712 



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BEE-CULTURE. 



A(lTanlag;e$ to be Found in the 

 Keeping of Bees. 



Read at the Texas Farmers'' Institute 



BT MRS. SALLIE E. SHERMAN. 



Did you ever think of it, why so 

 many farmers all over our country, 

 even here in our grand State of Texas, 

 make so many failures, and fail to 

 profit by past experience ? They go 

 plodding along with their heads down 

 year after year, farming "just as 

 father did " before them, without tak- 

 ing and reading good agricultural 

 papei's. or even reasoning and thinking 

 for themselves, and profiting by past 

 experience. This is an age of progress. 

 We must be up and at work — not alto- 

 gether with brawn and muscle, but 

 ■with brain as well. 



Too many think that they must num- 

 ber their acres in cultivation by the 

 hundred, and plant cotton almost to 

 the exclusion of everything else, in- 

 stead of having fewer acres well 

 diversified, and thoroughly cultivated, 

 putting onlj' the surplus in cotton. 



Every farmer should have his nice 

 orchard, garden, and poultry yard, 

 with a few first-class cows, instead of 

 so much scrub-stock, and perhaps last, 

 but I will not say least, a few good 

 colonies of bees to supply his table 

 bountifully all the year with that 

 purest and best of sweets with which 

 God in His infinite wisdom has blessed 

 His creatures on earth. He has spread 

 out the carpet of beautiful flowers for 

 ■us to feast our eyes upon — yea. He has 

 done more. He has given us the won- 

 derful honey-bee to gather the nectar 

 from those beautiful flowers, and store 

 it away in marvelouslj' constructed 

 cells of wax — not only enough for their 

 own use, but a generous supply for the 

 use of man. if properly and intelli- 

 gently cared for. 



But the bee and its product, in the 

 eyes of a great many, are too small a 

 thing to attract their attention ; yet, 

 from one colony and its increase, with 

 the introduction of Italian queens, I 

 have in the last ten years sold many 

 thousands of pounds of honey, and 

 never have been without it during all 

 that time, after getting the first lot 

 from the first hive. 



I use honey for preserving, making 

 jelly, jam, cake, etc. ; in fact. I only 

 have to buy sugar for cofi'ee. 



Now suppose all the honey that is 

 secreted by the flowers in Texas was 

 saved and used by our people, do you 

 not think that there would be many a 

 glad little heart, and many rosj' little 

 cheeks that are now sallow and lan- 

 guid ? I now say without fear of suc- 

 cessful contradiction, that pure honey 



is the most healthful sweet known to 

 man. then why let it go to waste ? 

 Why sit around mourning and com- 

 plaining of hai'd times ? Get up and 

 look around ; save that which is going 

 to waste ; for I assure you that you 

 will have plenty, and no more need of 

 complaining. Put your wits to work, 

 study and plan, and then work to 

 those plans. Never say, "I can't." 

 but instead say, "I'll try," and then 

 keep trying — never give up ! 



I'll tell you that there is often more 

 in the person, than in his surround- 

 ings. A small home, well cared for, is 

 much more desirable than a large one 

 botched over, and perhaps not all paid 

 for. 



We should always aim to live within 

 our income. A pei'son with plentj' of 

 ■'get up and git." and stick-to-ati ve- 

 ness. with a few colonies of bees can, 

 in a few years time, earn a good living 

 upon a verj' small plot of ground, es- 

 pecially If he will combine poultry- 

 raising (or sometliing of that kind) 

 with bee-keeping. 



A gentleman with whom I have 

 dealt largelj- since I have been making 

 a specialty of bee-keeping, had one 

 colony of Italian bees in the city of 

 New York, merely for experimental 

 purposes at first. They, however, soon 

 increased to quite a number. He then 

 put them on top of a four story house 

 in the busy city, and kept them there 

 until they had increased to 100 colo- 

 nies. He then put them on board a 

 vessel, and sent them to Cuba. 



Your own beautiful Williamson has 

 the proud record of being the banner 

 honey-producing county in our great 

 State, and in 1888 brought in the snug 

 sum of $10,437, which is a considerable 

 item in the people's purses ; especially 

 when we take into consideration the 

 small (and to a great many insignifi- 

 cant) insect that gathered the 128,053 

 pounds of honey that would without 

 their aid have been lost, and no one 

 been benefited thereby. Then, I say, 

 despise not small things, but rather 

 learn from them the beautiful lessons- 

 of industry and economy. 



In 1888, at my quiet little home in 

 Salado. Bell county, my own 40 colo- 

 nies gave me, over and above an 

 abundant support for themselves, 6,000 

 pounds of honey, 100 pounds of wax, 

 and 20 colonies increase — making an 

 average of 150 pounds for each colony. 

 Every pound of the honey I handled 

 myself. 



There are persons living here who 

 used to know me in my dyspeptic 

 (lays ; they say that I "used to look 

 like a bean-pole, but now more like a 

 mountain." My good health is due to 

 active out-door exercise, where I get 

 plenty of pure fresh air while working 



with and amongst my bees, and to the 

 almost constant use of honey. 



There is no doubt about honey being 

 one of the most healthful articles of 

 diet that we can use. A friend of mine, 

 a resident of this county, says that 

 when his family have plenty of honey 

 to eat, they are always healthy, and 

 never have any doctor's bills to pay. 

 When their honey gives out, they get 

 sick right away. He seems to think 

 that honey is a panacea for all the ills 

 to which his family are subject. He 

 carries a bottle of extracted honey in 

 his pocket, and drinks it occasionallj' 

 all through the ginning season, thus 

 clearing his throat and lungs of all 

 dust and lint with which they become 

 clogged. It may be well for others to 

 make a note of this, and be governed 

 accordingly. 



Bees are not only valuable for the 

 honey and wax that they gather and 

 produce, but are also one of the farm- 

 ers' and horticulturists' very best 

 friends, in distributing pollen from 

 flower to flower, causing more perfect 

 fertilization and better fruit as a result 

 of their work in this line. 



It is to be hoped, now that our gov- 

 ernor has been made president of the 

 A. and M. College, that he will at once 

 take steps to see that apiculture (bee- 

 culture) is not entirely ignored at 

 the College ; but that it shall have 

 the fostering care and attention that its 

 importance demands, which I contend 

 is almost, if not quite, co-equal with 

 agriculture and horticulture. 

 Salado, Texas. 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



The Fertilization of Plants by 

 Bees. 



Report of US-Department of Agriculture 



BY SAMUEL CUSHMAN. 



" Apiphobia. — The people of Wen- 

 ham have voted that no bees shall be 

 kept in town the vote being di- 

 rected against an extensive bee-keeper 

 whose stock has been troublesome. 

 Some saj' the action of the town is of 

 doubtful constitutionality." — Boston 

 Journal, 1868. 



" The good people of Wenham have 

 judged that bee-keeping and fruit- 

 raising are incompatible, and that bees 

 are a nuisance ! ! We also notice that 

 the bee-keeper ' whose stock has been 

 troublesome,' advertises in the Salein 

 Gazette, 'his farm for sale, consisting 

 of three-quarters of an acre of tillage 

 land containing from 75 to 100 pear 

 trees, beside apple trees. The pear 

 trees, in 1867, bore 30 bushels of choice 

 standard fruit.' 



■ • Have we gone back to the days of 

 belief in witches and witchcraft ? 



