SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 135 



and for some cause I began throwing stones at them ; but I failed to get a 

 safe distance from them, and the bees filled my head full, stinging me. 

 You bet mother came out and -took me to the house and combed the bees 

 from my hair. The next vivid recollection I have of bees was in 1874. 

 Father had eight or ten bee hives, one or two of which I claimed as mine. 

 Some of the colonies had become crammed and were lying out at night very 

 much. I was going to school at the time. The bees were located at the side 

 of what is known in this section of country as a smoke or meat house. It 

 was at one edge of the apple orchard, and there was a young apple tree near 

 the bees, with a very thick foliage of leaves. One morning before I started 

 to school I was looking at the bees, and I said to father, "I bet the first 

 swarm of bees that comes off will settle on that apple-tree," and, sure 

 enough, a swarm came off and settled on that tree, and father made some 

 prophetic remarks about what I had predicted. I was only 13 years old then. 

 My father died that fall, on the 21st day of September, 1874. 



The real beginning of my bee-keeping was in 1880, when I adopted 

 the American frame 12x11. I afterwards, in 1883, adopted the Langstroth 

 simplicity frame which I still am using, and I bought my first Italian queen 

 from Dr. J. P. Brown, of Augusta, Ga., getting her in August of that year. 

 I paid $2.50 for her. I afterward bought three untested queens from him. 

 I bought an imported queen from A. I. Root in 1886, paying $6.00 for her. 

 I bought 19 untested queens from W. S. Cauthen, of Pleasant Hill, S. C, 

 in 1886 and 1887, all of which proved to be good. 



My best record year was in 1888, when I secured 2,780 lbs. from 40 

 colonies. The best colony gave me 133 lbs. of extracted honey. 



In the fall of that year I took a crate of section honey to our County- 

 Fair at Chester, S. C, and put it on exhibition. Some other parties had 

 already placed theirs, but when I arrived mine was so much superior to 

 .theirs that they removed theirs by the second day. 



My yearly average was about 35 lbs., two-thirds extracted and one-third 

 comb honey. That was about what I secured for a ten-year average. It 

 seems to be somewhat less now. 



To show the propensity of the native bees to swarm more than the 

 Italians, in 1888 or 18S9 I had 25 pure Italian and 15 black and hybrid 

 colonies. Two of the Italian colonies swarmed, and thirteen of the fifteen 

 black hybrid colonies swarmed; and I think the other two would have 

 swarmed if I had not taken combs of brood from them. Four thousand 

 pounds of extracted is the most honey I have ever taken in one year. In 

 i8g6 I secured that from 95 colonies. 



I have had two apiaries for the last 16 years, one located on Turkey- 

 Creek, Chester Co., at my old home. 



My home apiary is here at Catawba, York Co., where I have resided for 

 the last 16 years. 



There was some linden, or basswood, on Fishing Creek, but only a few 

 dozen trees in reach of the bees — ^just enough to create a little excitement 

 among the bees when it was in bloom; but the bees would lick it up in 20 



