San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-08
sUzzING HERALD OF THE WHITES
The Wild Honey Bee Is a Sure Forerun-
ner of Growing Civilization.

The Wild Honey Bee Is a Sure FOrerun-
ner of Growing Civilization.
That abrupt and positive insect known
as the honey bee is eminently creature Of
civilization. 1t finds neither pleasure nor
profit in savagery, and when you note one
IF these interchangeable individuals unload
ing some rich flower you may be sure the
church and the school house are not fas
away. There are certain forms of animal
and vegetable life which flourish only in
concert with civilization. The bees have
been mentioned, and as a sample of the
latter white clover, which may be termed
the natural food for the honey bee, might
be pointed to. The honey bee has a re-
quirement which confines its range to the
timbered districts. 1t must have some
hollow tree for residence purposes.
AS long as civilization, literally speak
ing, was in the woods, the bee went with
it, The earlier settlers and the bee were
hand in hand, and the former plundered
the latter and the latter stung the former
with equal persistency through all the
changing seasons of the year. The Indians
realized in the advent of the bee the begin
ming of their end. They knew it as the
forerunner of their fate; but, nevertheless,
employed themselves in earnest quest of
the honey it was known to represent, and
for which dripping sweet commodity the
aboriginal relish was great. Western Mis-
souri, was perhaps the greatest bee country
that ever existed.
1t was here that the tree growth found
its last expression in the sparse and scrub
by oak openings which, in happy alterna-
ton of tree and grass and sunlight, afford
Cd fall L. for haa at1nh tn unfold
self 1t was here, too, the bee said goodby
to the white man as he pushed out on the
prairie. Here the tree ceases, and here,
perforce, the bees ceased also. They could
90 no further. SO as year followed year
with new communities of bees following
hard the old, and all checked and held by
the eastern boundary of the treeless plains,
there came at last a day in these parts
when bee was swinging on every clover
bloom and every hollow tree possessed its
buzzing commonwealth.
Bee hunting came into furious fashion.
The method was simple and primitive. A
bee working on some flower was captured.
A little, fluffy patch of cotton was fastened
to his back with paste of honey. He was
released, and his flight narrowly watched.
One of the most worthy characteristics of
this admirable insect became the basis of
its overthrow A honey bee means bust
ness Nothing of the jocular, the loiterer
or the gossip abides in its make up. When
ever arrived the time for home the bee pro
ceeded thithcr in a straight line.
1t took the shortest and most direct route
and made a bee line of it. So was its
strength its weakness. The bee hunter
got his direction from the fight of the bee,
and usually had little difficulty in walking
straight to the tree. 1t was then felled
with an ak, and its store of comb and
honey taken possession Of The bees of
the tree attacked made little, if any, resist
ance. The catastrophe seemed to leave
them in state of bewilderment and daZe,
and they either buZzed aimlessly about or
collected in n pendant huddle, clinging to
some bow. The few that attempted to in
terfere with the spoler ut his work were
easily disposed Of with a little "smudge"
of leaves.
No sooner would bee tree fall than bees
from rival communities at once put in
cheerful appearance, and worked away
like so many enthusiastic wreckers on
some Cornish coast to complete, to their
own profit, the despoilation of their neigh
bors. As to whether the bees were taught
this lesson by man, or the latter gained it
from the bees, there is some difference OF
learned opinion, and no attempt will lie
made to settle the question here, but sure
it is there was something sadly human in
the promptitude with which the disaster
of the one was made the advantage of the
other-kansas City Star.