1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



773 



up the bottom of his old well; but this being a 

 day of untoward events we expected almost 

 any thing to happen, and were not surprised. 

 We felt guiltless in that respect, for he was to 

 blame for going to sleep, and we so convinced 

 him. 



Now, if the foregoing seems to be something 

 in the line of an allegory, it goes to show the 

 many petty phases in which an Italian will 

 grasp to turn a dollar to his own benefit. Those 

 who have never met an Italian only as an 

 organ-grinder, as we know them in the East, 

 do not understand what thrifty people they 

 are. The climate of California, so like that of 

 Italy, attracts thousands of them to this coast, 

 and they will settle down in such a place as the 

 weed -patch, or in a worse place, where an 

 American would starve, and make a living and 

 accumulate some wealth besides. Their meth- 

 ods of getting the dollar are not altogether 



hired men, he was entertaining a convivial 

 Irishman who also had bachelor quarters in 

 the pass beyond. I would have taken this 

 genus homo to be a Scotchman; but Irish he 

 said he was, and Irish it is. He entertained us 

 with song and story, and it required but little 

 observation to teach us that he was a bookish 

 man, a lover of nature, poetry, and his fellow- 

 man. In the morning, when he departed for 

 his abode, he informed us that our route lay 

 directly past his door, and he gave us a cordial 

 invitation to enliven the lonely hours of the 

 evening in his cabin. 



We were now in the extreme southern and 

 upper end of the great San Joaquin Valley. 

 From Merced we had followed it continuously 

 for nearly 200 miles, and no one can ever appre- 

 ciate its greatness until he travels through it 

 with a camping-outfit There is room enough 

 here for a grand empire. We can drop into 







^- ««#«ft 



KUIXS OF FORT TE.JON (TAHONE). 



honorable at all times. The Italian woman is 

 as sharp as the man at a bargain and much 

 sharper with the tongue. 



Whatever might have been our vexations 

 during the day, we were most fortunate that 

 evening in finding a camping-place near the 

 cabin of a young American bachelor rancher. 

 Here, instead of going several miles, more or 

 less, into the ground for water, the precious 

 fluid was drawn several miles in barrels, and 

 we were able to get a supply without much 

 vexation on our part. 



In the evening we were made welcome to the 

 warming influence of the cabin-stove. We 

 have found that a large number of bachelor 

 ranchers outside the ranks of bee-keepers usu- 

 ally blacken their floor and mop their stove; 

 but this young American reversed the order, 

 and the cheerfulness of his cabin was that 

 much enhanced. Besides his two bachelor 



this valley the States of Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and Vermont, and then have some room 

 to spare. We leave it now, pleased that we 

 have been permitted to traverse its waste 

 places, its fertile lands, and its populous cities. 

 As indicated around Selma, Hanford, and 

 Bakersfield, the posibilities for honey produc- 

 tion are great. In the near future, under the 

 magic inlluence of irrigation, hundreds of thou- 

 sands of people, and among them thousands of 

 bee-keepers, will here find prosperous and 

 happy homes. 



We leave the great valley through the Tejon 

 Pass, and encounter in its narrow defiles the 

 ruins of old Fort Tejon. In early days this 

 was an important strategical point; but now, 

 in the poetical language of our Irish poetical 

 friend,— 

 We stand to-day amid the ruined walls 



Of what was once the famous Fort Tejon. 



