May, 1910. 



Am(»rican ~Bee Journal 



old. You will find the case exactly the 

 same with comb foundation mmfv of 

 good beeswax, no matter how old it 

 may be. 



It is therefore safe to say that old 

 comb foundation, which has been prop- 

 erly kept, will be worked by the bees 

 as readily as, the new goods as soon as 

 it has been heated sufficiently. E.xpos- 

 ing it to the heat that would soften it 

 for a few minutes previous to its in- 

 sertion in the hive, would make it as 

 promptly acceptable as new goods, but 

 this is not at all necessary. 



Old comb foundation has one advan- 

 tage over new goods. Owing to its 

 very toughness it is less liable to 

 stretch or breakdown under the weight 

 of bees than the other, and is safer 

 for swarms. 



A Correction. 



In closing, allow me to correct a typo- 

 graphical omission in my last article 

 on honey-vinegar, page 127. In the 

 eleventh line, the printer makes me say, 

 " If the air has been excluded the acetic 

 fermentation has probably also begun." 

 It should read, "If the air has nol been 

 excluded." All reasoning persons who 

 have followed my explanations have 

 readily understood that the air is abso- 

 lutely necessary in the making of vine- 

 gar. Oxygen is at the base of nearly 

 all chemical changes. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Bee-Keeping in Old Mexico 



BY B. A. HADSELL. 



In my last article, in describing the 

 route from the city of Mexico over the 

 International & Vera Cruz, a few words 

 were overlooked which do not make it 

 clear, which I will now explain. 



From the City of Mexico until we 

 drop down out of the clouds it is 

 a vast tableland, owned by wealthy 

 land owners, each having large buildings 

 with many tenant houses, with street 

 railroads connecting the railroad sta- 

 tions, and the land is devoted to farming 

 one crop of corn or barley, therefore 

 not a bee-country. 



Much of the shrubbery in Texas, 

 New Mexico and Arizona, such as the 

 mesquite and catclaw, have thorns, and 

 so it continues until you reach the 

 tropics of Mexico. There nearly every- 

 thing has bloom with but few thorns, 

 even the mesquite drops its thorns, or 

 rather changes to a number of varieties 

 which have no thorns, but produce 

 bloom and beans similar to those in the 

 States. Nearly all varieties of trees 

 bear bloom at some time of the year, 

 and when the tree is not in bloom the 

 morning-glory covers them at the height 

 of 20 to 40 feet, furnishing bloom dur- 

 ing the season we term winter in the 

 North, and I should judge it to be the 

 greatest honey-flow of any time of the 

 year, yet I am puzzled to say just when 

 the greatest flow would be in the tropics, 

 as there is so little change in the tem- 

 perature, that the bees can work contin- 

 uously. It is possible that some of the 

 blooms which stand upright may have 

 the honey washed away by rain during 

 what we term summer, but I am confi- 

 dent that many of the bloom hang down, 

 and that the honey is protected, and can 



be gathered by the bees, at any time of 

 the year when it is not raining, and it 

 seldom rains except in the evening and 

 the night, and then they can get a great 

 abundance of honey . 



The tropics of Mexico are certainly 

 the bee-man's paradise. My ambition 

 has always been to be the largest bee- 

 keeper in the world, and Arizona was 

 probably the best location in the United 

 States that I could have selected to ac- 

 complish that end. I probably reached 

 the height of my ambition, but think 

 I have found a better country on the 

 southwestern coast in the tropics of 

 Mexico, and am closing out my bees 

 in Arizona as fast as I can find buyers, 

 and hope to make Mexico my future 

 home. The most desirable location that 

 I found is from Geronimo to Tapachula. 

 This valley is about 20 miles wide and 

 225 miles long. 



At Geronimo the rainfall is 30 inches, 

 and where they raise one crop of corn 

 or grain a year without irrigation. This 

 is a heavy mesquite country, of many 

 varieties, which furnishes a heavy 

 honey-flow. The rainfall increases as 

 you go south. At Tonala it is 60 inches, 

 where they plant and husk corn every 

 day of the year, and rice and sugar cane 

 produce big crops without irrigation. 

 At Tapachula it runs over 100 inches. 

