THE BEE-IIU^'TER S TAEADISE. 351 



bee-trees within three or four miles around ; and he 

 then sets to work to erect a new home, where he can 

 store his sweets till the casks are full for market again. 



A combination of prairie, wood, and water, is the 

 paradise of the bee-hunter. The prairie, carpeted with 

 millions of flowers, yields his ' industrious classes ' a 

 never-failing supply wherewith to make the honey; 

 the timber furnishes them with hollow trees in which 

 to store it, and the water gives the hunter his highway 

 to a market. In the South and South-west it is nearly 

 perpetual summer, so that the bees are almost always 

 at work; and, except during short * spells' of cold 

 weather, they are rarely confined to their hives, or bee- 

 gums, as these honey-stores are usually named. 



Some of these old bee-gums contain an immense 

 quantity of honey — eight, ten, and sometimes more, 

 gallons being obtained from one tree ; and as this was — 

 in the South — generally worth, first hand, to the bee- 

 hunter, a quarter of a dollar the pound weight, honey- 

 hunting furnished a not unprofitable business.. Besides 

 this there was the wax ; and not unfrequently, when 

 about to go to market, the prudent hunter would kill 

 two or three deer and half-a-dozen wild turkeys to 

 increase his freight ; whilst in the winter months wild- 

 fowling, as he went to market, brought him many an 

 extra dollar. I had often heard of bee-hunting, and 

 had seen a negro on a plantation, or an occasional 

 hunter, find a bee-tree, before I met with a professor of 



