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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Texas Bee-Keepers' Coiireiition. 



The Texas Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion held its fourtli annual convention 

 at the apiaiy of Judge VV. H. An- 

 drews, at McKinney, Collins county, 

 Texas, April 25-26, 18S2. 



The Convention met at 9 a. m.,. un- 

 der the shade of some fine, ever-bear- 

 ing mulberry trees, one of which 

 measured twenty-eight inches in cir- 

 cumference, heavily laden with ripe, 

 luscious fruit, as well as berries just 

 beginning to form. The situation was 

 in full view of tlie Judge's apiary of 

 oOO colonies, of the brightest Italians. 

 On the other hand was a grove uf 

 trees, planted by Judge A. many years 

 ago, among which were ttie poplar, 

 chestnut, sugar maple, and several 

 other tine specimens of deciduous 

 trees, also a choice selection of ever- 

 greens. 



Thus pleasantly situated, the Con- 

 vention was called to order by the 

 President, Judge Andrews, who in- 

 troduced \V, K. Marshall, D. D., of 

 Marshall, Harrison county, Texas, as 

 tlie oldest scientific bee-keeper in the 

 State, and tendered him the cliair to 

 preside over the meeting of the con- 

 vention. 



Dr. Marshall delivered an able ad- 

 dress on practical bee culture. 



He said that many persons wonld 

 undertake bee culture but for fear of 

 the bee-moth destroying their bees ; 

 tliat anyone who would allow the 

 moth larva to commit destructive 

 depredations, ought to have no bees. 

 He felt friendly toward all bee publi- 

 cations and tliose engaged in the pur- 

 suit, but said that the bee literature 

 of tlie majority of journals was not 

 adapted to bee culture in the South, 

 the subject of wintering and bee chol- 

 ■era or dysentery consumed nearly 

 one-half of the space ; and he thought 

 he spoke the experience of a majority 

 of the scientific bee-keepers in the 

 ■South when he said that lie did not 

 read one-half of the articles on win- 

 tering. He had grown tired of so 

 much of it, it did not interest the 

 ^Southern bee-men. 



He had a few cases of dysentery 

 caused by bad feed, several years ago. 

 He had had no experience with fo"l 

 ■brood. Tlie only place where it ex- 

 isted in the State was Dallas county. 

 He was often asked if bee- keeping 

 was a success in Texas, — will it pay a 

 reasonable compensation according to 

 capital invested, as compared with 

 other profitable pursnitsV His expe- 

 rience was, that a greater income 

 could be realized from the skillful 

 management of the honey bee than 

 from any other pursuit, capital and 

 labor considered. 



He advised all to be up with the 

 times, take the best bee periodicals, 



get the best books, read the best bee 

 terature. 



He said that practical bee culture 

 resolved itself into three important 

 factors: Locality, race of bees, and 

 marketing the products of the apiary. 

 We have good and bad localities. 

 To secure a good locality, we must 

 have an nnderstaiiding ot the honey- 



producing plants, what produces 

 honey, and at what season V Among 

 the leading honey plants he mentioned 

 were the red bud (Judas tree), the 

 willow, fruit trees, black locust, honey 

 locust, ratal! vine, corn and cotton ; 

 he was convinced that a large portion 

 of his honey was from cotton. He 

 gave some very valuable statistics of 

 the honey crop for the past thirty 

 years. In 1860, he said that the honey 

 yield was enormous, almost incredi- 

 ble. The yield was mostly from honey 

 dew, which exuded from the leaves. 

 He saw 400 lbs. of honey taken from 

 one tree at one time. He had never 

 before, nor since, seen such a season. 

 He spoke of Red River and Sulphur 

 bottoms as being excellent localities 

 for apiaries. 



He spoke at length of the improved 

 races of bees, and stated that by care- 

 ful breeding they could be brought to 

 a higher standard, and he regarded 

 the home-bred queen as superior and 

 discouraged the further importation 

 of new races other than the Italians, 

 and even some of these were not well 

 marked. He regarded the pure Ital- 

 ians as superior to any other race. 

 Their docility and capacity for storing 

 honey were objects of much respect. 



He gave an interesting account of 

 his experience with the Cyprian bees. 

 They were very prolific, and good 

 honey gatherers, but consumed the 

 most of their stores in brood-rearing. 

 They must be madequeenless in order 

 to obtain surplus. They would be- 

 come infested with laying workers in 

 three days after the removal of the 

 queen— were swift flyers and stingers. 



