SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 123 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 



It was once the author's good pleasure to make a prospecting-tour 

 through the Indian Territory, and he was favorably impressed with it as a 

 bee and honey country. I saw some traces of bee-keeping in many loca- 

 tions, and the reports were good and encouraging. The most extensive 

 bee-keeper we saw was a widow Cherokee Indian; but as she could speak 

 American language but little we did not get much information regarding 

 her bees; but she was tending a small plot of land with a hoe, and keeping 

 bees to support herself and four small children. Her apiary consisted 

 of about 100 colonies in home-made hives, constructed with two apartments. 

 The bottom one, she said, was for the bees, and the top story for the 

 honey. The hives were not modern in design, but they were well con- 

 structed and neat in appearance. There were no cracks or openings about 

 them chinked up with cotton or rags, and the covers fit down well, being 

 made of wide lumber, and another wide board nailed on top of the cover 

 crosswise so as to keep them from warping. The covers were not nailed 

 or pegged to the hives. The apiary was. nicely arranged in a grove of 

 small trees, and swept and cleaned out as well as wc could expect a house- 

 keeper to keep her house swept out. No plank, trash, nor boards were 

 found about it. From the outside appearance the apiary received all the 

 care or attention that a good ^honest apiarist could give it, and undoubtedly 

 the bees received some modern care. We camped over night near her 

 house, and I went up to her house for a small amount of honey for supper. 

 She said, "run out or stay in?" I said, "stay in," and she filled the small 

 bucket with nice chunks of honey. The honey was fine in flavor and color. 

 We ate it up at supper, and in the morning I went back to her house for 

 a supply to carry with us, and called for "run out," and she filled the 

 bucket with strained honey. 



That apiary and poor widow, depending largely upon her bees for her 

 own and her children's support, made a strong and lasting impression on 

 my mind. We found a few in the Choctaw Nation engaged in bee-keeping, 

 on a small scale, and who reported good returns from their bees. We 

 felled a few very rich bee-trees during our travel there, and the general 

 outlook for bee-keeping seemed to be all any one could expect, except 

 transportation, which was poor. 



BEE-KEEPING IN ARKANSAS. 



The author lived in that State eight years, and was connected with 

 bee-keeping which proved to be profitable. Unquestionably Arkansas has 

 some of the finest bee pastures the writer has ever seen ; but transportation 

 was not sufficient to justify extensive bee-keeping at that time in the best 



