58 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



conclude the thing impracticable 

 on so short and imperfect a trial. 

 If any young man is ambitious to 

 lay the sweets of a whole county of 

 honey territory under contribution, 

 or to scatter his posts for honey 

 husbandry over a whole range of 

 mountains, he need not despair of 

 realizing his dream ; just let him 

 master his bees, conquer the ugly 

 problems of his craft, get perfectly 

 familiar with his locality, and 

 reduce all things to such a regular 

 system that one apiary can be car- 

 ried on profitably with hired help, 

 and presto ! twenty can be run in 

 the same way — at least that's the 

 way the logic seems to run. 



Quite a proportion of human 

 workers win their bread by callings 

 that are a constant and unceasing 

 grind year in and year out. Such 

 is the case with the editor of a 

 daily paper, the milkman, with 

 various sorts of Avorkmen and 

 officials, and with many mercliants 

 and engineers. This is, to say the 

 least, very undesirable, and we can 

 rejoice that our method of bread 

 winning has a let up to it when we 

 have our bees nicely tucked away 

 for winter in their little beds. 



In common with most occupa- 

 tions that are carried on in the 

 open air our craft is a very healthy 

 one, and well adapted (if care is 

 taken not to plunge in too deep at 

 first) to build up shattered health 

 upon. As this transitory world has 

 but few things to offer that can 

 compare with health in value, this 

 circumstance is a quite important 

 weight on our side of the scale. 



And to close the argument with 



sentiment, as we begun it, the land 

 which was the glor^' of all lands, 

 Iramanuel's land, was a land of 

 honey. The Immanuel himself ages 

 before his birth was pointed out in 

 prophecy as one who should eat but- 

 ter and ]ione)\ The one crying in 

 the wilderness who went before him 

 lived largely upon honey. And 

 after the resurrection, honey with 

 one other article of food has the 

 strange and weird honor of being 

 eaten by an immortal being while 

 showing himself as an example of 

 the new form of life which is to 

 come. I can riglit readily see that 

 such considerations as these may 

 be esteemed as something consid- 

 erably less than nothing by many 

 minds ; but by others, and I am 

 content to stand in this latter class, 

 such thoughts are valued. Some- 

 iiow, without bothering to get at 

 the exact logic of it, we can feel 

 that our craft stands on more en- 

 during foundations on account of 

 the things that are written in The 

 Book. 



Richards, Ohio, June 6, 1883. 



NOTES FROM OKLAHOMA 

 APIARY. 



n\ W . M. DOUGAN. 



I. 



The name Oklahoma is Choctaw 

 and means " the home of the red 

 man." By the Indians this name 

 is applied to all Indian Territory, 

 both east and west of the 96 th 

 meridian. It is a vast scope of 

 country owned and partly occupied 



