114 SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 



infancy for many years. Not a score of years ago there could be seen in 

 many dooryards a few "bee-gums," or sawed-of? hollow logs, standing on end, 

 while some box hives were also used. There was no way of examining the 

 colonies domiciled in these, nor of ascertaining their condition at any time 

 without tearing asunder hive, combs, and all to gain access. To obtain the 

 little surplus honey necessitated the cutting-out of the combs, much of it 

 contained "bee-bread" and brood, which were then mashed up, and the honey 

 separated from the comb by straining through a cloth. The resultant product 

 had in nearly all cases a strong taint of bee-bread, or pollen, left, both in 

 the color and the flavor of the honey. 



For the bees the removal of the honey meant either the brimstone-pit, 

 long in vogue, over which the bees met their fate, or, if they escaped this 

 method, the mashing of honey-comb and flowing honey over bees, brood, and' 

 all of the hive, to be righted again by the bees as best they could. In many 

 cases the bees from other colonies would rob the disturbed ones and weaken 

 them so that the wax-moth larvae, or "worms," soon overpowered them and 

 destroyed the poor colonies entirely. 



Thus it was that slow progress was made in bee-keeping. An owner 

 with a dozen or more colonies increased them by letting them swarm and 

 reswarm — a process which so weakened the mother colonies for the honey 

 harvest that a very small harvest was obtained. 



In the fall and winter the loss of colonies would bring the apiary back 

 to its original number of a dozen or less, and the bee-keeper (?) thought 

 he had done well if he had "13 colonies — 12 three years ago — the web-worms 

 killed them." There are large numbers of these bee-keepers still, but these 

 are waning slowly, the movable-frame hive coming more and more in evi- 

 dence everywhere. 



ST.MISTICS ON BEES. 



There are no statistics at hand to show the extent of bee culture in 

 Texas at the present time ; but we know that the industry has developed 

 rapidly and steadily during the last score of years. 



From one of our State College Apiary Reports is quoted the following, 

 printed in 1902 : 



"Texas excels every other State on her honey production; yet to one 

 who has studied that situation and vast territory and vegetation of this 

 State, it is evident that as yet Texas does not produce one-tenth the honey 

 which it might through proper management and further development. A 

 careful estimate shows also that at least 90 per cent of the bee-keepers of the 

 State are not practicing up-to-date or modern methods of bee-keeping, thereby 

 getting less than one-half of the possible amount of honey from the colonies 

 already at hand. * * * 



"Some of the possibilities of honey production in Texas may be better 

 understood from a study of UvaWe Co., which is practically the only county 

 m which bee-keeping has been developed to anything like its possible extent. 

 In this county and immediately adjoining, according to Mr. J. K. Hill, 



