GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. Ij 



WORN CLIFP\S AT SANTA CKUZ. 



Had there been an enterprising bee-keeper near 

 Watsonville it is evident that this foreign snb- 

 stance would have been crowded off from the 

 market. 



From Watsonville to the city of Santa Cruz 

 we found many fine ranches, the owners having 

 so much pride in them that the names were 

 posted conspicuously upon fancifully decorated 

 signs: thus. Sylvan Dell, Glen Echo, Aptos 

 Ranch, and many others were passed. The 

 Aptos Ranch comprised many hundred acres, 

 with a deer-park, blooded hoises, and every 

 thing that betokened the wealth and taste of 

 the owner, who, we learned, was C. Spreckltis. 

 one of the sugar-kings. 



It was in this region we also saw our tirst 

 specimens of the noble redwood trees. There is 

 a little belt of them here, and they are truly 

 majestic. 



■ By a little extra pushing on the lines we 

 made Santa Cruz just before the shades of eve- 

 ning fell. Our inquiries for a camping-place 

 revealed that there were several such locations. 

 For a quiet place to spend SuTiday we were di- 

 rected to the old fruit-dryer locality. In fol- 

 lowing up the directions we approached a large 

 building, and surmised it to be the dryer. Sev- 

 eral well-dressed people were coming from it, 

 and inquiry elicited the information that it 

 was not a dryer at all, but a tabernacle of the 

 Christian Church, in which there was at the 

 time a State Association being held. We felt 

 that to be just the place to spend Sunday, and 

 accordingly camped in the grove of gum-trees 

 with the rest of the disciples. It was a pleas- 

 ure to again attend services of this nature, 



after quite an absence of several weeks from It. 

 The good brethren were very zealous in their 

 views, and one aged minister came in Sunday 

 morning from a town twenty miles out, and 

 arrived before some of the good people in the 

 tents were up. 



In the afternoon we strolled into the city. 

 Santa Cruz is quite a pretentious town, of about 

 5()00 population, and its chief industry seems to 

 be gazing at the ocean, and bathing; or, in 

 other words, it is a great resort for pleasure- 

 seekers. Bathing-houses line the shore, and 

 beyond the bathing-beach are the chalky cliffs 

 which the restless waves have for centuries 

 been wearing awav, until caves, tunnels, and 

 many curious formations are the result. The 

 breakers dashing through these formations oc- 

 casionally throw the spray high in the air. Our 

 walk to town was along the cliffs, and our walk 

 and talk was enlivened by witnessing the antics 

 of the dashing waves. 



Santa Cruz had just been enjoying its annual 

 " fiesta." This Sunday was the las: day of the 

 celebration. The attractions of the day were 

 feats of horsemanship, shooting of glass balls 

 oy Texas Jack, riding bucking bronchos, and a 

 bullfight. The above sports were held in a 

 large inclosure, and we deemed it our sacred 

 duty to stay outside. The bullfights are more 

 or less of a sham outside of a wholly Spanish 

 community, and we afterward learned that this 

 was also a sham, or a trick to draw a crowd. 



A quiet crowd was gathered upon the beach, 

 the foreign and Spanish element largely pre- 

 vailing. Thus we had on this Sunday in Santa 

 Cruz a diversity of attractions that ought to 



