416 
GLOVES EOR HANDLING BEES 
cialist in Beekeeping, “no limit to the ex¬ 
tent beekeeping can be developed in this 
section.” 
Owing to the much smaller area of 
swampland in South Carolina the gall- 
berry is less important than in North Caro¬ 
lina; but in southeast Georgia it is a very 
common honey plant, and a great yielder 
of nectar. It blooms ten days later than 
in North Carolina. “We iiave never 
failed,” says J. J. Wilder, ‘to get a sur¬ 
plus from it even during the most unfavor¬ 
able weather conditions.” In over half a 
century there is no record of its ever once 
disappointing the beekeeper. The largest 
surplus that has been obtained from a sin¬ 
gle colony is 147 pounds. During the hon¬ 
ey flow the bees disregard all other bloom, 
working for pollen until about eight 
o’clock in the morning, when the flow be¬ 
gins and continues for the remainder of 
the day. The honey is of a light color, 
very heavy, and very mild and pleasant 
in flavor. When free from other sources 
it tastes and looks very much like white 
clover. When it is pure and well ripened 
it has never been known to granulate). 
Wilder declares that he has never known 
a gallberry section to be overstocked, and 
in one location 362 colonies did nearly as 
well as 100. Good gallberry locations in 
Georgia are, in his opinion, nearly num¬ 
berless, and large quantities of this fine 
honey are annually lost for want of bees 
to collect it. Beekeepers often regret that 
fires started by the men engaged in the pro¬ 
duction of turpentine burn the gallberry 
thickets, but a much better growth is thus 
secured the following year. Wilder re¬ 
ports that he makes a practice of burning 
over one-half of the gallberry lands in his 
location once in two or three years. On a 
burned-over section the bushes make a 
rank growth, while on a section not burned 
over they are thin and scattering. 
But a word of warning is given by E. 
R. Root to the northern beekeeper who 
proposes “to go southeast.” He must not 
suppose that there are no obstacles to over¬ 
come or no failures. A large part of this 
remarkable bee country is swampland and 
will aways remains a wilderness. There 
are venomous snakes and hosts of mosqui¬ 
toes and red-bugs; the population is 
sparse; the villages are small and primi¬ 
tive; the country roads are very poor; the 
winters and springs are damp and chilly 
while the summers are very hot; and there 
are few modern conveniences. But there 
is reported to be very little malaria, and 
from most of the dangers and difficulties 
enumerated the adventurous apiarist can 
protect himself. 
Pure gallberry honey has nearly the fla¬ 
vor of white clover; but it differs from 
this blend in that it has a slightly tart re¬ 
action ten to fifteen seconds after it has 
been tasted. Its flavor is often injured by 
an admixture of honey from black titi 
(Cliftonia monophylla), which is abund¬ 
ant in the swamps and blooms a little ear¬ 
lier. 
Swamp gallberry ( Ilex lucida). This 
species is also an evergreen shrub, resem¬ 
bling the common gallberry in leaf, flower, 
and fruit; but it is a little larger, blooms 
a little earlier, and grows in swamps. It 
extends from Virginia to Florida and Lou¬ 
isiana. The honey is very similar to that 
of 1 . glabra, but is reported to be a little 
milder. Other species of Ilex of value to 
the beekeeper are holly (I. opaca ), dahoon 
(I. Cassine), yaupon (I. vomitoria), pos¬ 
sum haw (7. decidua) and black alder (7. 
verticillata) . See Holly, also The Honey 
Plants of North America. 
GLOVES FOR HANDLING BEES.— 
Altho a good many apiarists work with 
bare hands and bare wrists, there are a 
few who prefer to use gloves with long 
wrists, and quite a large number who use 
them with fingers and thumbs cut off. If 
the bees are hybrids, and extracting is car¬ 
ried on during the robbing season, it is a 
great convenience to use something that 
protects the back of the hands and wrists, 
leaving the fingers bare, so that, for all 
practical purposes of manipulation, one 
can work as well with protectors as with¬ 
out. 
Women beekeepers and men who are at 
all timid, and a very small number who 
seem to be seriously affected by even one 
sting, might use gloves to great advan¬ 
tage. 
A very good glove for working among 
bees is one made of kid or dogskin. While 
the sting of a bee will often puncture the 
former, one does not get much more than 
