The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-30
A GROVE OF HONEY TREES.
The Success of a Practical and Well
Known Shading Farmer.

the SUCCESS or a Pracplcdl ana w Gil
Known Spalding Farmer.
a reporter of the Griffin Ca NetOs re-
Gently visited John E. Mitchell IN Spalding
county. He says:
After dinner we were sitting in his front
piazza smoking, and discovered some bees
going in and out of knot in one of the
large oak trees in front of his dwelling.
| This tree is known to he over hundred
years old. ! learned that several years
ago a swarm of bees assembled in
that tree as their new home, and
they have lived and worked there
ever since. After they had been there three
years the colony had become very large
and strong, and no attempt had ever been
made to rob them of their honey. At last
Mr.. Mitchell came to the conclusion that
the tree must be full f honey, from seeing
large numbers of flies and bees around the
root of the tree 50 he set to work to devise
some means to get the honey without cut
ting the tree down. After applying all the
tests known to bee men, he satisfied himself
that the tree was full, and then decided to tap
1t like a fellow is tapped for dropsy. SO
he got him a faucet and an auger and bored
a hole in the tree near the root and then
screwed in the faucet and to his surprise
and great delight solid stream Of pure
and elegant honey, as clear as crystal,
gushed forth, and the supply seemed to be
inexhaustibe. 1t continued to pour out
until he had filed six barrels, and he has
drawn each year since that time from three
to four barrels of strained honey from that
old oak tree, and up to this time there
seems to be no signs of n failure of the sup
ply, as the bees are still very strong and
healthy colony.
The same year that Mr.. Mitchell tapped
the old oak tree there was a new thick
growth sprung up all around the old oak of
an unusual Appearance, having a smooth
bark and thick waxy leaves. One day he
pulled off one of the leaves and put it in his
mouth and found it to be very sweet, and
which he had plucked the
leaf he di covered that the plant was
bleeding or emitting from the wound
clear, thick-ooking juice, which, upon tast-
ing and examination, proved to be honey
He then commenced to nurse the new vOl-
unteer growth with the tenderest care and
attention, looking after them daily; and as
the summer advanced the plants continued
to grow, and in the fall he selected and
transplanted 300 of them in very rich soil,
30 feet apart, and they grew very
rapidly, making a beautiful display with
their straight, smooth trunks and their
thick and glossy wax-like leaves, and the
grove was seen and admired by all for
miles and miles around. Mr.. MitchellS
ldea was that as large money was made
from the sugar maple, by boiling the juice,
he ought to make more from tree that
would run pure honey and he was right.
When the trees We're four years old
in the fall of the year they were long
enough to insert faucets. so he had
300 hundred faucets made to order
and screwed them into the young
trees and following spring the result
was remarkable. Each tree yielded an
average of ten gallons of the richest golden
honey The following year each tree yielded
an average of twenty gallons, and now the
average ield is aoOut barrel to each tree
during the year, and the grove continues to
grow and flourish, and shows no signs of
failing to supply a bountiful yield in the
years to come. The quality of the honey is
so fine and the flaver is so delicate that it
always commands the highest prices, and
the demand is greater than the sunply.