VOL. LVIII— NO. 7 



HAMILTON, ILL., JULY, 1918 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



MEXICAN BEEKEEPING 



Primitive Methods of Beekeeping Practiced by the Mexican Peons in the 

 Lower Rio Grande Valley, as Seen by Frank C. Pellett 



THE visitor to the lower Rio 

 Grande Valley finds himself in 

 strange surroundings. Even the 

 man who has lived for years in Cen- 

 tral Texas finds conditions unfamil- 

 iar. When our party arrived at 

 Brownsville, in February, the wild 

 oranges were hanging on the trees 

 and the roses were in bloom, al- 

 though there had been some frost. 

 The wild oranges, like the wild crab- 

 apples of the north, are ungathered, 

 because they. are so sour as to be un- 

 palatable. Loads of cabbages were 

 going to market and fields of lettuce 

 were ready to harvest. There was 

 little to indicate the zero tempera- 

 ture which had so recently been left 

 behind at our northern home. 



Brownsville is a quaint old town 

 with a foreign aspect. Mexican 

 women sit on the sidewalks offering 

 their drawn work for sale, Mexican 

 boys carry papers from door to 

 door, while their dark-skinned dad- 

 dies drive their funny carts about 

 the streets. More than half the popu- 

 lation of the city and surrounding 

 country seems to be Mexican. Not 

 far from the city are to be found 

 villages composed entirely of Mexi- 

 can population, with perhaps none 

 who understand the English lan- 

 guage. The houses in these villages 

 are made of palms or canes, with 

 roofs of similar material. In our 

 last issue was shown a picture of 

 some of the houses in such a village. 

 and figure 1 in connection with this 

 story shows the home of the apiarv 

 herein described. This house is 

 made partly of boards, while many of 

 them are built entirely of such palms 

 or grasses as happen to be within 

 reach. In such a climate there is 

 scant provision made for protection 

 from cold. To keep dry is all that is 

 necessary during most of the year. 



Now and then, during the winter 

 months, there are damp and chilly 

 days when the weather is extremely 

 disagreeable. Although it seldom 

 frosts, one feels the chill keenly 

 without plenty of clothing or a good 

 fire. 



Mention has already been made of 

 the great variety of flora in the val- 

 ley. About all the thorny species of 

 West Texas are present, with the ad- 

 dition of a great variety of plants 

 similar to those found further north. 

 In the north, the elm is one of the 

 earliest sources of pollen in the 

 spring. The species of elm that is 

 common in the valley blooms in mid- 



summer. The willows also are com- 

 mon. They are among our most 

 widely distributed trees, being found 

 from the far north to the Mexican 

 boundary. 



• The birds are as strange as the 

 plants. Green jays, inca doves and 

 chaparral cocks take the place of the 

 familiar species of the north. The 

 English sparrow is about the only 

 familiar bird to be seen. In east 

 Texas one finds most of the birds 

 which he knew in the north, but in 

 the Brownsville country they are 

 nearly all strangers. The turkey vul- 

 ture is a common bird everywhere in 



«Hfor 



*^~ '_ 



Fig. I. Home of the proprietor of the apiary. 



