The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-08-28

NnmNun Neutrality-suspicious." Mces
The following paragraph lately at
tracted our attention Ia the column
Of an exchange evidently dating
back 10 original publication in Thu
4 summer al 1870; N. x B. IN
Near the village Of Beeton, Ontario
Canada, there Is q bee farm which \
| probably one 81 the most extensive
and successful things of the kind n
| the world. IL consists Of four bee
yards, situated at the angles Of q
square which embraces several square
miles Of country The current year
has, SO far, proved favorable for
honey. Mr.. ID. Al. Jones, the owner,
had at the end Of July already taken
SO, 1000 pounds of honey from 620 stocks
of bees. The hives used are oblong
pine-wood boxes, with n cubic capacity
of 3,2i0 Inches, the inside measure
being Is by IS by IL.
The proprietor expects the total
yield for the year TO be 10000 pounds
of honey from his 10,000,000 little
workers, in which case he would net
between $1,000 and $4,000 for the
years product, without taking into
account the sale Of swarms and queen
bees.
Just after cutting out the above, a
copy of the Toronto Globe was re-
ceived containing the proceedings at
one of the sessions of the Canadian
Agricultural Commission now taking
evidence i'm that city, in the course of
which we find the following state
ment from the Mr.. Jones above re-
ferred to:
Mr.. ID. A. Jones of Beeton, who
only returned from Cyprus last week,
detailed how he was engaged in bee
farming, keeping five or six hundred
stocks. He originally kept the black
bees he then had the italian bees,
ard last winter he went to Cyprus and
Palestine, and imported bees that he
found there, discovering new va
riety that he had never heard of,
before. The italian bees were adj
mitted to be the best for general pur-
poses; the hybrid bee, or the cross
between the common bee and the
italian. was not so good as the Ital-
ians; the Cyprian bee breeds very
much earlier in the spring and later
in the fall. Working bees only live
from sixty to ninety days. In the
winter, when they are dormant, the
time does not count. OF course the
object then in breeding would be to
lessen the time between the fall and
the spring. When the Italians were
just beginning to think about work
ing, the Cyprian bees would be in FULL
vigor. In the winter-house the tenn
perature was kept at 45o--thoroughly
dark. In Cyprus they keep about as
many bees as in Canada, according to
the population. From what he knew
Of the business, he was thoroughly
that Canada was as good,
if not better, than any other country,
because in Canada the bees could be
kept on very little stock. AS a feed
ing ground Canada possessed many
the Eastwood tree pro-.
duces honey from twelve to fifteen
days; in other countries they do not
have that tree. The. first honey ex-
tracted was from the willow early in
spring, then the fruit blossoms, then
white clover, wild berries,
Alsike clover, Eastwood, Canadian
thistle, and the fall flowers From the
thistle he had about ten thousand
pounds of honey lastyear. An average
stock of bees will produce, with good
from one hundred to
three hundred pounds; last year he
had taken from six hundred colonies,
seventy-five thousand pounds Of
honey.
In Cyprus and Palestine the system
Of keeping bees is of such a primitive
nature that they could never get much
honey. 1t requires about twenty-five
pounds of honey to secrete wax enough
for a comb. In Cyprus they keep the
bees in mud cones, having no improv,
ed inventions. In Palestine they keep
the bees in the water jug, the bees
going in and out the neck. In Jeru-
salem the hive is made like conical
BUILT. In Lebanon and Mount Her
mon they are made about three feet
long and plastered with clay. In
Damascus and on the desert they are
kept in clay cylinders not burnt.
Honey gathered on the mountain tops
is very much brighter and finer flavor
ed than that gathered in the valleys;
for all parties Clover honey is liked
the best; Eastwood honey is thicker
and stronger, and is not liked so well !;
he never feeds his bees in winter, and
who did would not have
any bees in the spring; they should
be sufficiently provided in the fall in
Europe there is as much demand for
honey as can b. supplied at present
there is very little exported. Bees are
often subjected to dysentery and foul
brood salycillic acid is good remedy
for the latter disease; in breeding it is
very deleterious, more so than any
other animal the queen always mates
in the air, and if care is taken over
will not take place; moths
are injurious to bees. Generally this
arises from the drones not guarding
the hive after the death of the bees.
He had received one hundred orders
from New York alone for queens that
he had brought from Cyprus with him,
at from $40 to SIS apiece. He would
not let them go because he wanted to
keep them in the country. He had
left man in Cyprus breeding the bees
who would ship to him regularly.
The witness then graphically describ
ed the primitive condition of the
natives in Cyprus, and continued by
saying that the northern parts of Sim
cOe and Muskoka are very favorable
to bee-culture, because there is plenty
of pasture land for the bees. Ii is an
industry that could be fairly encour-
aged in that section. Cooks Manual
Of Bee-CuIture is the best published
work OH the subject. lie thought the
business was more talked
about than anything else, claiming
there was no need of a person getting
stung. The great thing is to keep the
colonies as strong as possible not to
make them swarm very often.