 The hilly section north of this valley 

 receives three times the amount of rain- 

 fall in the valey. The valley section is 

 covered with grass waist high, covered 

 with fat cattle the year round. The val- 

 ley slopes from the hills to the ocean, 

 with prairie on the upper portion and 

 valuable timber on the lower portion 

 next to the Pacific Ocean, with moun- 

 tain streams running across the valley 

 every mile or two, making perfect drain- 

 age. There is scarcely an acre of waste 

 land in that entire valley. The soil is 

 very rich, with the purest of water and 

 the most ideal climate of any place on 

 the North American continent, the 

 mercury never dropping below 55, or 

 goes above 90. It is claimed that throat 

 and lung trouble is unknown there. The 

 Pan-American railroad runs through the 

 center of this entire valley, and it will 

 soon be one continuous line from Seat- 

 tle, Wash., to the Panama Canal. This 

 valley is the natural home of the orange, 

 lemon, lime, and many other tropical 

 fruits which grow wild in the woods, 

 furnishing honey for the bees and fruit 

 for the inhabitants. 



Buckeye, Ariz. 



(To be continued.) 



Apiarian Progress of 50 Years 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Looking over some papers found 

 "stored away in the garret," I ran 

 across an old bee-paper, and about the 

 first item my eyes alighted upon was 

 these few words, which carried me 

 back to my childhood home and my 

 father's bees, which engrossed my at- 

 tention more than half a century ago : 



"Bees, like pouitry. beiontr largel.v to the 

 farmer. He wishes to liave an abundance of 

 tliesweets for his tabie. and if in bounteous 

 years there should be some surplus, it is 

 that much extra to be exchanged for other 

 things." 



Of course I, myself, did not keep 

 bees more than half a century ago, but 



I can remember, as if only yesterday, 

 when my father and a neighbor living 

 nearly 2 miles away, who had a few 

 colonies of bees, came to " our house " 

 bringing one of those colonies in a 

 box-hive (a simple box of boards about 



II inches square, with a cover nailed 

 on one end, the height of which was 

 about 20 inches), this hive hanging in 

 the center of a sheet tied at the four 

 corners, and carried between the two 

 men by means of a pole resting on their 

 shoulders, after the pole was passed 

 through under the tied corners of the 

 sheet. This is a very safe way to move 

 bees, but hardly the one W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson would advise side by side with 

 his ever-pushing advice of "keep more 

 bees." A 4-horse team with a broad 

 and high hayrack, capable of carrying 

 40 to dO colonies, or a railroad train, 

 are now needed by the Hutchinson 

 type of men. 



Next I wish to notice those words, 

 " Bees, like poultry, belong largely to 

 the farmer." Father was a farmer, 

 "pure and simple," as all were classed 

 in those days who followed mixed 

 agriculture, as nearly every one did. 

 About 2 years after this hive in a sheet 

 carried on a pole arrived on " our 

 farm," I was so interested that I went 

 around among the other farmers who 

 had bees, and I can now, in memory, 

 count up some 1.5 "apiarians," all of 

 whom lived within 2 miles of our 

 house, and numbered their colonies 

 from 2 to 15, and some 20; these latter 

 being looked up to as large bee-keepers. 

 For such to have been advised to " keep 

 more bees" would have nearly "taken 

 way the breath " of the " whole farm- 

 ing community." In that same circuit, 

 in this year, A. D. 1910, only 3 persons 

 keep bees, and neither of these would 

 make the claim of being farmers, 

 further than having a little land to set 

 the bee-hives on, and a garden. Then, 

 oh ! it seems but yesterday, the ding- 

 dong and a-rat-a-tat of the bells and 

 beating on tin-pans, announced to the 

 farmer in the corn or hay fields that 

 "the bees are swarming," and I can in 

 memory see the one living across the 

 valley running from the field, and ar- 

 riving all covered with "sweat," so that 

 the bees could be " swarmed " before 

 they "run off to the woods." 



I often wonder what those who kept 

 bees then and passed to "the great be- 

 yond " when I was a boy, would think 

 if they could " appear on the scene " in 

 this age of " keep more bees." Not one 

 of them would know what the term 

 " extracted honey " or " section honey " 

 meant, without an e.xplanation. Then 

 allot the colonies with " hives which 

 were hefty," and those thought too 

 " light " to winter, were " brimstoned," 

 and after the hives had been jarred and 

 pounded upon so as to " jar the dead 

 bees down into the brimstone pit," they 

 were taken to the kitchen, pried apart, 

 when the combs were cut out, and that 

 sealed honey portion of the combs 

 which was white and nice, put by itself 

 when cut "where the white and dark 

 honey separated," while the rest of the 

 comb having honey in it was " chopped 

 fine," when this "sweet mass" was put 

 into a bag and the same hung up be- 

 fore the " old open fire-place," over the 



