in the cane and beet, we 

 have it mingled with fruit juices exuded 

 from flowers highly charged with medi- 

 cinal properties in the alchemy of nature 

 and the apothecary of the bee-hive. 



The advantages of honey as a medi- 

 cine or food are too extensive to be con- 

 sidered at length here. 



Honey taken as a food becomes a pow- 

 erful medicine to the sugar-fed and half- 

 diseased, and many must begin on 

 small quantities and acquire an appetite 

 for it. Foul air, improper ventilation, 

 coal gases, together with the sudden 

 change and exposure of lungs and 

 throats to zero weather, or worse, in a 

 moment, is the source of no end of 

 throat and bronchial troubles. 



A free, regular, and constant use of 

 honey, is probably the best medicine for 

 throat troubles there is, and its regular 

 use would be largely corrective here. It 

 is always best to take our medicine and 

 food together. — Horticultural Times. 



If You Mave any honey to sell, 

 get some Honey Almanacs and scatter 

 in your locality. They will sell it all in 

 a very short time. 



