10 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



south from that point across the Tam- 

 pa Bay. It is on the Seabord Air 

 Line R. R. on the west coast, of 

 course, of Florida. The Mangrove 

 (the black mangrove) has never 

 proved itself a very heavy yielder, 

 on the west coast, compared with the 

 yields on the east coast of the state. 

 Why, no one knows. Mr. Shumard, 

 formerly on Sarasota Bay, a little 

 to the south of Palmetto, said that 

 he seldom secured much honey fi'om 

 Mangrove, and Mr. O. O. Poppleton, 

 referred to by our correspondent, as- 

 sured me that he had never heard 

 of any such yields on west side, that 

 he had on the eastern coast. It MAY 

 be that these conditions will change, 

 possibly are now changing. We hope, 

 from what Mr. Clute writes, that it 

 is so already. We do not know just 

 what species of plant our correspond- 

 ent refers to by the Thoroughwort, 

 but we are writing him for a speci- 

 men, and if it comes in good condi- 

 tion, we can discover the botanical 

 and scientific name. It is probably 

 the familiar Boneset. The point, that 

 it is coming thickly along the line 

 of a canal, made by man, is interest- 

 ing. On the east coast, above Bulow, 

 Fla., is a large canal connecting the 

 salt rivers of the east shore line; and 

 it is along the land drained by this 

 canal that Alfalfa clover is beginning 

 to make itself felt as a honey yielder. 

 Who knows what may yet await Flor- 

 idians in the big drainage projects 

 that are now under way? We are 

 also glad to learn that the Smart- 

 weed is coming in abundantly in the 

 section named. It has long been 

 known that wild Sunflower and penny- 

 royal are great factors in the south- 

 ern half of the state, the former for 

 its inferior honey, the latter among 

 the best honeys in any country. Mr. 

 Poppleton declared that he knew of 

 none better anywhere than the honey 

 from pennyroyal. The Partridge Pea, 

 mentioned, is the Cassia Chamaecris- 

 ta. That we described for Gleanings, 

 and later for A B C and X Y Z of 

 Beekeeping, See editorial elsewhere 

 in this issue. In fact, all these 

 sources of honey named by our cor- 

 respondent except Thoroughwort have 

 been described in the A B C.) 



Carrollton, Ga., Oct. 16, 1914. 

 Prof. Edwin G. Baldwin, 



Deland, Fla. 

 Dear Sir: 



I have been in correspondence with 



Mr. C. H. Clute, Palmetto, Florida, 

 about the bee business in his vicin- 

 ity, having met him in 1912 on a 

 short visit to Palmetto. In a recent 

 letter he tells me of a wonderful sec- 

 tion just discovered along a canal 

 a few miles from his location where 

 oceans of smartweed, wild sunflower, 

 thoroughwort, etc., abound. He is 

 quite enthusiastic over it and thinks 

 it will be much more profitable than 

 the locations he now occupies, or at 

 least will supplement these by moving 

 bees to and from the new field. He 

 tells me you were going out to take 

 photos. I am writing you to get your 

 ideas of the new field and of Manatee 

 County generally, and especially that 

 section around Palmetto, Bradentown, 

 Manatee, etc. 



I like working with bees, have 

 owned them more or less for years, 

 and can handle them any way I like. 

 In fact, bees have always interested 

 me greatly, though I have never been 

 in a first class location to produce 

 honey. I have been thinking of mov- 

 ing to Bradentown or Palmetto and 

 engaging in bee culture extensively. 

 I believe I could attend to 200 or 

 300 hives run for extracted honey. 

 Now, I am writing to request your 

 judgment on the question whether 

 honey flow is sufficiently abundant 

 and reliable about Palmetto or any 

 part of Manatee County for a man 

 to risk giving up a salary of $150.00 

 a month and embarking in the bee 

 business there. 



I will appreciate your attention to 

 this matter and such information as 

 you can give me. 



Yours truly, 



L. K. SMITH. 



In reply to this letter, we told Mr. 

 Smith, frankly, that we did not be- 

 lieve beekeeping, as a sole occupation 

 in Florida was so sure as a salary 

 of $150.00 per month. We said that 

 one year varied so much from an- 

 other and conditions were so subject 

 to cold and other weather conditions 

 that no one location could be depend- 

 ed on to supply a return of, average, 

 .$150.00 per month. We added that 

 out-apiaries, and possibly other lines 

 of business, such as make profitable 

 avocations with the vocation of bee- 

 keeping, might make $150.00 look 

 small; i)ut that it might not be so 

 evenly distributed, one year with an- 

 other. In conclusion, we told him 

 that if health or pleasure of living, 

 or love of nature and her ways, love 



