December, 1907. 



American ^ee Journal 



which he had accumulated in his mi- 

 nority (some 60 colonies) he purchased 

 to save them from other hands when 

 he attained his majority. This is ac- 

 cording to old German custom, that 

 whatever earnings children may make 

 before becoming of age belongs to the 

 parents. He was told that bee-keeping 

 was no occupation, and that he must 

 take up some trade. Undaunted, young 

 Scholl struck out for himself, and we . 

 behold the young adventurer seeking 

 his fortune with determination away 

 from the parental roof. 



Mr. Scholl was about 21 years of age 

 at this time, leaving October, 1901, and 

 landing in Southwest Te.xas, where he 

 made a thorough study of bee-keeping 

 conditions in this bee-paradise. Here 

 Scholl traveled in the interests of the 

 Lone Star Apiaries and 'Lone Star 

 Publishing Co., the "Lone Star Apiar- 

 ist" being started in January, 1902, with 

 Mr. Scholl as editor. In the meantime 

 the position of managing apiarist for the 

 Hyde Bee Co., liad been accepted. This 

 Company at that time owned 11 50 col- 

 onies distributed in several counties. 



Taking an active interest in Associa- 

 tion work, Mr. Scholl, in 1899, was 

 elected Secretary-Treasurer of the 

 Texas Bee-Keepers' Association, and 

 still holds the position. About this time 

 he began to work for an experimental 

 apiary, and was a member of a commit- 

 tee having this matter in charge, and 

 was himself largely responsible for the 

 appropriation which was made. 



In May, J902, our friend received a 

 telegram summoning him to the Agri- 

 cultural and Mechanical College, at Col- 

 lege Station, Tex., for the purpose of 

 establishing the above-mentioned ex- 

 perimental apiary, for which he had so 

 diligently and earnestly worked. In the 

 fall of the same year he was sent to 

 Colorado to study bee-keeping condi- 

 tions there, particular Vmphasis being 

 laid on the investigation of foul brood. 

 After remaining in Colorado for a 

 month he returned and went again to 

 Southwest Texas and the Coast region, 

 to study bee-keeping conditions, and to 

 work on collections for the entomologi- 

 cal department of the college. 



Mr. Scholl now came home and spent 

 the winter enlarging his own private 

 bee-business. At this time he was on 

 the Legislative Committee which se- 

 cured the foul brood law for Texas, 

 and in the spring of 1903 he was ap- 

 pointed to the position of Apiarist and 

 Assistant in the Department of Ento- 

 mology at the Agricultural and Me- 

 chanical College at College Station. The 

 work of carrying out the provisions of 

 the foul brood law was in charge of the 

 State Entomologist, and the work of 

 foul brood inspection fell to the Apiarist. 

 Mr. Scholl was always a believer in or- 

 ganization, and while here made special 

 trips to talk organization as well as to 

 do the work on regulai foul-brood in- 

 spection trips. Several local bee-keep- 

 ers' organizations were the direct out- 

 come of these eflorts. 



While in the Department of Ento- 

 mology a good part of the time was 

 spent in studying the cotton-boll weevil, 

 and experiments to determine some 

 means of exterminating the pest were 

 conducted. During the stay at College 



Station much Farmers' Institute work 

 was performed by Scholl, and in 1904 

 he lectured to 42 audiences, the main 

 topic, of course, being bee-keeping. 

 Among the topics that of diversilication 

 of crops was also kept prominently in 

 the foreground, bee-keeping always be- 

 ing brought in as one of the means of 

 diversification. 



While connected with the Depart- 

 -ment at College Station, Mr. Scholl was 

 selected by a committee composed of 

 College and Experimental Station of- 

 ficials, to fill a position under the Ger- 

 man Government, which, becoming in- 

 terested in growing cotton in its East 

 African possessions, was searching for 

 a trained man to assist them. This 

 position was one of peculiar difiiculties, 

 and required a man who coud speak 

 German ; with a scientific training as 

 well as versed in practical cotton-grow- 

 ing; and a considerable knowledge of 

 economic entomology was also required. 

 The position paid $3,000 per year, and 

 Scholl seemed to be the only man avail- 

 able in the South, and was earnestly 

 urged 'by his colleagues at College Sta- 

 tion to accept the offer. After careful 

 consideration Mr. Scholl felt it his 

 bounden duty to refuse the offer in ord- 

 er that he might stay with the cause 

 that he had espoused, viz., apiculture, 

 saying that could he have taken Texas 

 and his bees he would go — showing 

 again his loyalty to his State and the 

 cause so dear to him. 



In the fall of 1904 Mr. Scholl went to 

 Ohio State L^niversity and remained 

 there for 6 months, returning to Texas 

 in the spring to look after his apiaries. 

