*TmM mimmmi€:M.M mmw jovMrntuL, 



585 



honey season, for you can tell just what 

 your bees are doing, and how fast you 

 will have to get your sections ready to 

 put on, how much more room they 

 need, etc., from two to five days sooner 

 than you would if you had ho scales, 

 and these few days would amount to 

 several hundred pounds of honey for 

 each day in an apiary of from 50 to 100 

 hives. 



GEORGIA HONEY. 



" Pleasantries " About the Pro- 

 diivtiun or Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY W. H. PRIOR. 



An item on " Honey in Georgia," has 

 been going the rounds of late through 

 the secular press, and has been copied 

 by some bee-papers. I also notice on 

 page 460 of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, the management of an apiary by 

 Ben Foggy, of Iowa, who makes honey, 

 according to his fancy, by "moon- 

 shine." 



jSTow I cannot produce honey like 

 Beu Foggy, or my Georgia neighbor 

 who has a grove of trees which he taps 

 and gets the honey by the barrel. Cer- 

 tainly the Iowa man, as well as my 

 Georgia friend, were out of employ- 

 ment, and acting up the old adage, that 

 when you tell one, tell a big one, they 

 indulged their imaginary genius in 

 fabricating these sweet pleasantries- 

 like the " Wily scientific pleasantry " 

 in fabrication, but unlike that pleas- 

 antry in that they were not intended 

 for the purpose of, norcould in any way 

 injure apiculture in the least. 



But laying all jest and pleasantry 

 aside, Georgia (especially middle 

 Georgia) is as well adapted to apicul- 

 ture and the production of honey, as 

 any country in the world, Italy not ex- 

 cepted. Our climate is almost the 

 counterpart of that salubrious climate 

 so much admired by travelers, and so 

 beautifully described by writers of both 

 prose and poetry. 



The cultivation of " king cotton " has 

 so absorbed the minds and energies of 

 the yeomanry of the Sunny South for 

 several generations past, that they have 

 neglected and almost ignored every 

 other rural industry ; and this has been 

 to the detriment of themselves and 

 families, and almost to the irreparable 

 ruin of this Heavenly favored Sunny 

 South land of ours, by making barren 

 wastes and gapping gullies on almost 

 every hillside. 



Once these fields were as fertile (and 

 the most of them are still capable of as 

 high a state of cultivation) as any land 

 North, East or West. This has been 

 demonstrated and proved beyond a 

 doubt, not only by special tests, but by 

 numerous and extensive experiments. 

 The people are awaking to their best 

 interests, and diversified farming— the 

 dairy and other industries— are spring- 

 ing up on every hand. Northern capi- 

 tal is fast seeking investment with us, 

 opening up industries which of course 

 will give us a better home market for 

 our honey, butter, fruits, vegetables 



and the like. The want of a home 

 market, and the lack of railroad facili- 

 ties has been a great drawback in the 

 production of these things. The open- 

 ing of new lines of railway, a great 

 deal of which has been done within 

 the past few years, the reduction of 

 freight, the preparation of refrigerator 

 cars, etc., is working a revolution in 

 this respect. 



middle Georgia as a Honey Country. 



Middle Georgia is specially adapted 

 to apiculture. Our winters are com- 

 paratively short and mild. The mer- 

 cury rarely ever reaching zero. We 

 hardly know what it is for it to go be- 

 low zero, and the cold spells are gen- 

 erally of but short dui'ation, there being 

 scarcely a week during winter but that 

 the bees can have a cleansing,«unny 

 flight if they so desire. 



We have no need of a cellar, house or 

 even chaff hives ; all that is needed for 

 safe wintering is a good colony with 

 enough honey to last them from No- 

 vember to March 1. By feeding the 

 last of February and the first of March, 

 for stimulating brood-rearing, one can 

 have full colonies ready for work as 

 early as from the first to the middle of 

 April. My first swarm came out and 

 was hived on Saturday, April 7. With 

 empty frames to start with, in ten days 

 they had the frames below filled with 

 brood and honey, and were working in 

 the upper sections. 



Our honey harvest is during the 

 months of April, May and June, al- 

 though the bees can live by foraging 

 from March to November. Thus it 

 will be seen that we could save the 

 cream of our honey harvest, and then 

 sell and ship some colonies to the 

 North in time for the beginning of the 

 honey harvest there. 