To beginners, he would advise" the 

 buying of good colonies to commence 

 with, and consider what kind of honey 

 to produce, and to produce that kind, 

 comb or extracted, which would find a 

 ready home market. 



He considered the 8-frame Lang- 

 strotli hive tlie best size for surplus. 

 In marketing honey, his own experi- 

 ence was in favor of extracted honey; 

 comb honey would not bear shipping. 

 Extracted iioney was more wholesome 

 to the consumer and more economical 

 to the producer. He considered some 

 bees lazy, while others wei'e indus- 

 trious ; had tried tiering-up to four 

 stories high, with upper chamber over 

 the brood chamber, and obtained 86 

 lbs. of extracted honey by the tiering 

 plan, against 130 lbs. for the ordinary 

 2-story hive ; lie had easier access to 

 the brood-cliaraber with the latter 

 than the former. He encouraged 

 building up a home market ; he had 

 sold, last fall, 4,000 lbs. of honey, at 

 home. He considered Texas equal to 

 any other State for its natural honey 

 resources. 



He opposed, in the strongest terms, 

 the unjust aiul malicious attacks made 

 by unprincipled men upon the charac- 

 ter ot the father of American bee 

 literature— Rev. L. L. Langstroth,and 

 regretted tliat any of the bee period- 

 icals should give space in their publi- 

 cations for such malignancy. 



The Association tendered a vote of 

 thanks to Dr. Marshall for his able 

 and interesting address. 



The following committees were ap- 

 pointed : 



On Resolutions — Dr. Howard, Jno. 

 S. Kerr and G. R. Cooper. 



On Ajjiarian Supplies and Exhibits — 

 R. C. Horn, T. C. Boone and G. A. 

 Wilson. 



On Subjects for Discussion — W. K. 

 Marshall, F. P. Cline and Judge T. C. 

 Goodner. 



Judge W. H. Andrews gave an in- ■ 

 teresting account of his visit to Lex- 

 ington, Ky., as delegate from Texas 

 to the North American Bee- Keepers' 

 Society. He was highly pleased with 

 the acquaintance made with the dis- 

 tinguislied bee-masters of America 

 whom he met there, and spoke in the 

 highest terms of the ladies who par- 

 ticipated in the convention and took 

 such a great interest in bee culture. 

 The manner in which the representa- 

 tive from Texas was received, and the 

 attention given the Texas delegate 

 was encouraging to the Society of 

 Texas; whicli, though young as an 

 organization,attractea much attention 

 in the older States. 



On motion, the Convention ad- 

 journed till 1:30 p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Committee on Subjects for Discus- 

 sion reported the following questions: 



" Which is most desirable— natural 

 or artificial swarming? " 



Dr. Marshall was selected to open 

 the discussion. He favored artificial 

 swarming; his apiary being located 

 among large forest trees, natural 

 swarming was impractical with him. 

 He could increase artificially with less 

 labor than natural swarming. 



Judge Andrews favored natural 

 swarming, he thought that his bees 

 went to work with more spirit and 

 zeal when allowed to swarm naturally. 



Judge Goodlier gave his experience 

 with artificial swarming, as a novice. 

 He succeeded in dividing his bees; 

 received something less than 40,000 

 stings ; it was his first effort, there- 

 fore he had not decided which plan he 

 would adopt in the future. 



The next subject for discussion was 

 "Is it advisable to plant for honey ?" 

 Judge W. H. Andrews favored plant- 

 ing for honey, and recommended black 

 locust. It was valuable for lioney and 

 the timber was useful and demanded 

 a good price in the markets ; it was a 

 fast grower and a profuse bloomer. 



Dr. W. K. Marshall was in favor of 

 planting black locust, peas, Simpson's 

 honey plant, and linden for honey. 

 He stated that some peas yielded 

 more honey than others, which was 

 owing, perhaps, to the depth of the 

 corolla of the flower, the nectar being 

 secreted beyond the reach of the bee. 



G. A. Wilson asked if it would pay 

 to plant sweet clover (melilot). 



Judge Andrews said that he had 

 had it growing for several years, and 

 had noticed, only occasionally, a stray 

 bee upon it, but it was highly recom- 

 mended by good authority. 



Dr. Howard had grown it, and found 

 his bees to work on it after liorse-mint 

 had dried up, and that it furnished a 

 fine quality of honey, well flavored. 

 He recommended planting and culti- 

 vating the first year, as it was to stand. 



He was asked if it would do to cul- 

 tivate the first year and transplant. 



