THE AMERICAN APICULTUHIST. 



29 



giving to every beekeeper, who prop- 

 erly labels his honey, a reputation for 

 superior excellence of his product. 



Of late years there seems to be a 

 demand for a better quaHty of bee- 

 keepers' suppHes generally. Espec- 

 ially have the complaints been 

 numerous on the cheaply made sec- 

 tions. This has been the result of 

 competition among the manufactu- 

 rers who, in order to furnish a low- 

 priced section, have been compelled 

 to turn out an inferior, and in many 

 cases, an almost worthless article. It 

 seems to me now that it would be 

 salutary if the competition is turned 

 toward superior workmanship, but 

 whether this shall be or not rests 

 wholly with beekeepers. If they de- 

 mand a poor article dirt cheap they 

 will, no doubt, be accommodated, 

 but if the demand is for the best kind 

 of workmanship on sections at rea- 

 sonable prices they will just as surely 

 get it. 



New Philadelphia , Ohio. 



BEE-CULTURE IN TEXAS. 



Bv Mrs. Sallie K. Sherman. 



In my last article for the " Apicul- 

 turist " I promised in my next to tell 

 you something of my success in 

 bee culture. Well, to begin with, in 

 the fall or winter of 1879, 1 purchased 

 one colony of bees in a common box 

 hive of Rev. Willis J. King. My 

 little son and myself went after them 

 at night and brought them home in 

 a wheelbarrow ; distance about one 

 mile. Had to cross the Salon on a 

 swinging bridge, but we got them 



home safely and set the hive on a 

 flat rock and let them alone until 

 they swarmed the next spring. In 

 the meantime, however, I had 

 through a friend obtained the address 

 of A. J. King of New York and had 

 sent to him and got directions how 

 to make the American hive, and em- 

 ployed a good workman to make 

 two hives for me of that pattern, cost 

 of each hive, $5.00. I then thought 

 that they were perfect ; even had a 

 glass door in the rear so that we 

 could see the bees at work inside 

 the hive. But when they swarmed, 

 such a time as we did have. I -had 

 never even helped hive a swarm, 

 had never seen a bee book, didn't 

 even know that there was such a 

 thing as a smoker. You may well 

 imagine I was in a dilemma. Charlie, 

 my little son, was at school a mile away. 

 I was alone and the bees in the top of 

 a tall hve-oak. I studied but a mo- 

 ment, then ran to a near neighbor's 

 and sent to town for the best bee- 

 man, who, by the way, was a widower 

 and an expert as it was thought, at 

 the time, for he actually had seen 

 queens and knew them by sight. 

 He soon came and brought another 

 good neighbor along to help. The 

 first thing was to get a ladder, and 

 the next to carry out the dining table 

 and place it under the swarm, then 

 for a sheet and four long sticks to be 

 tied to each corner. 



Next, friend A went up the ladder 

 with saw, ax and rope as his imple- 

 ments, so that if he failed to jar the 

 bees in the sheet, he could saw off 

 the limb. Friend C. and I were on 

 top of the table holding the sticks, 

 one in each hand at full arm's length 