Honey-Tfleldlng Plants of Georgia. 



While I suppose we have nothing 

 equal to the basswood of the North and 

 Northwest, yet we have the great ad- 

 vantage of a greater length of time for 

 the honey-flow, and a greater variety 

 of honey -producing plants. Our poplar 

 is almost as good as basswood. We 

 have willow, besides other swamp 

 growth and wild flowers that furnish 

 the precious nectar. These come along 

 in April and May. Apples, pears, 

 plums and the like bloom in March. 

 Later on we have the field pea— almost 

 as good as red clover — being of the 

 clover family a leguminous plant, which 

 grows to perfection with but little 

 labor, and is a fine stock feed, both pea 

 and vine, besides the best renovator of 

 worn soil, red clover not excepted. 



Then red clover will also grow well 

 here, if properly managed and ferti- 

 lized. I have had it to grow from 2 to 

 3 feet high, and yield from 3 to 5 tons 

 of good hay per acre. I shall sow more 

 this fall than ever, and mix Alsike 

 clover with it. Alsike is said to be 

 better for bees than the red, and that 

 Alsike will grow anywhere that the red 

 will. I shall give it a trial anyway. 



We have a little white clover that 

 grows wild, to be fouud almost any- 

 where, that furnishes considerable 

 honey during the month of June. Our 

 cotton— and we have thousands of acres 



in full bloom from the middle of July 

 to the middle of October— furnishes 

 enough for the bees to live on during 

 this time. It is very light in color, and 

 finely flavored. The meagre supply 

 scattered over so large a territory gives 

 but little surplus, but enough to keep 

 the bees from consuming their already 

 garnered winter supply. If ihe second 

 crop of Alsike and red clover blossoms 

 should prove with us what is claimed 

 for it in the North and Northwest, we 

 can have a July crop of honey that 

 would make our honey harvest last 

 from April 1 to Aug. 1. I shall sow at 

 least ten acres of the two mixed this 

 fall, and give it a fair test. 



There are but few apiarists in this 

 country, but quite a number of bee- 

 keepers using the old-fashioned box- 

 gum, not knowing a queen from a king 

 bee. Dr. J. P. H. Brown, of Augusta, 

 Ga., one of the most noted apiarists or 

 the South, has already taken, this sea- 

 son, 125 pounds of surplus honey from 

 one Italian colony. Of course this is a 

 phenomenal yield for one colony, but 

 from 75 to lOO pounds have been fre- 

 quently obtained in Georgia. Of course, 

 with us as at the North, every year is 

 not a honey year, but we never have an 

 entire failure, always having some 

 surplus. 



With our natural advantages of 

 climate, and many honey producing 

 plants, with practical and scientific 

 knowledge of apiculture, producing 

 artificial pasturage for bees, combining 

 the business with stock husbandry — 

 certainly (Georgia could be made a land 

 that would with " milk and honey 

 flow." 



Madison, Ga., Aug. 1, 1888. 



IN COUNCIL. 



The If. W. Illinois and S. W. 

 >Viseonsin Convention. 



WHttx^n for the Forreaton, Ills., Herald 



BY THE SECRETARY. 



The bee-keepers of Northwestern 

 Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin 

 met by appointment at Leaf River, Ills. , 

 on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 1888, the Presi- 

 dent, L. Ilighbarger, in the chair. 



It being a very busy season among 

 the farmers, there was not a very large 

 attendance. A few of the most promi- 

 nent men of the association were pres- 

 ent, and their able discussions made it 

 a very pleasant meeting. 



Some time was spent by the visitors 

 in examining the methods and looking 

 over the well-kept apiary of the Presi- 

 dent of the association, Mr. High- 

 barger. His colony of newly -imported 

 bees elicited the admiration of all pres- 

 ent, and the queens of this species will 

 be at a premium among the members 

 in the future. 



Bee conventions are modern socie- 

 ties, and bee-culture is a modern 

 science. Thirty years ago a bee keep- 

 ers' association was never thought of; 

 to-day they are found in every progres- 

 sive country of the globe. The person 

 who will take the time to look over the 

 records of the past thirty years, will 



