1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



747 



ing figs to perfection is this: Select fine, ripe 

 fruit; remove the sl^in: place on a saucer or 

 dish, and cover with fresh cream. When eaten 

 in this way there can be no richer or pleasanter 

 dish served. It is said that the Japanese per- 

 simmon is called the " fruit of the gods;'" but I 

 am inclined to think that, if the Japs had 

 learned to eat figs and cream they would never 

 have raised the insipid persimmon to the exalt- 

 ed place they have otherwise seen fit to give it. 



The fig is the easiest tree that we can grow, 

 outside of the willow; in fact, it is as easy to 

 propagate as the willow. Ail one has to do to 

 get a Mg-tr(>e is to take a twig off a fig-tree and 

 stick the end in the ground as he would a wil- 

 low cutting, and it will spring up into a large 

 tree almost before he has time to get his wits 

 together. Right here I will tell a little story 

 about the fig-tree in this State. 



This tree, as well as a number of other fruit- 

 trees that have made California famous horti- 

 culturally, was introduced here a century and 

 more ago by the Franciscan friars, who founded 

 21 missions from San Diego to a point .50 miles 

 north of San Francisco, for the conversion and 

 civilization of the Indians. One day a party of 

 Spaniards were traveling from one of these 

 missions to a distant place in California. Be- 

 fore one of these men set out he cut a stick 

 from a fig-tree to use as a whip to urge his 

 bronco along faster. As the beast began to jog 

 along nicely after a while without the aid of 

 the rod. the rider got down from the animal's 

 back and stuck the end of the fig-shoot into the 

 soft earth, that it might become a tree. But 

 he was greatly surprised, when he returned a 

 few months later, to find that its growth had 

 more than exceeded his expectations. He 

 hoped to see a tree four or five feet high; but 

 when he found that his whip was now a tree 

 that could shelter himself and his beast, and he 

 on the latter's back, he was thoroughly aston- 

 ished. It was one of the wonders of the new 

 land which, not a great many years later, were 

 proclaimed the world over. 



The Old Mission figs have given place to the 

 newer and better varieties from Europe and 

 Asia. Thousands of acres of tigs are planted in 

 some counties of this State. They are sent to 

 market in their ripe state, they being sent to 

 the Eastern States during the past few years. 

 Then the greater portion of the crop is dried. 

 Some of these are put up in nice boxes so as to 

 tempt the lover of dried figs: then some, and. 

 I think, the greater part of the product of our 

 fig -orchards, is sacked and sent to market. 

 To my liking, this is not an inviting way to 

 place them before customers. Figs in this 

 shape are apt to become wormy. Then, of late 

 years, the fruit is made into confections; and, 

 again, it is used to a large extent, I have heard, 

 for making medical preparations. 



But it was the relation of this fruit to the 

 bees that caused me to begin these lines. 

 Though we have had figs on our place for a 

 score of years, I never saw a bee at work upon 

 the ripe fruit. There is always more or less 

 broken fruit on the trees, as the birds are very 

 fond of figs; and if they are not gathered as 

 soon as they show signs of riixming. the birds 

 will begin to depredate upon them. Then, 

 when they get fully I'ipe. the skin breaks, 

 thei-(^by giving the bees plenty of opportunity 

 to feast upon the juice of the fruit. Still, I 

 have not the least doubt that where bees are 

 short of food they will go to the ripe figs and 

 gather the rich syrup. 



In the city of Sacramento, this State, where 

 this tree is growing in many streets as a side- 

 walk-tree, one may sei' the sidcnvalk all covered 

 with the ripe fruit in tfu- fall. In walking 

 along some of the streets of the capital city, a 



person has to be careful where he steps; for, if 

 he should place his foot on a ripe fig, his fall 

 will be as sure and swift as if he hau trodden 

 upon a banana-peel. At both Sacramento and 

 vStockton, the latter city being some fifty miles 

 south of the former, and in the great San Joa- 

 quin Valley, while the other is in the celebrated 

 Sacramento Valley, the fruit is never gathered 

 for the market. It is simply left for whoever 

 wishes to help himself. I suppose this is main- 

 ly owing to the fact that the fruit is of the 

 common variety, and also because there is so 

 much of it that, if it were put on the fruit- 

 stalls, no one would purchase it, as there is so 

 ranch to be had everywhere in the city. 



Last year, while visiting the great wine and 

 raisin vineyards in the vicinity of Fresno. 307 

 miles south of San Francisco, in the San Joa- 

 quin Valley, I saw some fig-orchards of the 

 white variety, which must have covered several 

 hundred acres. This section is the greatest in 

 the world for drying fruit. Every thing is 

 dried by the sun in the open air. Here is lo- 

 cated the largest raisin vineyard in the world. 

 It is over 600 acres in extent. 



There is one more thing that I should have 

 said about the fig. and that is this: They make 

 the nicest preserves that one could well wish to 

 eat. At our house we have them prepared in 

 pretty much the same way that peaches are 

 put up in sweet pickle. I have never seen them 

 anywhere where I have been, in this way. It 

 seeriis to me that, if housekeepers and. in fact, 

 canning companies, knew how to put them up 

 in this way they would do so. for there is no 

 finer and more palatable dessert than pickled 

 figs. VV. A. Pryal. 



North Temescal, Cal., Aug. 38. 



Concluded next issue. 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



how to ci>ean pkopolis from skctions; j. e. 

 crane's way. 



The best way to remove it from boxes, to my 

 mind, is to first keep it in a hot room and let it 

 ripen with the honey; then with a sharp knife 

 in the right hand, made of the best stuff, and 

 holding the section in the left hand, you can 

 clean faster than with any thing to lay the 

 section on. A good worker can clean 1000 sec- 

 tions a day. J. E. Crane. 



Middlebury, Vt., Sept. 12. 



hasty's statistics verified. 



I never saw so many queens as this year from 

 a second swarm. I shut the entrance of one 

 hive with queen-excluding zinc, and I removed 

 it a week after, and I found 7 dead queens be- 

 hind it. Some hatched as late as the 17th day 

 from the issuing of the first swarm. My expe- 

 rience i-; the same as E. E. Hasty's. I have 

 had a good many swarms issue 14 days after the 

 first one. ^^i 



I tried one Langdon non-swarming device; 

 bees swarmed in two hours after I turned them 

 into the oth^r hive; then after 7 days I shut 

 them up again 7 days to prevent a second 

 swarm, and they became queen less. The oth- 

 ers swarmed one morning at G o'clock. 



Columbus, Wis. ^Supkr Lifter-Tj 



SECOND swarms ON THE EIGHTH DAY. 



I see that G. M. Doolittle handles his second 

 swarms on the same principles that I do, only I 

 let my second swarm come out and cluster, then 



cut out the queen-cells, and then run them 



