Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-01-23
FINns A new BEE
Indian territory Man Believes He
HassFound One of Prac-
! ticaI Use.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES KIND
Stores Honey in Sack Under Ground
Attemptito Mix With Others
Successful.

| Captain Join Holder. who lives in q
| cabin i'll the Arbuckle mountains, in
| Indian Territbry. believes he has dis
covered Il nev kind of honeybee, and
| he is trying b cross it with the ordi-
| nary bee. says the Kansas City Star.
| He thinks tha if he succeeds in get
ting the two kinds of bees to cross
| breed he willAave produced a bee SUI
perior TO eitha. because it will be bet
ter adapted 70 that country and eli.
mate than anysbee now known
Captain Holler's home is on Colbery
creek. twelve miles west of Davis, l.
T. II. claims ownership to 1000 acres
| of wild mountain land there and cult
Yates enough Il it for his own needs.
Near his cabin aie forty hollow stumps,
each inhabtedlsy Il colony of bees.
He says of whatShe believes to be his
bee discovery:
1T is strange pongrel honeymaker
They appear to AS n mixture of gray
coated bumDlebeeSaNnd yellow striped
honeybccs. Most ctfhem are as large
as Italian queen bes. They gather
honey and deposit ittn honey balls in
ground. The honey bus. or sacks. con-
sist of Il waXy substants and are about
as thick as morocco Iather. Nearly
every sack, or cell. contsjns about half
n pint of the sweetest Hney imagina-
BILE. Its flavor is far SUPERIOR to com
mon honey. and it acts liks pepsin upon
the digestive organs. The mongrcI
honeymakers cover their deposits %
sweetness with a lot Of fine grasS-in
fact, with n waterproof roof A good
ly number Of the mongrels are detailed
TO act as guards to repel invaEers, such
as skunks. opossums, raccosns. ants
and other creeping things in aearch of
sweetness
"Polccats dearly love hong. The
queer bees however. generally succeed
in the battle, as ! have found xPveral
dead skunks near the honey depsito-
ries. where they >had been sttEg to
death.
Some of the honey nests are witch
ed over by from two to ten bees. THE
larger families. however, always Nip
the endangered smaller colonies. sas
such families always make their hone
close to their more populous neighbour
THE new kind of bees always workI
early in the morning and until about
the middle of the afternoon, but I never
espied one gathering sweetness about
or after sunset
Able to Survive.
'rTfe mongreI bees make honey
where aristocratic honeybees would
starve to death, and therein lies their
great value They gather sweetness
Oh humble blackiacks. swamp willows.
mountain quinine plants, on the preva-
lent broom weeds, on watermelons.
sweet corn. sorghum cane, wild fox
grapes, on sumach blossoms and poison
oaks. Those bees are great enemies to
snakes. gophers, rats and nosing dogs.
4 cur that has ever been stung by one
of them can never be coaxed to again
nose around their honey balls.
81 have been experimenting with the
new found honey gatherers. 1 have
been trying to tame them so that they
will mix and live with my civilized
bees The newcomers are curiously in
spected by the old settlers in the hollow
stump or bee gums. Often a terrific
battle takes place, but noticed that
when a moth attempts to enter the
hive during the conflict the mongrels
cease fiRhting their cousins and prompt