T'Me; MMBmicMNi MWiW jo^mnmi^. 



670 



and the bees carried out large quanti- 

 ties of young brood. While we were 

 talking we could hear the bees work- 

 ing on the two or three species of 

 wild grape that were just coming into 

 blossom in the hammock. I also no- 

 ticed bees very busy on Ikx dcciilna 

 and Eugenia dicholoma, two shrubs or 

 small trees that are plentiful in places 

 near the coast. 



About the same time I visited two 

 apiaries belonging to J. Y. Detwilcr — 

 one at his home on the east side of the 

 Hillsborough river, opposite New 

 Smyrna, and the other on Orange Is- 

 land, 12 or 14 miles further south. 

 His home apiary did not seem to be 

 doing much, there being but little 

 hammock within reach of it, but the 

 one on Orange Island, having access 

 to plenty of hammock, were rearing 

 brood and storing honey. He had not 

 fed either apiary except perhaps to 

 give weak colonies frames of honej- 

 from the strong ones. 



I spent several weeks on the Hills- 

 borough river in June and Jul}-, and 

 visited the apiaries of Mr. Detwiler, 

 the Messrs. Brown on the east side of 

 the river, W. S. Hart (in charge of E. 

 S. Contant) at Hawk's Park, A. E. 

 Marsh, near Oak Hill, and others. 

 Two story hives were, generally used, 

 and so far as I learned, no honey was 

 extracted from the lower story, and it 

 seemed to be the general opinion that 

 both stories should be left full of 

 sealed honey for winter use. 



I think that the palmetto yield must 

 have been much shortened the past 

 season by dry weather, and the man- 

 grove itself, although its roots stand 

 in water, and are washed by the tide 

 every day, seems to need rain in order 

 to produce a good yield. I heard bee- 

 keepers complaining that they were 

 getting little honey on account of the 

 dry weather, while only a few miles 

 distant, others who had been in the 

 track of storms, were getting a good 

 flow. • The best yield heard of was 150 

 or 160 pounds per colony. Some got 

 but very little. One man said that he 

 fed two barrels of sugar and one-half 

 a barrel of honey, and extracted two 

 and one-half barrels of honey. Difler- 

 ence in location, rainfall, condition of 

 bees, and I have no doubt in manage- 

 ment, all conspire to make a diticrence 

 in results. 



I have no doubt that large quanti- 

 ties of honey will be produced from 

 the mangrove, but it will be done by 

 acquired skill and untiring persever- 

 ance. 



Further south Satureia rigida, com- 

 monly called wild penny-royal, is 

 said to be a very superior honey-plant, 

 blossoming during the winter. I have 

 collected specimens of it within less 

 than two miles of our own apiarj', 



where it blossoms in April, but not in 

 sufficient quantities to yield much 

 honey. 



Xlie Ciradine- of Florida Honey. 



I wish to speak in regard to the 

 grading of Florida honey. Some' 

 dealers still unjustly class it as " South- 

 ern honey," a name that has been ap- 

 plied to a very inferior article produced 

 in some parts of the South, by the old- 

 fashioned method of melting and 

 mashing comb, bee-bread, brood and 

 dead bees, and running the filthy mass 

 through a cloth strainer. Mangrove 

 honey is nearly as clear and white as 

 the best white clover honey, and has a 

 mild and pleasant flavor. Orange, 

 palmetto, and gallberry honey — our 

 principal honej-plants in the interior 

 — are, in my opinion, much superior to 

 buckwheat honey, and they are cer- 

 tainly much lighter in color than buck- 

 wheat, or even golden-rod, and should 

 be graded and sold on their merits as 

 mangrove, orange or palmetto, as the 

 case may be. 



Geo. W. Webster. 



Mangrof e and Palmetto Honey. 



