Oct. 4, 1906 



American Ttec Journal 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



Texas Then and Now 



Out in the wild woods of Texas, 

 And on its far-stretehed plain. 



My mind has often sauntered. 

 And bright memories return again. 



With wild beasts growling, feathered fowl, 



The coyotes' howling, and hoot of owl ; 



With stretches of nectared flowers, 

 And lofty, mighty forest trees, 



In which instead of new-fangled hives, 

 Lived most of Texas' honey-bees. 



But that was in the by-gone past — 



Texas has changed, and is changing fast. 



Texas Bee-Keeping- 27 Years 

 Ago 



The incidents of my boyhood days 

 are fresh in my memory, and it is with 

 much pleasure that I write something 

 of bee-keeping' in the grand old State 

 of Texas 27 years ago — the land that 

 comes the nearest to flowing with milk 

 and honey. 



Permit me to say that I am glad that 

 I was reared, as I was, in Texas. We 

 left Georgia to make that well-reported 

 State our home, and so well were we 

 pleased, and so bright did the pros- 

 pects become the farther we penetrated 

 the land, that we went as far as we 

 could by railroad ; but railroad facili- 

 ties in Texas at that time were very 

 poor. So we concluded to buy a large 

 ox-wagon, and a large yoke of oxen, 

 and take the country in. We also 

 bought a good wagon-dog, and pulled 

 out. Thus we traveled from place to 

 place for 4 years and 5 months, most 

 of the time in Texas, hunting and fish- 

 ing ; but sometimes we would stop for 

 a month or so, and work to raise some 

 cash to tide us on. Sometimes we were 

 alone; then, again, there would be 50 

 or more wagons with us. 



Many were the incidents that hap- 

 pened along our travels, but the most 

 noted ones were coming in contact 

 with wild animals. It would often 

 happen that we would have to cook 

 meats after dark in the desolate sec- 

 tions, and they would come up howling 

 and growling with hunger, and stare 

 at us with their eyes looking like balls 

 of fire. Often they would crowd us so 

 close that we would be compelled to 

 move on. 



But I started to write something of 

 what we saw and experienced of bee- 

 keeping along our travels. 



The bee-industry in Texas at that 

 time was not receiving much atten- 

 tion. Log gums were having their day, 



but some had what they called pat- 

 ented hives of their own get-up and 

 make, and they were complicated af- 

 fairs, to be sure. Many of them had 

 to be torn completely up to be 

 "robbed," but the movable-frame 

 hive had become recognized, and many 

 of the progressive bee-keepers were 

 using them, but not extensively. Bee- 

 keeping was to be a part of our occupa- 

 tion when we located. So we had our 

 eyes open to the industry, and saw a 

 great future for it, and finally got a 

 bargain in a lot of bees in Wood 

 County, rented a small farm, and, as 

 we thought, settled for awhile, at least. 



Our stay was not so long as ex- 

 pected, for we had a severe cyclone 

 in which we came near losing our lives ; 

 losing all our supplies and part of our 

 stock ; and our little apiary, which was 

 located near a branch on a hill-side, 

 was completely covered with logs, 

 tree-tops and rubbish, so much so that 

 we never saw even a piece of a hive, 

 and but few stray bees. This was the 

 first and last apiary we ever owned in 

 Texas, but many of our neighbors had 

 bees, and were glad to get us to look 

 after them, which paid both them and 

 us well. 



We pulled up stakes that fall and 

 started out on the march again. We 

 were not discouraged, and expected to 

 locate again. Bees were well scattered 

 in many portions of the State. Nearly 

 every farmer had an apiary of some 

 size, and the forest was full of bee- 

 trees. The bees were so furious that 

 many of the hives had never been 

 robbed, and the bee-trees were old and 

 rich. Cutting these, hunting and fish- 

 ing, was the sport of our traveling, and 

 well does the writer remember the 

 many sleigh-loads of nice honey we 

 pulled from the thick forest. Where- 

 ever we saw bees on the farms we were 

 most sure of the job of taking their 

 honey. For this we would take in ex- 

 change, corn, chickens, meat, so much 

 money, or a certain part of the honey, 

 which we sold along the road. 



We cut a bee-tree for an old gentle- 

 man by the name of Rush, sawing it 

 off below and above the entrance, nail- 

 ing on bottom and top, and carried it 

 to his house, setting it up in his yard. 

 Afterwards we received a letter from 

 him, saying the colony had cast 7 

 swarms, and that he saved 6 of them and 

 had taken off a barrel of honey that 

 season. 



We hived a swarm for an old gentle- 

 man by the name of Williams, who had 

 about 40 colonies under 2 large peach- 

 trees in his back yard. The bees had 

 settled in the top of one of these trees, 

 and were giving him no little trouble. 



We hived the bees, throwing a rope 

 over a small fork in the top of the tree, 

 drawing the hive up and letting it 

 swing just over the bees. We remained 

 with him until nearly night, taking off 

 honey. We got all we could out of the 

 job and pulled out, leaving instructions 

 for him to loosen the rope and let the 

 bees down that night. Afterwards we 

 received a letter from him stating that 

 he forgot to let the bees down, the hive 

 got heavy, split the limb off, fell on 

 top of two other hives and tore them 

 all up ; also that he and his family 

 were confined in his house for 2 days 

 (except at night), and that his large 

 herd of cattle and other stock he had 

 penned near the bees, broke out, and 

 some of them he had not even heard of. 



We traveled on, prospecting and 

 doing all the work among the bees we 

 could. Often we would find well-cared- 

 for apiaries, and in some sections 

 many men enthusiastic over bee-keep- 

 ing. But there were drawbacks to the 

 industry, nearly total honey-failures 

 resulting in a lot of feeding. Trans- 

 portation was very poor, and in most 

 sections the market no better. Most of 

 the county-seats consisted of only a 

 few families with 1 or 2 stores. A 

 large shade-tree with 2 or 3 punching 

 benches was the Courthouse, or a huge 

 loghouse, or something no better. So 

 the market was indeed poor. Besides, 

 there was plenty of wild honey from 

 the woods. 



Mother Nature has greatly enriched 

 portions of Texas with a vast amount 

 of honey-plants. At the same time, 

 men have done their part, and both 

 have made it the greatest honey- 

 country. Oh, that we had men with 

 as much grit and faith in the bee and 

 honey industry all over the South ! 



Cordele, Ga. J. J. Wilder. 



The above recalls to the mind of the 

 writer many an incident relative to the 

 bee-keeping industry in some of the 

 lesser populated districts of the great 

 L/one Star State, even at a later date 

 than that given by Mr. Wilder. Even 

 15 years ago, there were many places 

 where just such things prevailed as 

 are given in Mr. Wilder s narrative. 



The object in giving this narrative 

 at this time is that it seems to be quite 

 opportune and " in season," since the 

 time of the meeting of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association at San Anto- 

 nio is close at hand. It is given for a 

 purpose, to show our Northern and 

 Eastern friends, coming from the older 

 settled States, the newness of our 

 State of Texas in the bee-keeping in- 

 dustry. Those were the times of the 

 six-shooter and the bowie-knife, but 

 the country is much more civilized now 

 than many of the " tenderfeet " might 

 expect. 



When the National Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation comes Texasward, it will 

 see a new country ; things may look 

 "wild and woolly," but at the same 

 time, my dear friends, Texas is making 

 great strides forward. She has a 

 bright future. The Texans are also 

 proud of the State. As a honey-pro- 

 ducing State, it has forged its way 

 steadily to the front, and, with further 

 development, the industry will im- 

 prove. I am only saying these things 

 so that strangers may be informed a 

 little ahead, you see. 



