THE BEE-KEEPERS, REVIEW. 



359 



chamber. A similar condition of af- 

 fairs obtains in April and May in Mr. 

 Hall's apiary. As our first real flow 

 of honey does not appear until April, 

 it is evident that the practice of arti- 

 ficial stimulation, productive of such 

 good results in Canada and the North, 

 is unnessessary in South Florida. 



Mr. Hall can store quantities of 

 comb honey in the fall without fear 

 of deterioration. In the humid atmos- 

 phere of South Florida it would most 

 likely become worthless as a mer- 

 chantable product within a week after 

 being taken from the hive. Only con- 

 tinued artificial heat in a close room 

 would save it from "weeping" or 

 "sweating." This is a result of the 

 well-known affinity of honey for 

 moisture. During a great part of the 

 year, extracted honey exposed in an 

 open tank, though sheltered, would 

 become thinner instead of increasing 

 its body. In this respect the contrast 

 between the influence of the atmos- 

 phere in this country and the arid 

 West is most striking. 



Mr. Hall can store his extracting 

 combs in an open shed from season 

 to season. In South Florida they 

 would be destroyed within a very few 

 days by the moth larvae. Here the 

 webs of this destroyer may always be 

 seen during summer, in combs that 

 have remained off of the hive over 



night; as they sometimes do during 

 the extracting season. 



Bees consume vastly more stores in 

 Florida than in the North; hence the 

 increased item of "board" is consider- 

 able. This is a logical result of their 

 continued activity. For the same rea- 

 son, the period of a queen's useful life 

 is reduced about one-half. The writer 

 still has a queen, preserved in alcohol, 

 from Mr. Hall's apiary, where she did 

 excellent service throughout her 

 fourth year, and succumbed to the 

 "grim reaper" while doing duty for 

 the fifth season. It rarely occurs that 

 a queen in Florida retains her prolifi- 

 cacy beyond the second season. 



Owing to the sparsely populated con- 

 dition of the country, home consump- 

 tion of honey is insignificant, and we 

 are obliged to look entirely to distant 

 and expensive markets. We look with 

 hopeful anticipation to the time when 

 the influence of a National Associa- 

 tion of honey producers will be 

 brought to bear upon transportation 

 companies and the development of the 

 markets throughout the country, to 

 render our pursuit more stable and 

 profitable. 



I sincerely wish the Review fumily 

 a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 

 New Year. 



Fort Pierce, Florida, Nov. G, IHO'J. 



HOW TO ORGANIZE. 



BY E. B. TYRRELL. 



Start County Associations, Combine these into State 

 Societies, and the Latter into a National. 



While the discussion is on regarding 

 organization among bee-keepers for 

 the purpose of marketing honey and 

 buying supplies, I want to call atten- 

 tion to an article by C. A. Hatch, pub- 



lished in "Gleanings" for 1896. page 

 777, in regard to the "Arizona Bee- 

 keepers' Association," showing some 

 things to look out for in establishing 

 a honey exchange. 



