February, 1916. 



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American Hee Journal 



59 



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APIARY OF E. E. STERNER. WRIGH'l SVILLE. PA 



saving of expense was that I had such 

 good luck in tires. Users of cars, es- 

 pecially of medium weight, will bear me 

 out when I say that the tire bill might 

 be double what mine was for the sea- 

 son justpassed, particularly so when we 

 have so much crushed stone on our 

 roads, not limestone, but genuine hard 

 cobble stones run through the crusher. 



Now $250 is a big bill for driving 

 during one season, when I can keep a 

 horse for a little over $100. But how 

 many miles would we have driven with 

 the horse if we had had no auto ? Much 

 time was made in going back and 

 forth, sometimes three yards were 

 called at on one day. Yet in the end I 

 honestly do not believe that from a 

 dollar and cent standpoint the auto 

 paid us. But when I think of the many 

 pleasant trips the family have had, trips 

 that would never have been possible 

 without the car, I am tempted to say 

 that it paid us very well. From the 

 youngest member of the family to the 

 oldest, who happens to be the writer, we 

 would be very sorry indeed to have to 

 get along without the auto after using 

 one for three years. 



Before getting a car I asked friend 

 Sibbald's opinion as to the paying 

 proposition of an auto, and he answered 

 something like this, "Don't ever think 

 of the expense of the car, for it is 

 worth all it costs." Only on that basis 

 can I truthfully say that it pays us to 

 run a car. Some may have a different 

 story to tell and may make the car 

 pay its way and even more, but this is 

 my answer to the many who have asked 

 me, " Does it pay you to run a car in 

 apiary work?" 



Markham, Ont. 



A Venture into Southern Bee- 

 keeping 



BY J. F. ARCHDEKIN. 



THERE were several things which 

 influenced us in deciding to move 

 South and take up beekeeping as 

 an exclusive pursuit. In the first place, 

 I am a farmer by trade and a beekeeper 

 by occupation. I love the farm and 

 cannot give up the idea that some day 



I will farm again. Bee work was taken 

 up as a side line at first, but has since 

 become the main one. From a boy I 

 have been interested in bees, and used 

 to visit a neighbor who had them and 

 talk to him and look at his colonies. 

 Finally he sold out and moved away, 

 but before leaving he presented me 

 with a colony of black bees. 



This was about 18 years ago. My 

 joy was complete, and since then I 

 have always had a greater or less num- 

 ber of colonies. At first the plan was 

 to practice migratory beekeeping, but 

 this was abandoned after investigating 

 the proposition. It can be worked 

 nicely, as there is plenty of time after 

 the close of the tupelo here to move to 

 the white clover regions of the Central 

 States. But at present I am content to 

 remain stationary. 



Last year was a failure in my locality 

 (St. Joseph, Mo.), the bees getting no 

 surplus worth mentioning and requir- 

 ing to be fed for winter. The pros- 

 pects were fine for another year, but 

 they had been just as good the fall be- 

 fore and had come to nothing. Foul- 

 brood is raging in that part of the 

 State and it got into one of my yards 

 in the fall and nearly wiped it out. 



The bee business was therefore in a 

 bad way, and it was either quit or 

 move. In addition to this I had an 

 attack of rheumatism in August, and 

 was under a doctor's care for over 

 three months. There was a chronic 

 case of appendicitis to consider, too. 

 I was in hopes of securing a better bee 

 location and benefitting my health at 

 the same time that the move was un- 

 dertaken. In the former it was a com- 

 plete success as this is one of the best 

 bee localities imaginable. As to the 

 latter it was a failure as will be seen 

 later. 



Three locations were considered. 

 One in Florida, one in Alabama, and 

 one in Louisiana. After considerable 

 correspondence the Louisiana location 

 was deemed the best, and atrip was 

 made to look it over. When I got on 

 the train at St. Joseph it was snowing 

 and the temperature below zero. This 

 was the week before Christmas. The 

 storm extended well down into the 



South, and there was ice and snow 

 nearly to Shreveport. It was raining 

 there, and while quite chilly it was a 

 decided change from the snow and 

 cold I had just left. 



As I had to lay over several hours 

 here, I got out between showers and 

 secured a good idea of the town. 

 Shreveport is a hustling place of :i'i,000 

 inhabitants or over, and it was indeed 

 cheering to me to see palms and other 

 green trees in midwinter. Alexandria 

 is another good town. Indeed, I like 

 these two places better than any south- 

 ern city I have seen, not even except- 

 ing New Orleans. There is a hustle 

 and go to them that shows they are 

 awake. 



My destination was reached that 

 night at about 1 ;00 o'clock, and I got 

 off the train at a flag station called 

 Sarto, on the L, R &: N. railroad. The 

 mud was deep, and it was about the 

 gloomiest night I ever saw. Stopping 

 at the first house I came to, to borrow 

 a lantern and get my bearings, I pro- 

 ceeded to hunt up my man, Mr. J. B. 

 Marshall. 



We are located on Red river, about 

 50 miles below Alexandria in Avoyelles 

 Parish, just where the Red river empties 

 into the Mississippi. This particular 

 section is enclosed in a loop or bend 

 of the Bayou de Glace, and is about 30 

 miles in circumference. It is swampy. 

 This Bayou is a very crooked stream. 

 A very striking peculiarity about the 

 topography of this land is that the 

 banks of the Bayou are higher on each 

 side than the surrounding land, so that 

 the drainage is away from it instead of 

 toward it as would naturally be ex- 

 pected. The land slopes back on either 

 side to the swamps and is cjeared of 

 timber, and is or has been under culti- 

 vation. The open land varies in width 

 from 150 yards to a mile, and miles and 

 miles of it are abandoned. 



This country is badly run down, and 

 in a most dilapidated condition. First, 

 the civil war broke these people, and 

 a few years ago the boll weevil came 

 and finished up what was left, for cot- 

 ton is the principal crop. The trouble 

 is that they stick to one crop too much. 

 There should be more diversified crops 

 planted and other industries taken up. 

 Beekeeping is one thing that has 

 been neglected but is now in course of 

 development here, and is destined to 

 become one of the most important 

 lines in the near future. There is room 

 for thousands of colonies in this one 

 bend alone, and there are numerous 

 localities just like it. In fact, I feel 

 that the production of honey here will 

 some day rival the cotton crop in value. 

 This sounds like a big statement, but 

 every conceivable condition needed by 

 the honeybee is here. Mild winters so 

 that a pint of bees and a queen will 

 winter if supplied with honey and a 

 continuous flow from the opening in 

 the spring to Nov. 1, combined with 

 the even temperature make it ideal in 

 every respect. 



When we finally made up our minds 

 to go South, there were a lot of details 

 to be arranged, and some of them were 

 really h:rd propositions. It is a big 

 undertaking to move from one State to 

 another, especially as far as we went did. 

 Two hundred colonies of bees were 

 purchased in the new locality. We had 



