Resources of Honey, Etc.
I am told that everything that has thorns on it produces honey, and if that be the case, there are but few shrubs that do not furnish honey. West of this place, for 40 miles, or as far as I have been out, it is thickly covered with shrubs, vines, etc., not much taller than one’s head, and I will name a few for the benefit of bee-keepers who might wish to make inquiry.
Catclaw is very thick in places, so thick that cattlemen sometimes have to pay Mexicans a big price to go into the catclaw brush and “round out” their cattle. “Waheeah” is another sticky brush that is very plentiful, and a good honey-producer. “Wesach” is about the earliest bloom we have—now ready to bloom—and fine for bees. Then we have black and white chapparal, both good for bees. Mesquite is here in abundance, and also yields honey, and there are a great many other plants that yield honey that I know no name for.
And now, while the honey-producing plants have thorns, the bee-keeper feels some of them, in the way of drouths, skunks, cutting ants, moth-worms, and other drawbacks; but if one will make up his mind to overlook these troubles, he will find this a fine bee-country.
Jennie Atchley.
Bro. Chas H. Thies, of Steelville, Ills., has been greatly bereaved in the death of his mother on Dec. 19th. In a kindly letter written to us on Christmas Day, he speaks thus tenderly of his blessed mother:
Friend York:—While I have never met you, and you have never met me or any of us knowingly, yet I feel as though I could divide my sorrow by writing you a few lines. In the past years, when I felt troubled or sad, I could tell my mother, which seemed to unload just half of my trouble, and she was always very glad to share in our troubles and sorrows, as well as in our joys. But since Tuesday, Dec. 19th, she has not been with us, for God saw fit to take her Home, where sickness, pain or death will never more reach her.
She told us before going, that she would like to stay with us longer, but that if God wanted her she was ready to go.
We are all grown up, and do not need a mother to supply us with our daily bread, etc., but yet we should have been glad to have had her with us a few more years. We are trying in this case, as in many others, to say, “Thy will be done,” yet it seems a little harder now than in many cases, particularly for my aged father, who is now 70 years old.
But one thing we are glad of, mother did not suffer long. If each of us only can truly say, when our time comes, “I have fought a good fight,” we have the assurance of meeting her again.
Yours very truly,
Charles H. Thies.
[Yes, Bro. Thies, one by one our loved ones are passing to the other side of the river, and we all will soon be called to follow. Then “what a meeting and a greeting” there will be!
Although we are personally acquainted with but few of our readers, yet in their sorrows as well as joys, we feel deeply interested, and wish to assure them that especially in the sad hours of bereavement they have our sincerest sympathy. Surely, we are only a large family, and of all folks bee-keepers, it seems to us, are more interested in each other’s welfare than are any other class of people on this earth. Please remember, then, that the Bee Journal is always ready to hear from its large family of readers, and, whenever possible, will be only too glad to help them.—Ed.]
