AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



45 



CONDUCTED BY 



Greenville, Texas. 



Some Old Colonies of Bees. 



While the boys were out selling honey 

 last December, they came across a widow 

 by the name of Young, who had been 

 trying to give a colony of bees away for 

 years, and one party started off with it, 

 and had to set it down and leave it, and 

 told Mrs. Dr. Young that he did not 

 want them, as they stung him fearfully. 



Another man got it, moved it off the 

 stand, and he too gave up the treasure. 

 There had been no honey taken out of 

 it for years, as they were noted as ter- 

 rible fighters — everybody but a bee-man 

 was afraid of them. Willie told the 

 lady he would give her 50 cents for the 

 hive and bees. 



" All right," she said ; but she did not 

 wish to keep the money unless he suc- 

 ceeded in getting the hive away. To 

 this Willie and Charlie smiled at each 

 other, and told her they would risk tak- 

 ng the bees away. 



So without a smoker or veil they 

 slipped a sack over the hive, and laid it 

 in the wagon, leaving the whole crowd 

 in a perfect surprise and wonder as to 

 what kind of boys these were, and who 

 they were, but the boys said not a word, 

 but drove right along from house to 

 house selling honey as though nothing 

 had happened. So much for knowing 

 how to handle bees. 



Now for the history that I started out 

 to tell. This hive of bees was given to 

 Dr. Young more than 16 years ago, by 

 the late Judge Andrews, of McKinney. 

 The bees are a fair sample of Italians, 

 and have swarmed nearly every year, 

 the swarms being allowed to run away, 

 or given to any one that would take 

 them. Now, while the combs in this 

 hive are almost as black as tar, and no 

 doubt 20 years old, the bees are as large 

 as any Italian bees I have ever seen. 

 The hive is of the old American pattern, 



combs nice and straight, and has a 

 powerful colony of bees. 



Who says it will not do to use combs 

 for more than three or four years ? This 

 colony has kept itself for 16 years, but 

 has not paid the owner anything. Tak- 

 ing Nature as we find her, and I say 

 that brood-combs that have been kept in 

 a hive occupied with bees all the time, 

 are just in their prime at ten years old. 

 I once found bees in a cedar log that 

 had gone into the tree when it was 

 standing, as some old comb still remain- 

 in the stump, and the log had become so 

 rotten that I could pull it to pieces with 

 my hands, and the first combs the bees 

 had used were also rotten, and would not 

 hold honey. But the bees had left the 

 first nest and gone further up the log 

 and made a new nest, and the combs of 

 the new part were so black that they 

 looked blue, and the brood-cells one- 

 third smaller than new comb. Now, 

 taking into consideration the hive, as 

 mention above, being 20 years old, and 

 the combs still good, and the bees full 

 size, how old could we expect the combs 

 were that were in the cedar log ? When 

 we take into consideration the durability 

 of cedar wood, I am forced to believe 

 that the bees had been in this tree more 

 than 50 years. Jennie Atchley. 



No. 2. — Texas and Her Resources. 



COEYEIili COUNTY. 



Mks. Atchley : — As promised, I will 

 write up this county for you. 



To commence with, I think, and every 

 one else that lives here pronounces, this 

 a very good country. Of course, there 

 are better countries than this. The soil 

 varies from real black to the regular old, 

 large grain sand. The black is not as 

 the black, waxy soil of Hunt and Collin 

 counties, but its produce is just as good. 

 Instead of being waxy, it has a small 

 gravel mixed with it, and it can stand 

 more rain than those other counties I 

 spoke of. In some parts a great many 

 rocks are to be found, though the 

 farmers find a use for them, such as 

 building fences, chimneys, dwellings, 

 walks, flues, wallings for wells and cis- 

 terns, and various other things that they 

 can be used for. 



We have black, sandy soil, and the 

 white sand, like unto those of other 

 countries, although it never wears out. 

 Any kind of stock can be, and is, raised 

 here ; also fowls of any kind. Sheep do 

 well with a small amount of feed through 

 the winter. There is scarcely any land 