After the reading of Prof. Webster's 

 essay, the following discussion ensued: 



Prof. Cook — I think that something 

 ought to be done in the way of recog- 

 nizing the difterence between man- 

 gi-ove honey and the ordinary South- 

 ern honey. The mangi-ove honey is 

 certainly fine honey, and ought not to 

 sufler from having the name "South- 

 ern " honey given to it. 



J. Y. Detwiler — If this convention 

 would recognise the supei'ior quality 

 of palmetto and mangrove honej-, and 

 urge the editors to make a distinction 

 between this and other Southern honey, 

 in their market quotations, it would be 

 a great help to the bee-keepers of 

 Florida. 



Upon motion of Dr. Miller, it was 

 voted that the editors of the bee-papers 

 be requested to quote mangrove aud 

 palmetto honey under their proper 

 names, and to continue to keep these 

 names in their quotations. If there is 

 no honey of these kinds in the market, 

 simply say, "None in the market." • 



The attention of the meeting was 

 next turned to a discussion of the 



ILiessons of tlie ^Season. 



Dr. C. C. Miller recounted the fail- 

 ures of the past seeson. Not only had 

 the honey cnjp been a light one, but 

 he had been called upon to bear 

 troubles and afllietions, still, he had 

 been hajipy ; he thought that the great- 

 est lesson he had learned was that of 

 being contented under adverse circum- 

 stances. 



R. F. Holtermann became di.sgusted 

 with bees the first year he kept them, 



sold out, and the next year the average 

 honey crop was 200 pounds per colony 

 He had learned that it was best ta 

 "Stick to it." 



Prof. Cook thought that one lesson 

 of the season was in that it showed the 

 desirability of combining bee-keeping 

 with some other business. He called 

 attention to the amount of honey that 

 Mr. Taylor could haVe secured by 

 moving his bees. This should teach 

 us what might be done by moving bees 

 to better pastures. 



The convention now took a recesa 

 of ten minutes. 



When called to order, the members 

 were once more pleased, set to laugh- 

 ing this time by Dr. Miller's singing a 

 song entitled, "Dot Happy Bee-Man ;" 

 the words being written by Eugene 

 Secor, and music by Dr. Miller. 



The next topic taken up for discus- 

 sion was, 



Tlie Time for Pntting' Bees into 

 ^Vinter Quarters. 



Dr. Mason had put bees into the 

 cellar on Oct. 19, and others later ■ 

 and there \vas no particular difterence 

 in regard to the amount of stores con- 

 sumed, or in the wintering of the bees. 

 The average consumption of stores 

 was six or seven pounds per colony. 



E. R. Root said that their colonies 

 consumed, on an average, about 12 

 pounds per colony. 



Prof. Cook had done considerable 

 weighing of bees. Out-of-doors the 

 consumption of stores per colony aver-i 

 aged about 15 pounds ; in the cellar, 8 

 pounds. He knew that bees coidd win- 

 ter well in a light cellar, but as a gen- 

 eral thing he did not think they would. 



Dr. Mason knew that light was in- 

 jurious. He had had bees continue to 

 leave their hives on account of the 

 light, until the hives were depopulated. 



Dr. Miller had had bees remain 

 quiet in the cellar with the sun shin- 

 ing upon the hives. If the bees are 

 uneasy, the light will disturb them ; 

 otherwise it probably will not. He did 

 not advise light in a cellar. 



Prof. Cook — This may not be exactly 

 the place to talk of hives, but I have 

 noticed that bees have wintered the 

 best in the "New Hcddon Hives," and 

 I have wondered if others have no- 

 ticed it. I have been at a loss to ac- 

 count for this, as it has been without 

 exception. Sometimes I have thought 

 that it might be because the combs 

 were i an inch above the bottom- 

 board ; and again, I have been in- 

 clined to attribute it to the fact that 

 the upper story was filled with honey, 

 while the lower one was emi)ty. 



Frank A. Eaton had never succeeded 

 in wintering bees in the cellar until he 

 bean raising the hives from the bot- 

 tom-boards. 



