1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



601 



honey was the product, and the honey flora 

 here was much the same as at Mr. Schaeffle's. 



I found other bee-keepers in this same neigh- 

 borhood. About a mih^ from Aliska's an old 

 decrepit man and his wife had an apiary which 

 they managed upon the old plan; and in refer- 

 ring to Mr. Aliska they said that he had re- 

 cently come in with his new-fangled notions; 

 "but them ar little section fixin's I don't be- 

 lieve in. lean git jest as much honey as he 

 liin, any year; besides," said the old man. "I 

 don't think much of them ar' miners. Wy ! if 

 they thought thar'd be a leetle gold under this 

 yer house they'd dig right under it in a minute, 

 an' they claim they've got a right to by law. 

 It's a fact, stranger; one of my neighbors has 

 gone rackin crazy trying to keep the miners 

 from disffin' ui) his whole farm: and while he 

 is sent off to the 'sylum his old wife hangs on 

 to the farm with jeopardy." 



Mr. Aliska was not the kind of man to dig up 

 his neighbor's farm« and feelings in that way, 

 but he was at work in a tunnel trying to strike 

 a " pockot," as it is termed, and a great deal of 

 scientific reasoning and digging is practiced in 

 trying to find these pockets. Mr. Aliska stat- 

 ed to us that he once struck such a pocket, and 

 panned from one pan of dirt $l.oOO in gold nug- 

 gets; and to find another pocket he might 

 spend twice that amount. So goes the miner's 

 life, lived on with the hope ever before him of 

 great and sudden wealth. In the long run a 

 steady devotion to the production of honey 

 would probably bring in more nuggets of gold 

 than the pick and the shovel. 



This portion of country we now pass through 

 shows more and more the wear and tear of 

 placer mining. Where once were fertile tracts 

 of land there is now nothing but piles of coarse 

 debris and acres of ill-shaped pointed rocks. 

 The fine earth has all been washed away, and 

 thousands of acres of such torn surface are 

 found in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties. 



On our journey we cross the famous Stanis- 

 laus River; Sham's, and various other fiats; 

 Jimtown, and Poverty Flat, all made more or 

 less famous by the writings of Bret Harte, 

 whose home, as well as that of Mark Twain, 

 was formerly in Angel's Camp. 



We gradually get beyond the mining lands, 

 and drop, as it were, from hill to hill until we 

 get again into the great San Joaquin Valley; 

 and after three days' drive from Mr. Sehaeffle's 

 we are alongside the S. P. R. R. at Merced. 

 From this point we have over 30(J miles to trav- 

 erse ere we get under our own climbing rose- 

 bush and pepper-tree. 



Another three days we traveled through an 

 extensive grain and grazing country, and with 

 it were scores of square miles of unimproved 

 and barren lands whereon the wild goose 

 quawked, the turkey-buzzard foraged, and the 

 traveler accelerated his pace. The desert ap- 



pearance at this season of the year was en- 

 hanced by seeing now and then the bleaching 

 bones of some weary bovine that had given up 

 the hopeless pursuit of forage, and had died for 

 the want of it. The honey-bee, if located here, 

 would find as little forage as the cattle; and it 

 occurred to me that, while so many are talking 

 about rearing queens upon lonely islands, here 

 in the midst of these great plains would be a 

 fine place to mate queens with special drones. 

 The little queen-rearing apiary could be estab- 

 lished for a while upon some large cattle ranch. 

 A little sugar to stimulate, and not another bee 

 within 20 miles I who could desire a better place? 



We were pleased to reach Selma, in Central 

 California, on Saturday evening. Here we 

 again strike a honey-producing country and a 

 larg'> number of bee-keepers. Mr. J. C. Mc- 

 Cubbin, with whom I had a pen-and paper 

 acquaintance, lived in the edge of the town, 

 and upon a vacant lot near his residence we 

 picketed our horses and pitched our tent, and 

 sojourned over Sunday. It is good for breth- 

 ren to dwell together in unity, and attend 

 church on Sunday. 



I had a sort of vague idea that our friend was 

 a bachelor; but the idea was dispelled as soon 

 as I looked inside the dwelling. If I must in 

 fairness say it, no bachelor could ever keep a 

 house in such tidy order as we found that 

 house. A bachelor always forgets to put things 

 back in their places; and if he does, his fingers 

 are so clumsy that they knock over several oth- 

 er things; then a bachelor generally has a hor- 

 ror of sweeping down cobwebs, and they will 

 dangle from the ceiling; but a good housewife 

 never forgets these things. 



We found it so in the McCubbin mansion, 

 for there was neatness and order, and then 

 there was a little cherub of a baby, just old 

 esough to double up its fists and make mouths 

 at us. 



The baby was quiet enough to allow us to 

 talk bees until near midnight, and we had 

 something near to inspire bee-lore, for Mr. Mc- 

 Cubbin was getting his honey ready for market, 

 and had several tons of nice comb honey nicely 

 graded, crated, and stored in his house. 



In this portion of California the yield is large- 

 ly from alfalfa, and at the time of our visit 

 (Nov. 24) the bee-keepers around Selma were 

 getting a fair crop of honey ready for market, 

 while in nearly all of Southern California bee- 

 men were pouring sugar syrup into their hives. 



The yields from alfalfa are not so great as 

 from sage; but. having a more uniform yield 

 every year, the bee-keepers make fully as much 

 money ouift of their bees, in the long run, as 

 they do further south— at least, 1 will make 

 that statement and let it stand until it is proved 

 otherwise. 



While the leading honey-plant around SeJma 

 is alfalfa, on the " West Side," as they term it, 



