CHAPTER XI 

 The Lone Star State. 



IT is only just to readers and to Texas beekeepers, to treat 

 of conditions in that state, even in the meagre way possible in 

 this short chapter, in a separate classification. Until "Four 

 Minute Men" of the late war told millions that Texas alone had 

 more acreage than the whole of Germany, few Americans 

 realized the vast extent of the state. Until writers point out the 

 vast differences in beekeeping which necessarily obtain in so 

 vast a region as Texas, beekeepers elsewhere may never get a 

 proper conception of the variations in methods, climate, flora 

 and honey sources which are peculiar to the state. 



Following the lead of Louis Scholl in his bulletin on "Texas 

 Beekeeping," published by the Texas State Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1912, the writer prefers to divide Texas apiculturally 

 into six divisions, in comparing bee culture there. The Scholl 

 divisions are: "North, Central, East, South, West and South- 

 west." 



North Texas. 



Imagine a line drawn through from east to west, which would 

 cut off the northern tier of counties of the state, to include the 

 famous Panhandle district. Here the winters are frequently 

 severe and the summers usually hot and dry, and often not best 

 suited to bees. Mesquite is found in some portions of this area 

 and in certain sections, such as the black land portion north and 

 east of Dallas, some of the finest cotton honey in the world is 

 produced. Sweet clo\'er is entering the state here in a wild 

 growth, according to E. W. Cothran, of Roxton. Some horse- 

 mint, a famous honey plant of the state, is found on the southern 

 edges of this district. Nearing the Oklahoma line, beekeeping 

 is rather lax. Near the Arkansas line better practices are in 

 vogue and in the vicinity of Texarkana, are some of the best 



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