November, 1908. 



American ^gc Journal/^ 





RcflectiOHif 



California Bcc-Kccper 



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By W. A. PRYAL, Aldpn Station, Oakland, Calif. 



Sapolio vs. Propolis. 



Some time ago I complained of the 

 persistency propolis has in staying with 

 me when it got on my hands. I tried 

 almost everything I could think of, or 

 had heard of, to eradicate it, but it was 

 always a hard and tedious job. A 

 reader of the "Old Reliable" in Iowa, 

 a Mr. A. L. Dupray, wrote me to try 

 Sapolio, the scouring sort. I have; 'tis 

 good, especially if a little kerosene— any 

 anti-trust kind possibly will be the best 

 — is rubbed over the hands first. This 

 is not an advertisement, but I hope the 

 makers of the soap will consult their 

 interests and advertise their wares in the 

 American Bee Journal. 



Getting Things Wrong. 



California is looked upon by outsiders 

 as a sort of wonderland. To us folk 

 here it is not considered so wonderful, 

 though we all consider it the best place 

 in the world to live. Having a few won- 

 ders of ancient lineage, and occasion- 

 ally a few of right-now origin ("big 

 squash," for instance), the world be- 

 yond our border has come to believe 

 that every other thing met with here is 

 something grand. We wish they were. 

 Then, there are people who, hearing 

 that one man has a certain remarkable 

 thing — be it a fruit, vegetable, house, 

 horse or goat — forthwith proclaims 

 that every thing else of like character 

 in the State is remarkable, too. And 

 some of our papers and promotion corn- 

 mittees are slightly to blame for this 

 misunderstanding. 



But there is no excuse for an author 

 promulgating a statement entirely at va- 

 riance with the facts. Sometimes this is 

 done through ignorance, but certainly 

 that's no excuse. I find in casually 

 looking over what is probably the best 

 printed work on bees that has been is- 

 sued from the press of this country, 

 this statement : "In California instead 

 of boards a thatched roof is made." 

 The writer was considering shade for 

 colonies of bees. I have yet failed to 

 find any thatched roofs over our apia- 

 ries, though some may be found along 

 the rivers, where hives are huddled to- 

 gether on stilts, against floods. Then 

 the matter of such roofing is not so 

 costly a matter. But imagine an acre 

 of hives thatched over. 



tirely made their growth since the first 

 rains at the close of fall or at the be- 

 ginning of winter, excepting, some- 

 times, wild turnip or mustard. It 

 rushes into vigorous life almost with 

 the same rapidity as the marsh-mallow, 

 and it soon makes excellent pasturage 

 for stock which feed on it with avidity, 

 and it is reported rich in nutriment. It 

 continues to bloom over a longer pe- 

 riod of time than most honey-secreting 

 pUnts found upon the Pacific Coast, and 

 it does not die with the approach of 

 dry weather. 



It is not known when this plant was 

 brought to California; it is believed 

 it was imported by the early mission- 

 ary padres long before the advent of 

 English-speaking people to the coast. 

 The most common names for the plant 

 are Alfilerilla, or Filaree, or pin-weed. 

 Some call it pin-clover, but it is not a 

 member of the clover family. Botan- 

 ically it is Erodium, and was so classed 

 by L'Heritier, a French scientist who 

 flourished near the close of the i8th 



AlfllcriUa. 



This is undoubtedly the best of the 

 early winter flowers for bee-forage that 

 comes into bloom from plants that en- 



Alfilerilla or Pinweed. 



century. The plant is found along the 

 northern Mediterranean even into Asia, 

 where it is believed to have had its first 

 home. In Europe it is often referred to 

 as Heron's Bill or Stork's Bill, and in 

 this country it is called Crane's Bill. It 

 is related to the geranium family. So, 

 taking it all together, it is a plant of 



many aliases — a sort of wandering bo- 

 tanical hobo. 



Wilhelm Miller, editor of the "Gar- 

 den Magazine," states that there are 

 some 50 widely scattered species of Ero- 

 dium, but I am able to find reference to 

 only 4 varieties in California; Prof. 

 Volney Rattan mentions 4, in his "Pop- 

 ular California Flora," and Miss Alice 

 Eastwood, of the California Academy of 

 Sciences, in her "Flora of the Pacific 

 Coast," notes but 3. 



The widest distributed variety is E. 

 cicutarium or Red-stemmed Filaree. The 

 green-stemmed variety, E. moschatum, 

 has a faint odor of musk and is a more 

 luxuriant grower than the preceding. 

 A white-petaled sort is occasionally 

 seen ; the ones named are purplish-pink. 

 It is a safe plant to cultivate for bee- 

 forage; while it is self-seeding, it is 

 easy of eradication. Being so closely 

 related to the geranium, it is rather 

 tender, though I have never seen it 

 nipped by frosts which we occasionally 

 have in nearly all parts of California 

 during winter. While it might not be 

 possible to introduce the plant into the 

 Northern States, there is no doubt but it 

 can be grown in that portion of the 

 Southern States bordering on the Gulf. 

 It has already been introduced into Ari- 

 zona and Texas, where it is now quite 

 common, I believe. The honey is light 

 amber, at first rather rankish in flavor, 

 but later pretty fair. It soon candies. 



Railroad Freight-Rate E.xtortion. 



It was some little time back when I 

 saw in one of the papers a telegram 

 from Reno. Nev,, stating that the honey- 

 producers in the neighborhood of Love- 

 lock were making charges against the 

 railroad company for discriminating 

 against them in the matter of freight- 

 rates; that an unjust rate was in force 

 on honey. It was alleged that honey 

 shipped from Lovelock to Chicago costs 

 $1.10 for each 100 pounds in carload 

 lots, while from San Francisco to Chi- 

 cago, 400 miles greater distance, the 

 rate is 85 cents less than the shorter 

 haul. The matter was to be considered 

 by the railroad commission, but I have 

 not heard what the outcome has been. 

 It surely should be ip the interest of 

 justice. 



Eucalyptus Honey. 



I suppose at some time or another you 

 have had that desire to "take your pen 

 in hand" and write about something you 

 had just seen, or something wrongly 

 stated that you wished to correct. I 

 know I've had, and the feeling has oft 

 come over me when I have seen some- 

 thing published about how things are 

 done in California, and the writer shot 

 far wide of the mark. These misstate- 

 ments are often made by Eastern wri- 

 ters who are not fully conversant with 

 things Californian. 



This observation has been started be- 

 tween my brain and my typewriter on 

 reading Dr. Miller's paragraph on the 

 eucalyptus, in Gleanings not long ago. 

 The Doctor's afraid eucalyptus honey 

 will contaminate all our honey, should 

 we have these trees blooming the year 

 around. Don't be afraid. Doctor. These 



