188 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



Fig. 2. — Semi-tropical vegetation 



tear Brownsville, W. E. Jackson, chief bee tnspectoi 

 in the foreground 



cidents along the way, it is hard to 

 decide what is best to fill the limited 

 space in the Journal that can be 

 spared each month to tell about 

 Texas beekeeping. Just to tell about 

 the beekeepers themselves would In- 

 worth a volume, for in Texas, as 

 elsewhere, there are many fine per- 

 sonalities among the beekeepers. As 

 the limitation of time made it neces- 

 sary to miss many interesting places 

 and well known beekeepers, so the 

 limitation of space makes it neces- 

 sary to omit mention of many inter- 

 esting incidents in this series of arti- 

 cles. 



The Rio Grande valley is the south 

 ernmost section of the United Stati -, 

 except for the extreme tip of Florida. 

 As far as beekeeping is concerned, 

 we found conditions in the valley 

 very different from those of any 

 other section of Texas. In fact, 

 Texas seems to be divided into about 

 five natural divisions, as far as honey 

 production is concerned. Each of 

 these divisions has a flora and season 

 peculiar to itself. Moving from one 

 of these sections to another, one 

 would have about as much to learn 

 as though he came from a distant 

 Stati The Rio Grande valley has a 

 light flow from one source or an- 

 other, through mos! ii. Sev- 

 eral beekeepei ti dd of having 

 swarms as late as December, that 

 gathered sufficient stores In winter 



i nlly. The -"in i es 6i honey 



ai e quite difl i rent i rom th 



southw est fexas, when ev< ryl hing 

 that grows has a thorn on it, and 



the i ainfall is i ctn melj light. 



II thwesl section will be 



in a separate article. North oi San 

 Antonio we find another natural di 



vision, where cotton be :s the 



principal source of surplus. I i 

 is well marked, and south of there we 

 were unable to find eepeei 



« In i i epoi ti '1 cotton as important. 



i- to det< rmim tl 

 from this plant. The cotton bi 

 also be treated in a separate article. 



East Texas again is a different coun- 

 try entirely, and again demands a 

 separate article. The time was too 

 short to permit the party to visit the 

 panhandle or the high plain country 

 of northwest Texas, so that must .be 

 left for a later visit. 



The Rio Grande valley, with its 

 mild climate and fertile soil, only re- 

 quires water in sufficient quantity to 

 become the garden spot of Texas. A 

 small portion of the valley is callable 

 of irrigation, and some of the irri- 

 gated tracts show wonderful results. 



Land sharks take advantage of the 

 attractions of the country, and prey 

 upon the unsuspecting homeseeker 

 from the north. These are mostly 

 northern men with headquarters in 

 some northern city, who live by tak- 

 ing advantage of their trusting neigh- 

 bors. There are many opportunities 

 in south Texas, but the poorest way 

 in the world to find them is by join- 

 ing a land-seekeers' excursion and 

 buying from a company. A man who 

 has played the game for eight years 

 confessed to me that they never han- 

 dle anything for less than a hundred 

 dollars per acre margin. The man 

 who dreams of a home in south Texas 

 should visit the country and get his 

 information from the residents. Few 

 of the people living there will lie in- 

 clined to deceive him. 1 heard the 

 native Texans often deplore the way 

 the northern buyer was being 

 "skinned" by the northern land men. 

 and saying that it was having a bad 

 effect on the development of the 

 country. 



The valley is subject to extremes 

 of wet and drought. One cannot de- 

 pend upon the natural rainfall. While 

 the records show an average annual 

 rainfall that would indicate the pos- 

 sibility of profitable cropping, the 

 distribution is uncertain. There may 

 be heavy rains which flood the whole 

 country, and then no rains for 

 months. The country is very level 

 and, sometimes, is flooded for many 

 miles. It. accordingly, becomes neces- 

 sary to keep the bees off the ground 

 over most of the country. Only here 

 and there is a natural rise high 

 enough to be safe in time of ex- 

 treme high water. (See Fig. 1.1 



Fig. 8. — A. Lynn Stephenson and 



of cactus in his pastur 



