Aug. y, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



501 



Report of the Central Texas Convention. 



BY LO'UIS SCHOI-Iv. 



The sixth annual meeting- of the Central Texas Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was held at Hutto, July 12 and 13, 1900. 



The convention was called to order by Pres. E. R. 

 Jones at 10 a.m., July 12th. Rev. L. L. Lusk, of Hutto, of- 

 fered prayer. 



Mr. A. W. Carpenter delivered an address of welcome 

 in behalf of the citizens of Hutto, to which Judg-e E. Y. 

 Terral responded. 



Secretary SchoU read the minutes of the last meeting, 

 which were adopted. After calling the roll, new members 

 were enrolled and dues collected. 



A motion was made and carried that ladies (members) 

 be exempt from dues. 



It was moved and carried that any bee-keeper can join 

 the Association at any time by writing to the secretary, and 

 enclosing the regular membership fee of 50 cents for a year. 



Another motion prevailed, " That any member who 

 fails to attend, or fails to pay his dues for three consecutive 

 meetings without a suitable excuse, be stricken from the 

 list." Of course, when anyone pays his yearly dues he is 

 a member, whether he attends the annual meetings or not, 

 as above. 



The president's annual address was delivered by Pres. 

 E. R. Jones. The election of officers for the next term re- 

 sulted as follows : 



O. P. Hyde, president ; J. B. Salyer, vice-president ; 

 and Louis Scholl, of Hunter, secretary and treasurer. 



HONKY-RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 



On this subject Mr. Stachelhausen said he could not 

 say much, as he had been over but a very small portion 

 of Texas, and therefore could not know much about the 

 honey-resources outside of his own locality. His main 

 honey-plants are Indian-head, hoarhound. and horsemint, 

 but he does not expect much from late horsemint. Mus- 

 tard is another important one. In dry j'ears mesquite is 

 his main source ; otherwise it is horsemint that gives the 

 crop. Then cotton yields, while some years it does not, 

 and he has not yet found what causes it. Broom-weed is 

 sometimes good in the fall. 



Judge Terral's experience was almost like that of Mr. 

 Stachelhausen, not knowing much about other sources in 

 other localities. He commenced by mentioning corn-tassels, 

 and does not believe that bees ever get honey from them. 

 His bees get some honey from turnip patches, and some 

 other minor plants, followed by horsemint. He thought he 

 could improve the yielding of horsemint by watering it, but 

 failed. He believes that it grew too rank. He talkt about 

 the old-fashioned buckwheat in Kentucky, where it just 

 bent down to the ground loaded with bees, but the other 

 sort was no good. He does not believe that cotton yields 

 honey. He saw the bees work on the leaves just as they 

 work on oak leaves, and believes that they only get " bug- 

 juice." 



Here F. L. Aten said that black bees do not work on 

 cotton. He told of a man who had nothing but blacks that 

 did not get any cotton honey ; but as soon as he Italianized 

 his bees they gathered cotton honey. 



F. J. R. Davenport says that cotton on light land does 

 not yield as well, and that the honey is different from the 



whiter honey of cotton on the black land. He also spoke 

 about sweet clover as a good honey-yielding plant, and the 

 different changes of the atmosphere and the effect upon the 

 yield and secretion of nectar of the sweet clover blossoms. 



D. C. Milam gave a list of the main honey-yielders of 

 his locality (Uvalde County). First, is wild peach, a sort of 

 evergreen, blooming in February ; wild tan in March ; also 

 buffalo clover. Prickly pear and others help along the list. 

 The wa-he-ah (gua-ella) is a wondrous honey-yielder, as bees 

 store from this source faster and more honey in less time 

 than anything else (in April). He depends upon catclaw 

 for the main surplus, but this season it was a failure ; in 

 summer and fall horsemint, with other minor plants and 

 "bug-juice " to finish. 



M. M. Faust has other minor early plants for brood- 

 rearing. Catclaw, mesquite, cactus and white brush, which 

 blooms after every rain during its season only a short time. 

 • B. A. Guss, of Bell County, locality and sources similar 

 to other northern localities as mentioned by Messrs. Terral, 

 Davenport, and others. 



E. J. Atchley, of Bee County, almost like Uvalde 

 County, mentioned as follows : Live-oak honey, if a good 

 season, is very early and very valuable for brood-rearing ; 

 the quality, tho, is an inferior yellow honey. Wa-he-ah 

 from March 1st to April 1st, is sometimes cut short by north 

 winds. Catclaw is very thick, but on account of rain it 

 failed this year, but horsemint was fine, and gave lots of 

 honey. As horsemint is quite strong flavored, all combs 

 are emptied for the mesquite flow which follows. Some- 

 times they have a second spring in the fall and get much 

 honey ; otherwise not. Sometimes this causes a bad spring 

 following. He said that all colonies ought to be strong in 

 the fall, and thus wintered over with plenty of stores will 

 be in good shape to gather, and be ready for any early flow 

 that might come. In answer to a question, he said it is best 

 to feed in the fall and rear plenty of young bees. It would 

 be too laie in the spring. 



FIRST DAY— Evening Session. 



College Station was selected as the place of the next 

 meeting, at the same time as the Texas State Farmers' 

 Congress. 



The regular program was again taken up, and Louis 

 Scholl tried to handle " Balks, Blunders and Difficulties in 

 the Way of Beginners." " This subject must have been 

 given to me by mistake, for I have always been too careful 

 and went too slow to make any balks and blunders. But 

 difficulties — I have had very many ; but as they are all of 

 private affairs, I would not like to tell about them. May be 

 I was to tell about the balks, blunders and difficulties 

 of others ; but as I do not attend much to other people's 

 business, I can not say anything on this subject at all." 



Mr. Davenport said he did not e^en have to tell about 

 other people's balks and blunders, as he had made some 

 himself. But he told about a bee-keeper who hived a swarm 

 of bees, and late in the fall he found that the " gum " was 

 full of honey, so he robbed 'em. He took out all they had, 

 and to make a good job of it he ordered his boy to get some 

 biscuits, with which he daubed up clean every bit of honey. 

 Of course, the bees got "rattled," swarmed out, and 

 starved. Another man took some honey from his bees and 

 unknowingly set fire to something in the bee-yard. Dis- 

 covering it later, he found his bees and everything burned. 

 He, himself, tho, has everything nice, neat and clean, noth- 

 ing lying around, and puts all bits of comb, wax and honey 

 away at once. He has his hives eight feet square, and 

 keeps them clean, too, inside and outside. 



A Member — Say, tell us about your wax and your wife's 

 cook-stove. 



