The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-04-21
GEORGIA HONEY BEES.
Yielding Barrelful y Day Each and Max
ing Their Owners Rich.

After dinner at Mr.. Mitchell's we
were sitting on his front piazza, smok-
ing, 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 be over hundred |
years old. learned that several years
ago a swarm Of bees assembled in that
tree as their new home, and they have
worked and lived there ever since.
After they had been there for three
years the colony became very large
and strong, and no attempt had ever
been made to rob them of their honey.
At last Mr.. Mitchell came to the con-
clusion that the tree must be full of
honey, from seeing large numbers of
flies and bees around the root of the
tree; so he set to work to devise some
means to get the honey without cutting
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 it like fellow is
tapped for dropsy. So he got him
faucet and an auger and bored hole
in the tree near the root and then
screwed in the faucet and to his sur
prise and great delight solid stream of
pure and elegant honey asclear as crys-
I tai gushed forth, and the supply seemed
almost inexhaustible. 1t continued to
pour out until he had filled six barrels;
and he has drawn each year since that
time from three to four barrels of pure
strained honey from that old oak tree,
and up to this there seems to be no
signs of failure of the supply, as the
/ bees are still a strong and healthy col
ony.
The same year that Mr.. Mitchell
tapped the old oak tree there was 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 upon ex-
amining the place from which he had
plucked the leaf he discovered that the
plant was bleeding or emitting from the
wound clear, thick-looking juice
which, upon taking an examination
proved to be honey. He then com
menced to nurse the new voulnteel
growth with the tenderest care and at
tention, looking after them daily; anc
as the summer advanced the plant!
continued to grow, and in the fall h'
selected and transplanted 800 of then
in very rich soil, thirty feet apart, anc
they grew very rapidly, making ;
beautiful display with their straight
smooth trunks and their thick an(
glossy wax-like leaves. Mr.. Mitchell
idea was that as large money was mad
from the sugar maple, by boiling tn
juice, he ought to make more from
tree that would run pure honey, and h
, was right When the trees were fou
: years old in the fall of the year the
! were large enough to insert faucet:
i So he had three hundred faucets mad
to order and screwed them into th
Young trees, and the following sprin
the result was remarkable. Each tire
{ Welded an average of ten gallons {
/ the richest golden honey; the followin
e year each tree yielded an average {
/ twenty gallons, and now the averae
is about barrel to each tree durin
5. the wear, and the grove continues
l. grow and flourish and shows no sigr
n of failing to supply a bountiful yield
n the years to come.
h If some of those enterprising artesia
W we'll men who are always prospectin
IS and boring holes in our county for O
ID could succeed in sinking Il well fro
g which o solid stream of old mello
l. peach brandy would flow continuousl
t. then, indeed, old Spalding Count
1t would be new Mecca, and pilgrimag
n would be made from all over tn
Of broad country to the land which hov
n with '.peach and honey
n But be that as it may, the uncertai
"A ty of the fruit crop, the corn crop, Il
In wheat crop, nor the uncertainty of q
"a price of cotton, has any terrors f
20 MIR. Mitchell, for so long as the
~ golden stream of sweetness continue
flow from these natural fountains, h
ID - prosperity is assured Griffin ga
- NeUS.