The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1896-02-05
CUTTING A BEE rRgg.

CUTTING A BEE TREE.
This IL Rare and Exciting Sport For an
Autumn Night.
One night we cut u bee tree, one
that Guy had located, with only one
bee to get his limo. He let the bee
go four times. and three times it
oame back, bringing with it Its
friends and relations to the comb in
the bee box. The fourth time it
failed to turn up, so Ferguson guess
ed, and guessed right, that he had
gone by tho tree. His experience
enabled him to find the tree not
many rods from where no let the
bee go the last time. Ferguson To-
Dated his tree, which was about n
mile from the place he caught the
bee on sweet clover blossoms. He
never marks tree and has no other
guido than his memory, but that is
sufficient, and know he can go to
any tree, though there be dozen of
them, any time, day or night.
Ho and Andrew and went to this
treo by lantern light, Guy leading
the way, of course. He went al
most directly to il. 1t stood in quito
thick timber on mountain ridge
which has some thousands of acres
on it. twas Is inch oak and per-
feotly sound at the base. We each
took turns swinging the double bit
ted ak, or "piokerel bait" as Ed
Phelps calls it, You know Ed
Adirondaoks and told of pond
where tho piokerel were SO big that
tho favorito trolling spoon was an
ordinary double bitted NIX. The
Keene valley guides invariably speak
now of "piokerel bait" where be-
fore they used "doublo bitted" in
describing tho kind of IN AK used. i,
/ managed it so / had the AK when
tho tree foil, and terrible crash it
made in the eohoing woods on that
still night. Tho first feeling eX-
porionced 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 wo wero
too far back on tho mountain. You
know it is rulablo here for any ono
who finds beo tree to cut it and
say nothing about it, no matter who
owns tho woods, or how much honey
you got out of it, or how big tho
treo is, provided it is not so near tho
owners house that he would hear
you chopping.
Andrew was ready with II wnd of
damp leaves to stop up tho holo tho
minute the tree struck. Wo thought
he had done his work we'll until wo
saw tho bees pouring out from ono
corner, and wo kept our distance,
but soon it was apparent that tho
might was too cold for thom to lily
much, and after leaving them alopo
for half hour nearly nll had gone
back. About 50@oro still out, but
all huddled together, md these l
fixed by slapping grcat handful OF
mud on them and ranming it in the
hole.
You probably know how they do
tho rest. Guy cut noat holo just
below and put in his sulphur
"match, blowing tho fumes in from
time to time, and thon putting wad
of leaves over to keep tho fumes in.
Then partially unstoppod the first
holo to give draft to tho smoke
while Guy blew it through tho mass
of bees. In ton minutes tho bees
wero harmless, and Ferguson jump
ed on top of tho troo and neatly cut
off slab, exposing tho combs. Ho
cut littlo too deep onco and bled
tho comb in ono place by outing
crosswiso of tho comb, but on tho
whole it was dono III u woodsnan-
like manner. 1 guess thoro wero
four bees to ono honey, for it was II
largo Swarm of Italians," but wo
found only about six pounds in our
pals after wo had eaton all wo pos
sibly could.-Forcst and Stream.