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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



53 



ule boat line operating up and down 

 the rivers. Then the beekeepers 

 have their own private small gaso- 

 line boats, used mostly for passenger 

 service, as the larger boats land for 

 honey at the apiary docks, which are 

 built along large getatable streams. 

 These boats are very accommodating 

 to the beekeepers, as their revenue 

 comes mostly from them. These 

 beekeepers have homes up the river 

 where the boats have a landing at 

 the main land, and there their fami- 

 lies reside all the time, while the 

 beekeepers themselves play up and 

 down the river in their small boats, 

 looking after their bee interests dur- 

 ing the busy season. Their apiaries, 

 together with honey houses and 

 small living quarters, are the most 

 noticeable objects up and down the 

 rivers, setting high up on scaffolds 

 above high water mark. These bee- 

 keepers are the most prosperous 



Beekeeping for Women 



Our esteemed friend and correspondent, Ph. 

 J. Baldensperger, of Nice, France, writes an 

 interesting appeal, entitled "Revictualling," 

 which we translate in part from "L'Apicul- 

 ceur" of September-October, 1917: 



During these times of penury in 

 sweets, it is pleasant for us beekeep- 

 ers to see the bees praised as auxil- 

 iaries in the service of mankind, in 

 the present world catastrophe. As 

 long as it is only our bee magazines 

 who try to place the bee and its 

 products in the front ranks, we see 

 nothing extraordinary about it, for it 

 is, as usual, the corporation of pro- 

 ducers who defends its products. But 

 when the daily press gets interested 

 in the matter, we have good cause to 

 be pleased with this forward move- 

 ment. This world commption was 

 required to take beekeeping out of 



DR. SMOYER'S APIARY AT NARANJITO, PORTO RICO. 



citizens of that country and beekeep- 

 ing is looked upon by all as a great 

 business. They are very congenial 

 towards each other and one never 

 places bees on another's territory, 

 and when a stranger comes in with 

 his bees and puts them down near 

 some one of them, there is great 

 commotion among them all, and 

 they see to it that he moves them 

 off. In this section there are many 

 good unoccupied locations for api- 

 arists, but they are not so con- 

 venient to reach, owing to the lay of 

 the streams and main land out from 

 them. Nearly all good locations in 

 easy reach are stocked. However, 

 all locations could be reached with 

 little difficulty by land or water. 



It is here Florida has the greatest 

 future in beekeeping, and if it was 

 well stocked the output would be 

 enormous. Great progress in bee- 

 keeping of late is fully under way 

 there and the early honey market 

 nearly all over the United States 

 feels the effect of their output. 



Bradentown, Fla. 



the shadow in which it stood behind 

 its sisters in "ing." 



A large American daily which I 

 read a few days ago calls the bee 

 "our recent recruit," and a Boston 

 professor makes a warm appeal to 

 the public in favor of beekeeping. 

 He quotes the statistics of the 

 Washington Government to show 

 that the United States produce only 

 300 million pounds of honey for a 

 population of 100 million, 3 pounds 

 per head. 



What then will we say of the crop 

 of our "belle France," as our friend 

 Dadant calls her? We reach a pro- 

 duction of 22 million pounds for a 

 population of 40 million, or about 

 half a pound per head. There must 

 be inequality of distribution, for 

 what would a beekeeper do with 

 only half a pound of honey to eat 

 annually? Is it not high time for us 

 to go about praising the value of 

 the honeybee, since with the present 

 shortage of sugar there is no need 

 of great eloquence to persuade the 



consumer that he must eat honey, 

 because of its healthfulness? 



The prophet Mohammed gave the 

 name of the honeybee to one of his 

 114 Suras, although this chapter con- 

 tains only two or three stanzas rela- 

 tive to bees. He recommends honey, 

 of which he was very fond. He says: 



"The Lord prompts the bees to 

 make their homes in the mountains, 

 in the trees or in the bushes, to feed 

 upon the products of the trees arid 

 to follow the way that the Lord 

 teaches. A product comes out of 

 their body, a liquid of varied colors, 

 which contains a human remedy." 



The mystic appeal of the prophet 

 should be modernized for our cities 

 and our country. With a little 

 thought and some reasoning, we will 

 finally give beekeeping the place 

 which it occupied formerly. 



I was called lately to a country 

 place to dislodge several swarms 

 which had taken possession of a vil- 

 la. I hastened to answer the call, in 

 spite of my crop work, in order to 

 be of service to some of the "women 

 of France" who are now struggling 

 magically to help French agriculture. 



However, I have not quite as much 

 "enterprise" as a veteran beekeeper 

 mentioned to me by a Piedmontese, 

 who is hardly as famous, as a liar, 

 as the inhabitants of Tarascon. This 

 veteran, he says, having discovered 

 bees- in a hollow rock in the bluffs of 

 the Alps, hired, one day, seven mules 

 to transport the necessary ropes for 

 the assault. The king, Victor Em- 

 manuel II, having heard of the cara- 

 van, joined the expedition. The big 

 cavern, according to my Tartarin 

 story-teller, contained thousands of 

 swarms. Several men were re- 

 quired to gather the honey in large 

 tubs and let it down with ropes. 

 After a few hours of watch of this 

 wonderful work, the king became 

 tired of it and asked to be let down. 

 But the veteran was unwilling to 

 dispense with the flattering presence 

 of the king, and continued to gather 

 the Pactolian flow. But let us leave 

 them with their seven mules, to 

 come back to our villa. 



Some swarms were situated 

 against the sasli of a window and 

 obscured the room. Others had lo- 

 cated between the floor and the 

 lower ceiling. These charming bees 

 belonged to a swarm of as charming 

 young ladies. Blondes and brunettes 

 had protected their heads with 

 scarfs which made a great diversity 

 of colors. They were greatly inter- 

 ested in the work. After "having 

 carefully smoked the bees at the en- 

 trances, I tore out some boards and 

 went to work. For four hours, 

 kneeling down before this treasure, 

 once in a while I pulled out a great 

 comb of honey and handed it to my 

 enthusiastic lady beekeepers. Any- 

 one witnessing the work from the 

 forest across the hill might have 

 supposed that I was a faithful Hadji, 

 starting for Mecca and kneeling to 

 Allah to ask for a successful voy- 

 age. The pilgrimage was certainly 

 crowned with success, and at sight 

 of combs of honey four feet in 

 length by one foot in depth, I felt 



