626 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



and his income is profitable, for thousands of 

 people visit the cave. 



Fifteen miles from Murphy are the wonder- 

 ful sequois, or big trees. Our route was up the 

 San Antonio, a fine trout-stream; and when- 

 ever we saw a deep pool in the tangle of rocks 

 and trees, we had in mind our aforetime fellow- 

 traveler Pryal, and his passion for the hook and 

 line, and — bites. 



Travelers are many times disappointed over 

 some famous feature of nature, from the fact 

 that their imagination has pictured the feature 

 away beyond the reality; but in our case the 

 giant sequois were fully up to expectations; 

 and the longer we lingered in the grove, the 

 more majestic they appeared. 



There are 90 trees in this grove, and they 

 bear the names of generals and other noted 

 men of the world. Ten of these trees are each 

 over 30 feet in diameter, and over 325 feet in 

 height. A few of these monarchs of the forest, 

 having served their day and generation, have 

 succumbed to the wear and tear of time and 

 tempest, and are now prone upon the ground; 

 and, though fallen, they are objects of wonder. 



We spent one night camped under their tall 

 forms; and when we departed we felt as 

 though we had seen another of the grand fea- 

 tures in nature, and a feature especially char- 

 acteristic of this wonderful country. 



We returned to Murphy again, and sojourned 

 several days under the protecting care of Bro. 

 SchaefBe. J found that Calaveras Co., though 

 not so prolific in schoolma'ams as Humboldt 

 Co., was nevertheless well supplied. One would 

 suppose that my traveling companion had lost 

 his entire heart in Humboldt Co., and that it 

 would be many years before it would be entire- 

 ly healed; but he had wonderful recuperative, 

 powers; and here we were, barely two weeks 

 from those dashing Humboldt damsels, and 

 other fair schoolma'ams were attracting his 

 undivided attention. It was the wielder of the 

 birch in the town of Angel that threatened to 

 wreck us this time. The name "Angel," in 

 contrast to Humboldt, as a prefix to school- 

 ma'am, does really appeal to the imagination; 

 and when Humboldt can so easily be construed 

 into humbug. I could hardly blame my partner 

 for his prefei'ence. I tried to show my friend 

 the error of his ways, and our argument ran 

 upon the qualities that constitute a terrestrial 

 angel, with the following result: 



"An angel, Bro. Wilder, of earthly frame, is 



fair. 

 Sylph-like, with flowing golden hair. 

 An angel I how ridiculous it sounds 

 Applied to schoolma'ams of quite two hundred 



pounds." 



"Not so," quoth Bro. Wilder, with a little bit 



of ire; 

 "A red-haired girl I never did admire; 



But a black-eyed schoolma'am, worthy to be 



won. 

 Is every whit an angel, e'en if she weighs a 



ton." 



This condition of mind was a danger-signal 

 not to be slighted. The ponies were harnessed, 

 and we traveled rapidly out of Calaveras Co.; 

 and that night, many miles away in Tuolumne 

 Co., we camped in the shadow of the Golden- 

 nugget apiary. 



HOW THE MATING OF ftUEENS CAN BE 

 CONTROLLED. 



QUEENS. AS A KULE. NOT MATED AT A DISTANCE 



FROM THE apiary; AN INTERESTING 



EXPERIMENT. 



By Jame« TT'ood. 



If this question is to be construed so as to ap- 

 ply to a certain individual drone, I answer no. 

 If, as I understand it. we wish the queens mat- 

 ed to drones from a single colony. I answer yes. 

 I know very well that I am stating what is not 

 generally believed ; but I am going to give you 

 the facts just as I have observed them the past 

 four seasons. 



Let me first say that I am located at least 

 three miles from any bees except my own. I 

 have practically given up breeding five-banded 

 queens; therefore I feel more free to give these 

 facts than heretofore, as I did not wish to use 

 the reading-columns to draw attention to what 

 I had to sell. 



In the spring of 1893 I purchased my first five- 

 banded queen. I at once introduced her to a 

 full colony, and began to rear queens, all of 

 which mated with the three-banded drones, as 

 no others were yet hatched. I tested a great 

 many of these queens. They wintered well, 

 and proved great workers; but now to the point 

 I wish to prove. Their progeny showed noth- 

 ing but bright three-banded bees. Not one 

 queen in a dozen would show any five-banded 

 bees; and what did, there was less than one per 

 cent. Well, this mother-queen (my first five- 

 bander) was given several frames of drone comb, 

 and in the mean time I purchased another five- 

 banded breeding queen, and bred all my queens 

 from her the remainder of the season. As soon 

 as the drones began to fly from queen No. 1 I 

 placed the drone-traps on every hive in my yard 

 except this one. I now had drones in but one 

 colony, that could fly. Now. nearly every queen 

 that I raised after the traps were put on pro- 

 duced from 25 to 50 per cent five-banded bees, 

 and a few 95 to 100 per cent. 



" But," says some one, " this proves nothing 

 definite, as you used another queen to rear 

 your queens that produced the five-banded 

 workers." 



Let us pass by 1893 and '94, which I might 

 mention as seasons of experimenting, and come 

 to 1895. I now have, at the beginning of the 



