1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



309 



crowding her down with honey, as spoken of 

 above, or in their using the most of the honey 

 brouglit in from the fields in feeding the large 

 quantity of brood she would bring about, whicli 

 brood would hatch so late that the bees from it 

 would become consumers instead of producers. 

 All of these little things have a l^earing on the 

 results obtained from the apiary; and as " many 

 a little makes a mickle "' when piled up on the 

 right side of our financial column, so in the 

 same way they help to make us badly discour- 

 aged when piled up on the wrong side. It be- 

 hooves us, therefor^, 'o look well after these 

 things and know that all we do tends to move 

 things in the right direction. 



But I have dwelt longer on this part than I 

 expected to, so must be short in regard to which 

 will produce the most comb honey, the swarm 

 or old colony. If the swarm comes ten days or 

 more in advance of the harvest, and the old 

 colony is not allowed to swarm again, with 

 proper management this will give the best re- 

 sults. On the other hand, if the swarm comes 

 at the commencement of or during the honey- 

 harvest, then every thing should be turned to 

 the advantage of the swarm, for this will give 

 the most. G. M. Dooijttle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Feb. 25. 



RAMBLE NO. 80. 



AT HERRICK'S. 



After the whiffletree ei)isode in our last, we 

 had settled down to our usual cogitations and 

 observations, when we were again startled up 

 to tlie qui-vive state. A woman on horseback 

 came dashing around the curve just ahead of 

 us at a breakneck speed: and our frantic efforts, 

 with whip-persuader and voice, to get our 

 steeds and ourselves out of the narrow road, 

 resulted in just moving their heads a little side- 

 wise. The female and her broncho dashed in 

 beside Bob, and another leap landed them out 

 in the sage bushes, stones, and boulders, where 

 the rearings and gyrations were bewildering to 

 follow; and oi)en-eyed " me" could do nothing 

 but behold her rawhide come down with a 

 swish, swish. The broncho bounded over a 

 boulder into the road in the rear of us, and 

 with another swish, swish, of the rawhide they 

 were out of sight around the next curve. We 

 both heaved a big sigh of relief, turned our 

 horses" heads back into the highway, and pro- 

 ceeded. What a narrow escape I Suppose she'd 

 been unhorsed, and broken two or three limbs, 

 and fainted! We groaned, as only bachelors can 

 groan, and grew pale at the very idea. From 

 Bro. H.'s remarks, he evidently thought he had 

 met an angel, while the Rambler had a ])rivate 

 opinion that it was a witch on a broomstick. 

 After these trying e])isodes we rattled along 

 down the canyon, and were pleasantly greeted 

 here and there with a^purling stream of water. 

 On the bottom lands we saw a great amount of 

 sweet clover, and growing to enormous size. We 

 conjectured tViat some bee-keeper had scattered 

 the seeds. 



The next name we had upon our list of bee- 

 keepers was that of Esq. A. T. Herrick, and 

 we soon came to a fair-sized adobe residence, 

 which proved to be the home of this noted bee- 

 keeper of Campo. We reined our steeds up un- 

 der a shade-tree, and soon found the proprietor; 

 and our first duty was to examine his choice 

 breed of potatoes which he was harvesting. 

 They were beauties, and were grown on the 

 richest of alluvial land down on the river-bot- 

 tom. Every kind of garden vegetable was 

 growing in truly California style — immense. 



Even the weeds in neglected places were like a 

 young forest in appearance. Large watermel- 

 ons were lying in profusion on the ground, and 

 a large one was taken into the house for our 

 delectation. 



Mr. Herrick's apiary was off in the canyon, 

 as usual, and he. like many others, acknowledg- 

 ed that he did not care for his bees as he ought, 

 and perhaps, like others, he felt a little dis- 

 couraged over the two successive poor seasons 

 and emi)ty receptacles. He also facetiously 

 remarked that a good season had discourage- 

 ments when receptacles enough could not be 

 obtained to store the honey; therefore, being 

 discouraged in both good and i)oor seasons, 

 the bees were neglected. 



At this altitude— 2.500 feet — the sea.son was 

 much later than lower down, and there was 

 usually very little swarming. This feature was 

 so pronounced that it was hard to keep an api- 

 ary up to a given number unless bees were 

 brought up from the swarming-belt. Mr. H. 

 had |)racticed migratory bee-keeping, and had 

 moved bees ovr the divide toward the Colora- 

 do Desert, and secured a yield from mescal; 

 but this honey has the quality of aloes, and. 

 when eaten, acts like a cathartic, and. I be- 

 lieve, the plant is called the American aloe. 

 A further move of .50 miles would have placed 

 the bees in the midst of the celebrated mesquite, 

 of which there is an endless amount on the 

 desert, and bountiful in the secretion of the 

 most beautiful nectar; but a move of .50 miles 

 into the lonely desert was a little too much of a 

 migrate. 



Mr. H. had scattered the seeds of sweet 

 clover; and. though there was a great amount 

 of it, he failed to get much of the honey in his 

 hives, and the only praise he could give it 

 was its good qualities for cattle and horse pas- 

 turage. 



While eating our melon I noticed in a corner 

 of the room a pile of the finest beeswax I ever 

 saw; and when a proper lull came in the con- 

 versation I proceeded to interview him upon 

 his method of rendering, feeling sure that it 

 must be done upon some improved plan. I 

 found the improvement to consist in an extra 

 painstaking method. In the first place, the 

 scraps were thoroughly washed in tepid water. 

 Several changes of water left the comb free 

 from dirt and honey. The clean comb is then 

 put into a clean white cotton-cloth bag. and 

 boiled in a clean porcelain-lined kettle. When 

 the wax was boiled out it was dipped oft' with 

 a clean dipper, and strained through a clean 

 white cotton cloth into a clean new tin pan. 

 The water for the entire process was clean new 

 rain water, just from the skies. The results 

 were, as above stated, just beautiful virgin 

 wax. As to whether Mr. H. obtained enough 

 extra to pay for his extraordinary care I am not 

 able to state; but the ability to put the nicest 

 wax on the market was probably highly satis- 

 factory to the producer. This method demon- 

 strates that boiling the combs with all of the 

 attendant dirt and honey, in old dirty utensils, 

 will not produce wax fit for exhibition pur- 

 poses. 



While we were deeply engaged upon the wax 

 question, Mrs. H. brought in a bountiful dinner, 

 and we did ample justice to their open-handed 

 generosity. Mr. H. is not only a justice of the 

 peace, but also postmaster. Owing to the dis- 

 honest tricks of the postmaster at Campo. Mr. 

 H. was appointed, although he lives three 

 miles fi'om town. This scores another mark in 

 favor of the integrity of bee-keepers. 



Books and papers showed the scholarly tastes 

 of the occupants of the adobe; and, though an 

 earthquake had cracked the walls, and a deluge 

 had nearly washed them out. still they loved 



