The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-12-25
ALEXANDRIA LA, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 25 1895
CUTTING A BEE TaEE.

CUTTING A BsE TaEE.
This IL Rare and Exciting Sport For IN
| Autumn Night.
Ono night We cut hco tree, one
that Guy had located. with only, one
beo to get his line. 10 let the bee
60 four times, and three times 1t
came back. bringing With it its
friends and relations 10 tho comb In
tho bce box. The fourth timo IL
failed to turn up, so Ferguson guess
ed, and guessed right, that ho had
gone by the trto. His experience
enabled him to and tho tree not
many rods from where he let tho
boo 20 tho last time Ferguson To-
Gated his tree, which was about 4
milo from tho place he caught tho
bee On sweet clover blossoms. He
never marks = tree and has no other
guide than his molnory. bat that IL
sufficient, and ! know he can 60 to
any tree, though thezc DO . dozen Of
thom, any time, day or night.
10 and Andrew and / went to this
troo by lantern light, Guy leading
the way, Of course. He went al.
most directly 10 it 1t stood tn quite
thick timber ON = mountain ridge
which has some thousands OF acres
on it. 1t was q Is inch oak and per-
feotIy sound at tho base. No eaoh
took turns swinging tie double BIT
ted AK, or "pickerel bait" as Ed
Phelps calls It. You know Ed
camo back from q distant part Of tho
Adirondaoks and told of q pond
whore the pickerel wero 50 big that
the favorite trolling spoon was an
ordinary double bitted AZ. The
Keene valley guides invariably speak
now Of "pidkerel bait" whore b.
fore they used double bitted" in
describing the kind Of an az used.
managed II 10 I had the AZ when
the tree fell, and terrible crash II
made in the eohoing woods on that
still night. The first feeling e.
perionced was that Of apprehension
lest tho owner Of those woods would
hear too. Conscience, you know,
makes towards Of Us all. But there
was no danger Of that, for W. wero
too far back ca the mountain. You
know 1t is rulnble here for any ono
who finds a boo tree TO cut II and
say nothing about 1t, no matter who
owns the woods, or how much honey
you get out of it, or how big tho
tree is, provided 1t Is not 80 near tho
owners house that he would hoar
you chopping.
Andrew was ready with wad Of
damp leaves to stop up the ho1o the
minute the treo struck. We thought
he had done his work we'll until We
saw the bees pouring out from ono
corner, and wo kept our distance,
but soon 1t was apparent that tho
night WAS too cold for them to fly
much. and after leaving them alone
for a half hour nearly all had gone
back. About so were STILL out but
all huddled together, and these !
fixed by slapping q great handful Of
mud on them and ramming 1t in tho
hole.
You probably know how they do
the rest. Guy out q neat hole Just
below and put In his sulphur
match, blowing the fumes in from
time to time, and then putting q wad
of leaves over to keep tho fumes in.
Then I partially unstopped the FIRST
hole to give draft to tho smoke
while Guy blew IL through the mass
OF bees. In ten minutes the beos
vere harmless, and Ferguson jump
ed on top Of tho tres and neatly cut
OF a slab opposing tho oombA 10
cot little too deep onoo and blsd
the comb in ono plaos By cutting
oroeswise Of tho comb, but On the
whole II was done In woodsman.
like manner. gnsss there wsre
four bees to one honey, for II was .
largo "swarm Of Italians" bot We
found only about SIX pounds in our
pals aftcr We had eaten all we pos
sibly could.-Eorcst and Stream.