 While at the University Mr. Scholl did 

 remarkable work, considering his pre- 

 vious college training, and gained the 

 esteem and respect of his instructors in 

 all of his work, much of which was ad- 

 vanced courses in the natural sciences, 

 notably botany, keeping in mind always 

 the honey-yielding quality of the var- 

 ious plants. During his stay here he 

 worked on his herbarium of honey-yield- 

 ing plants, and now has a collection of 

 some 300 species which is conceded to 

 be the best collection of its kind to be 

 found in any State. The plants are, of 

 course, Texas species. After return- 

 ing to College Station, work on the 

 honey-plants was continued, and a com- 

 pilation of notes also was taken up to 

 accompany the plants. This matter was 

 to have been published as a bulletin of 

 the College, but on account of a recent 

 change of officials the work has been 

 delayed. Mr. Scholl resigned his posi- 

 tion at College Station Dec. i, 1905, in 

 order that he might go back to his home 

 in New Braunfels and enlarge and build 

 up his own private 'bee-business, intend- 

 ing later to place it in the hands of a 

 competent manager, and then resume 

 his studies at the Ohio State University. 



June 20, 1906, Mr. Scholl was mar- 

 ried to one of New Braunfels' favorites 

 — Miss Emma Froelich — and she was to 

 accompany him "up North" when he 

 came to resume his college work at 

 Columbus, Ohio. At this time a most 

 unfortunate accident befell Mr. Scholl, 

 which nearly cost him his life, as no 

 doubt it would had it not been for the 

 constant care and nursing of the "little 

 woman" whom he had taken as help- 



mate; and nobly she performed her 

 part; for the accident was of a serious 

 nature, a rib being broken over the 

 heart. Blood-poisoning set in, and Mr. 

 Scholl had about one chance in a thous- 

 and. But thanks to medical science and 

 careful nursing, he is today as active as 

 ever, after an illness of 5 months, in 

 which our subject underwent several 

 severe operations. 



This spoiled the plans for the trip 

 North, but did not cool the ardor for 

 bee-keeping, and as soon as Mr. Scholl 

 could get back home and around again, 

 he could be seen about his bees, in- 

 creasing his colonies here, buying more 

 colonies there, and establishing new 

 apiaries, which, this past summer, when 

 the writer was with him, numbered 14, 

 and scattered over the beautiful slopes 

 of adjoining country here and there, the 

 nearest apiary being 8 miles, and the 

 farthest 197 miles from New Braunfels. 

 Mr. Scholl regards this stretch of terri- 

 tory as important, in that it gives him 

 a variety of flora, so that if there is a 

 failure of the honey crop in one locality, 

 he may get it in another. His past sea- 

 son's crop aggregated over 20,000 

 pounds, worth $2000, and this takes no 

 account of wax and vinegar. Mr. Scholl 

 produces both comb honey and extract- 

 ed. The comb is "bulk comb honey," 

 as they call it in the South, which is 

 simply the comb honey cut from shallow 

 extracting frames, such as Mr. Scholl 

 uses, and packed in various-sized cans; 

 then e.xtracted honey is run in on the 

 comb which is cut so as to fit snugly 

 on the inside of whatever sized can is 

 used. The proportions are 2-3 comb 

 and 1-3 extracted. 



The writer, who, by the way, is a bee- 

 keeper on only a small scale, keeping 

 bees for the fun of the thing as much 

 as anything, and for study, was inclined 

 to be skeptical in regard to Mr. Scholl's 

 form of hive. Mr. Scholl uses only one 

 depth of body for brood-chamber and 

 super, and one and the same frame for 

 brood-nest and surplus. Before leaving 

 Texas a new convert had been gained 

 for the divisible brood-chamber, and 

 shallow frames identical for both brood 

 and surplus. If you want to know the 

 merits of this, read Scholl's articles. If 

 they don't convince you, make a pleas- 

 ure trip to Texas and have Scholl take 

 you out to one of his apiaries where he 

 keeps, for just such an occasion, several 

 full-depth surplus bodies. After you 

 have "hiked" a half-dozen or so of these 

 heavy, 'bulky surplus cases out through 

 the bushes and over the prickly pears, 

 under the benign influence of Old Sol's 

 most benevolent and broadest smile, if 

 you still persist in clinging to such 

 bungling appliances, we should say that 

 there is probably no hope for such an 

 one. 



To continue our story, Mr. Scholl not 

 only looks after his bees, but various 

 side-issues as well, and these bring him 

 in good returns. He is a hustler and 

 a general handy man at anything that 

 needs to be done about the house or 

 home ground, or almost any old place 

 in fact, and this very versatility has 

 made him successful with his bees. 



Mr. Scholl is a prolific writer, and 

 contributes not a little to the various 



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