Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-11-26
THE CITIZEN. g.
Bees and a Bear.
Pittsburgh Dispatch

Pittsburgh Dispatch
SiIas Cunning. a Forest county man
who is attending the United States CIR
cult Court as a witness in a case which
has not vet been reached, is chatng un-
der restraint and longing to be back III
the woods again. He says this is the
finest bee hunting weather he has seen
5 nee the fall of SO. He is one OF the
most successful bee hunters of the Ale
ghenies.
He stopped cussing the i'll luck that
brough" him to Pittsburg on other per
sons law suits long enough to tell some
thing about bees. He says tame hon
ey is no more to be compared with wild
honey than cold tea Is to apple jack.
He goes in for wild honey every time
lie declares. On piece OF bread II Is
better than all the New Orleans molasses
ever made.
1t reqnires skill ir woodcrsft and a
sharp ak to gather wild honey: Inc
ples SAINT, sunny days of the fall IS the
time for it. The proper way to proceed
is to select a wooded tract where flowers
are plenty and where you have known
bees to been humming during the sum
mer Then grind your ak, take soIe
matches and little honey, and go to the
woods you selected beforehand.
Bees make their honey in the hollow
top of hollow tree and they usually
take the highest one they can find. Inc
hunters S object is to find that tree, cut II
down and and rob the bees of the fruit OF
their summers toll. The only way TO
find the tree is to follow any bees that
NAV be fiying around. If there are none
out. then the hunter must entlce them
out.
To do this he collects some pine knots
and builds fire. On tin he has tor the
purpose he burns some OF the honey ne
has for bait If there are any bees with
in smelling distance this will bring them
out. Sometimes only lone bee Will
come. Then is when an expert hunter IS
needed
He must follow that bee through the
woods until it leads him to the tree where
the honey is. No person but woods
man can do this. A bee is such small
object that it is easily lost among the
trees, but with trained eyes and ears the
bee hunter can follow it unerringly.
The tree found, it is felled. Frequent
| " there is more honey in it than one man
can carry away.
The usual find in favorable tree IS
| about 100 pounds of dark brown honey,
/
| Cunning says there is often some ex-
| citenent attending a bee hunt. Some
| times the bees cause trouble, but they can
do no harm to man who knows how to
handle them. But he has had one expe-
| rience that he never wants repeated.
| zone day last fall' he said 81 war nigh
| FIVE miles from hum, in the woods. l
wernt huntin' bees. One o my yearlln
heifers he'd strayed an l war a look1n'
| fer her. But / spies bee a huniin a.
round. Thinks IN jess foller thet un'
1 locate the tree, au' some day III come
| an cut it down.
"Well. ter make long story short, |
| follers il. Muster took me morn mile
| through the woods. At last / sees 1t
light. Lookin' round me ter git somethln
| high ND ter mark the place SOS l could
| find it agin, an what does l see but
| big black bar a headin' fer me.
T'Nary a weepen did hey with me,
| barrin my pocket knife, which war no
count in a fight with bar. SO | made
for tree Onhap'ly took up the bee
| tree.
tl"Now, ef thar's one thing NOR n mother
that a bar likes thet thing is wild honey
When that bar got ter the tree he KIND
| looken up ter me an blamed ef he did mt
|
do but shin itnp the tree.
II thinks he's after me. So sCrter sid
ed off on a limb, thinkin' maybe could
drop to the ground when he'd git clost.
| When he gets to the limb / lets go, intel-
din ter pet down an skin out, but darn
ed o. nv ga,luses did mt ketch OH knot
an thar / hung expectin' the bar ev'ry
second.
"Rut he didn't come. To cut it short,
he left me hangin' thar, clumb on up the
tree an got at the honey. This sorter
stirred up the bees, but they didn't both
er MIN eny.' He Jess ct away as oncon-
sarned ez We please an the bees got arter
me. I couldn't protect myself an Jess
had ter take it, not carin' to 10 enything
thet would discommode the bar.
"Well, as the fellow says that bar ct
| his fill o. honey. When he got through
he KEN down. an I'm blamed ef | don't
believe ter this day that he laughed at
me an the bees. He trotted away an
en- soon ez he got out of sight cut my
self loose an KEN down hard an when
got up you bet made tracks fer home.
/ could hardly see when got thar. The
bees he'd my eyes nearly closed.
/ thaueht thet war the toughest 'sper-
ience ever / he'd till kum to Pittsburg.
But, bless you, it wer childe's play com
pared to the way you've got ter dodge
around cars an things here. You can't
stop on the street minute but what
they're ringin' their everlastin' bells an
hollern at you to get out o the road.
| am stayin' purity close TO court now.
I'd like to git out ter see the city but 1t
amt safe. You can't tell which way
q tt,.,,, rava 10 ctttuiri