152 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Had conditions been favorable from the 

 outset, it would have been an easy matter to 

 have taken twiee the sniplus. There is, how- 

 ever, a sort of ne^iativc satisfaction in leiu-u- 

 iny tliat the 'J(M) colonies left at home have 

 not, so far, done as well. 



My location is on a hilltop, overlooking 

 the valley of the AVisconsin on one hand anil 

 the Kickapoo bottoms <ni the otiiei', so that, 

 with favoral)le weatlier, tlie prospects of a 

 late yield are good. It also is very gratifying 

 to know that the honey from this source is 

 liglit color, good flavor, and well adaiited as 

 a winter food for bees. 



I now have VX,\ colonies, mostly in good 

 condition : and it may be of interest to learn 

 that my exi)enses, including cost of bees, 

 have, thus far, been about !iJ;7U0. 



Wauzeka, Wis. 



Aug. .^), 188!). 



Pkairie du Chien, Wis., Aug., l.'8,]88i). 



Friend H. — Your postal asking about the 

 sj)eed of Mississippi boats was duly received, 

 but as I was preparing to move some bees to 

 near this place, I thouglit I would wait and I 

 might learn something more deiinite. Since 

 coming here I have seen an engineer who 

 has worked several years on Mississippi boats 

 and he says the time of the general freight 

 aud passenger boats is from ten to twelve 

 days from New ( )rleans to Prairie du Chien; 

 but there are raft or tug boats tiiat usually 

 come up empty, stopping oidy for fuel, tliat 

 make the trip in little over half the time, and 

 will take tows at reasonable rates. He says, 

 also, that barges may be bought, at Mem- 

 phis, for a song— .f2,^. or $:W. They will hold 

 several hundi-ed colonies, and originally cost 

 several hundred dollars. They are built l)y 

 parties moving down stream, who, having no 

 further use for them, sell them for what 

 they will bring. As there is plenty of time 

 between harvests in coming up the river 

 from New Orleans to Memphis, the bees 

 could be shipped that far by regular boat, 

 then transferi-ed to a barge. It is quite 

 likely, however, that such barges can also be 

 bought as cheaply at New ( )rleans. I am 

 confident that by this means we can keep up 

 with the season : and, if in the hands of the 

 right man in an ordinarily favorable season, 

 this is the only thing necessary to make a 

 success of the undertaking. 



I have recently fixed on a location near 

 the mouth of the ^\'isconsin, where bass- 

 wood covers tlie blufl's six miles up tiie Wis- 

 consin (on one side of the river) and for 

 some distance down the Mississipiii. Ras])- 

 berries and clover al)Ound, while thousaiuls 

 of acres of bottom lands are covered with 

 fall flowers. The other night I moved sixty- 

 five colonies twenty-two miles on two hay- 

 racks, to this location. The route lay over 

 one hill nearly a mile long, I should judge, 

 and so steep that the wlieels had to be locked 

 with cliains most of the way. The sparks 

 from the tires grinding on the rocks fur- 

 nished about the only light except that given 

 by the stars t\viiU\ling above the' bluffs that 

 towered hundreds of feet high, hard by on 

 either side. 



Byron Walker. 



Incidents in the Perrine "Up the Mississippi'* 



Scheme — It was Terribly Mismanage.!. 



Boating it up the Mississippi 



Is too Slow. 



('. I. L'.ALCH. 



|X BOUT April 3, we took the train for 

 ^) New Orleans. In central Miss, we 

 found the early honey har 'est past 

 and gone and the wild red plum half 

 grown. Arriving at New ( )rleans about April 

 7, we found tlie bees nearly done swarming 

 and entirely througii stoiing surplus ; and 

 Mr. Perrine and (iraby taking things very 

 cooly. I stayed tiiere eight days : one or two 

 swarms per day coming from HOO colonies. 

 \\ e then went to Yazoo city to get together 

 .".(M) swarms as fast as they came out. (These 

 Mr. Perrine had l)OUght of Mr. -lohn Smith. ) 

 Here I stayed and put together ;iLKI hives. 

 Smith had ;>00 colonies just ready to swarm 

 but the honey harvest was over. ( )nly about 

 forty swarms came out, and we made ten or 

 twelve more. Not enough honey came in to 

 sujiply the needs of tiie bees, and we had to 

 feed the young swarms to keep them alive. 



About June 1, we put fifty colonies on a 

 steamer for Vicksburg to meet Mr. Perrine 

 with his steamer which had 80(1 colonies on 

 board and was away down in Mississipi)i. 

 In the meantime, tlie honey harvest was 

 away up at Burlington, Iowa. 



Now I would say that in my opinion, no- 

 boat can start from New ( )rleaiis, when the 

 honey harvest is done there, and keep up 

 with it so as to luive the bees gather the lion- 

 ey in the next place above. In the next 

 lilace, wiien bees are put on board a boat, no 

 matter how much ventilation is given, they 

 will carry out their brood. In one day and 

 a lialf mine luid carried out theirs. There 

 were two-inch holes in the back of the hives, 

 the whole tops of the liives so that the bees 

 could go up into them, and the whole fronts 

 covered with wire cloth, yet the bees could 

 be seen running about with brood in their 

 mouths. 



At Vicksburg, I took the bees out on an 

 island to let them have a flight in a grove of 

 not very higli trees. In a sliort time I had 

 nearly ten i)ushels of bees, queens and all, 

 in one mass in tlie tops of the trees, and no 

 ladder to get them down. This, I think, 

 would be all the expei'ieuce that one man 

 would w.ant in '• Migratory l>ee-l\eepiiig." I 

 finally succeeded, however, in getting them 

 down with the loss of only one (pieen. 



That night Mr. Perrine came up with his 

 steamer. "^ He had taken the bees off the 

 barges and put tlieni on tlie boat. We ran 

 out to the isliind, i)ut on tlie fifty colonies, 

 and steamed up the river. 



The next morning Perrine took me around 

 the aisles to see the bees. There were from 

 two to three quarts of dead bees in each 

 hive, while the stench was enough to take 

 away one's bit'ntli. 1 went to work remov- 

 ing the dead bees, and bushels were removed 

 every day until we arrived at St. Louis. We 

 went about forty miles above there, and 

 found white clover nearlj' gone, but we 

 made up our minds that something must be 



