292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



SOUTHWEST TEXAS AS A BEE COUNTRY; A 



FRIENDLY NOTE OF WARNING TO 



NEW COMERS. 



I have been noticing- the recent promi- 

 nence given Southwest Texas as a honey 

 country, in the bee journals ; and fearing 

 that some one would come here without a 

 fair conception of the facts has prompted 

 me to write this note of warning. It is a 

 fact that Southwest Texas is a good bee 

 country, and that, although some localities, 

 like Uvalde, Bee, and Wilson Counties, are 

 now well stocked, there is a good deal of 

 room yet in unoccupied territory. The bee- 

 keepers here heartily welcome all bee-keep- 

 ers to come and join us, believing that "the 

 more the merrier," and in the universal 

 brotherhood of man, especially of bee-keep- 

 ers. 



Southwest Texas, as, indeed, does almost 

 all of Texas, prides itself that it is not af- 

 flicted with that dread disease foul brood. 

 I personally have never yet seen a case 

 of it, and wish to say that I do not want 

 to; neither do the bee-keepers here want 

 any of it, and they will go to any extreme 

 measure to keep it out. We wish to request 

 that all be careful and bring none of it 

 here or else the bee-keepers already here 

 will make them wish thej' had not. I have 

 heard them saj- that, should a man bring it 

 here, his bees would be burned and himself 

 drummed out of the countr}', and I believe 

 they would do it, and could you blame 

 them? 



I insist that their view of the question is 

 eminently right and just to all concerned; 

 and although I hope the disease will never 

 be brought here. I for one can be depended 

 upon to use any or all measures for its 

 eradication. We do not wish to seem harsh, 

 nor to make any one feel in lisposed toward 

 us; but we wish all to be in possession of 

 the facts. I hope to see the day when all 

 this great country will be fllled up with 

 live up-to-date bee-keepers, and all this 

 vast amount of honey that is now going to 

 waste saved. I shall be glad to give any 

 facts, in regard to this country, to all in- 

 terested; but remember, however, that all 

 bitters have their sweets, and we would 

 rather have you investigate in person. 



H. H. Hydk. 



Floresville, Texas, March 6. 



"SIXTEEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOL- 

 LARS." 



The above is a strange heading for an 

 article for Gleanings; but as some bee- 

 keepers don't have that much, I head this 

 article with the above amount. It was in 

 the summer of 1890 that I took a trip to 

 that Texas bee-man's land, "the honey 

 Eldorado, or Klondike," that the editor is 

 telling us of (wish he could have been along). 



I was with Major H. H. Boon, the law 

 partner of Congressman Hutchinson, of 

 fame. The tw^o had secured a judgment 

 against the Santa Fe R. R. Co. in favor of 

 J. Butler Terrell, who was badly smashed 

 in a railroad wreck, for the sum of $16,500. 

 The railroad company had given the shrewd 

 lawyers land in that paradise that the edi- 

 tor of Gleanings wrote about, and they 

 unlocked the hidden secrets of that para- 

 dise for four hundred years, revealed to man 

 what had been, as well as we can look 

 at the future by the light of the past ; then 

 the lawj'ers saw it, and sold the land, and 

 held judgment for what it failed to paj'. 

 Armed with sharp crosscut saws the modern 

 inan sawed the mighty oaks down, and read 

 in their "growth-rings," under the micro- 

 scope, Nature's hidden secrets — secrets that 

 had been buried as far back as four hun- 

 dred years — buried in the mossy oaks to be 

 read by progressive man. Very dark and 

 gloomy is the record — periods of dry j'ears 

 back for four hundred years is the story — 

 periods of wet years or rainy 3'ears — honey 

 years — and then what? Death and desola- 

 tion — a burning desert, strewn with dead 

 and dying animals; no grass, no water, no 

 vegetation, a desert creeping- and crawling 

 with venomous snakes, the deadl}^ rattler, 

 that leaves his mark everywhere in the dry 

 sand. Tanks all go dry, wells go dry, and 

 people flee for their lives. I had an old 

 schoolmate who struck the desert period 

 with a loving young wife, two little ones, 

 and Ave thousand in cash. He was a bright, 

 happy, hopeful young Christian. His name 

 is Cohen Harris, and his tales of drouth, 

 death, and misery would fill more than a 

 full cop3' of Gleanings; but at last every 

 cent of his five thousand was gone, and he 

 left that paradise an old man in only a few 

 years, and that will be the history that 

 Gleanings will give if it lives to chronicle 

 the history of that country for the next 

 twent}^ years — and it may be much sooner 

 than that- that the bees "go dead" along 

 with cattle and other animal life. 



So, lookout, paradise hunters, as 3-our 

 paradise may be only burning desert, as 

 history is said to repeat itself, and the his- 

 tory in those old mossy oaks can be read by 

 any one who cares to read it. 



Caimito, Cuba. W. W. Somerford. 



GRADING RULES OR SUPPLY-DEALERS — 

 WHICH ? 



I believe that every producer of comb 

 honey is anxious to produce the grade that 

 will bring the highest price in the market — 

 the fancy grade — and also that, when he 

 has carefully graded his product, and has 

 marked it "fancy," he wants to be sure 

 that it is fully upto the rules which govern 

 that particular grade. It is a deplorable 

 fact that, with the surplus-appliances ad- 

 vertised and recommended by the supplj'- 

 houses of the couutr3', no one can produce 

 really fancy comb honey according to the 

 rules adopted by the North American Bee- 

 keepers" Association. 



