814 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



been quite successful in the bee business. His 

 apiary, located at the entrance of City Creek 

 Canyon, contains 500 colonies. Connected with 

 the apiary is a fruit-farm of 1.5 acres, and on 

 the mountain he had anoth(>r ranch with 1.5 

 horses upon it. All together his property in- 

 ventoried $7000, all earned within a few years. 



The general verdict of friends was that Mr. 

 Bohn was a very industrious and exemplary 

 man, and had a host of friends in San Bernar- 

 dino. He was seldom found under the influence 

 of liquor, and one person said that this was 

 only the second time he had been known to be 

 drunk. Mr. Bohn led the life of a bach, like 

 many other California bee-keepers; and while 

 studying the habits of the bees and their ma- 

 nipulation his mind was busy with inventions 

 to lessen labor, and he had constructed an ex- 

 tractor for throwing the honey from the combs, 

 both sides at once. This principle of whirling 

 the comb edgewise has been tried before; but 

 Mr. Bohn placed his in a wheel, much like a 

 wagon-wheel. Seven combs would fit around 

 the periphery. The wheel was so constructed 

 that 14 combs could be inserted at once. It was 

 provided with heavy gearing, and the operation 

 was so simple and easy that the eleven-year-old 

 boy Claud Henderson extracted with it 13 tons 

 of honey during the past season. 



The Rambler parted with the pleasant friends 

 in Little Bear Valley, and returned to Redlands 

 through City Creek Canyon, while friend Wilder 

 returned by Devil's Canyon. My ride was 

 nearly 30 miles that day. The toll-road through 

 the canyon is a most tortuous route, the grade 

 having to take advantage of many spurs of the 

 mountain that led a long distance around them. 

 At the mouth of City Creek Canyon I called at 

 the apiary of Mr. Bohn; but the gentleman in 

 charge, Mr. Bledsoe, said that the extractor 

 before mentioned had been taken to pieces, and 

 the honey-house had also been nailed up for 

 the present, or until the property was disposed 

 of. It is supposed that a patent has been ap- 

 plied for upon the extractor. The reader can 

 get a general idea of how it works from the 

 diagram presented on the preceding page. 



A lope of nine miles across the valley landed 

 me safely in Redlands, with no further mishaps 

 than a sunburnt face and a very much peeled 

 nose, the result of the hot sun on the mountain 

 grade. Red noses are sometimes caused by 

 whisky; but whisky does not affect the nose of 

 the Rambler. 



THOSE OLD BEE -BOOKS. 



ANOTHER PEEP AT THE " GOOD OLD TIMES." 



The next book on the docket is a small one of 

 47 pages, equal to 6 pages of Gleanings. It is 

 entitled "' Collateral Bee-boxes; or, a new. easy, 

 and advantageous Method of managing Bees; 

 in which part of the Honey is taken away in an 

 easy and pleasant Manner, without destroying 

 or disturbing the Bees." It was written by 

 Stephen White, M.A., Rector of Hoi ton, Suffolk, 

 and printed in London in 1764. This was at a 

 time when the relations between England and 

 America were greatly " strained." and the war- 

 clouds were becoming black. There is some- 

 thing about Mr. White that makes one like 

 him ; and the reason which he assigns for fol- 

 lowing bee-keeping ought to commend itself to 

 all. He fully believes, with Paul, that a man 

 who preaches the gospel has a riglit to live by 

 it; but his wife's dolorous drumining on the 

 bottom of the meal-barrel reminded him pain- 

 fully that Elijah was not, filling it miraculously 

 as he did that of the poor widow. The follow- 

 ing beautiful passage was born in poverty, and 



would never have seen the light to^ bless the 

 world if Mr. White had had the princely income 

 of some of the English bishops: 



" The smallness of my cure [pastoral charge] 

 has afforded me more leisure hours than usual- 

 ly fall to the share of a great part of my breth- 

 ren. Many of these hours, during almost the 

 whole space of a now declining life, have been 

 spent in my bee-garden, wirh as much inno- 

 cence, I hope, and a great deal more to my taste 

 and entertainment, than if they had been spent 

 with a gun and pointer [dog] in the fields, or in 

 my parlor with a pack of cards. These fashion- 

 able amusements (especially the latter) can af- 

 ford but little entertainment to a contemplative 

 mind; but the surveying of the works of nature 

 (particularly the instincts and polity of many 

 living creatures and the wonderful methods 

 they make use of for their sustenance and safe- 

 ty) will give a real and high delight to a ration- 

 al soul; and as it is next to impossible to turn 

 our thoughts to the observation of these crea- 

 tures without lifting them up at the same time 

 in adoration of Him who formed them, this will, 

 in a manner, sanctify our pleasures, and turn 

 even our diversions into a sacrifice to our divine 

 Maker." 



DJust what Mr. White thinks of implements 

 for preventing swarming may be seen from 

 what he says of the Gedde hive. It seems that 

 this Mr. Gedde drew up a formal approbation 

 of his plans, in the name of the Royal Society, 

 but really without its authority. Mr. Gedde 

 proposed " to free the owners from the great 

 charge and trouble that attend the swarming of 

 bees." Mr. White adds, '"That means, in other 

 words, to deprive the poor bee-master of all the 

 profit and one of the highest pleasures he can 

 expect from bees." The trouble was, one man 

 looked at it from a business standpoint, and the 

 other from that of fun. I rather suspect that 

 most bee-men would side with Mr. Gedde. The 

 latter mentions several non-swarmers, but none 

 were as good as his. Mr. White asks, further, 

 with some warmth, " Why should these gentle- 

 men deprive me of a pleasure I so ardently look 

 and long for every spring, and which I am more 

 delighted with than all the other pleasures of 

 the month of May?" Such men ought to be 

 allowed to have swarms in peace; but still his 

 question reminds me of one which was put to me 

 by a German during the crusade in 1874; "Mr. 

 R., would you deprive me, a poor man, of my 

 beer ? " I replied, " I would deprive you of that 

 which mnhes you poor and sick, and is fast 

 making a wreck of you." Mr. White intimates 

 that, if a man really wants a non-swarmer, he 

 need not beat his brains out in devising one. 

 Just gel straw enough to make a hive that will 

 hold two bushels, and— there you are ! It may 

 be of some comfort to friend Langdon to know 

 that inventors of non-swarmers have not al- 

 ways been successful. Mr. White deposeth ; 

 " In spight of all our swarm-preventers, behold 

 I see a cloud of bees overshadowing my garden, 

 . exulting in the presence of their 

 sovereign." If Mr. White could have looked 

 forward 129 years he would have seen bee-men 

 still discussing the matter. I dwell on this 

 matter so much in extenso because the discus- 

 sion is still before the house. 



The Mr. Gedde referred to above was the in- 

 ventor of what is called the " octagonal " hive, 

 putting it before the public in 1675 — about a 

 century before Mr. White's time. 



The wanton destruction of bees arouses Mr. 

 White's deepest abhorrence; and although it is 

 not now customary to brimstone them, the fol- 

 lowing words will certainly tend to inspire all 

 who read them with more mercy for the lower 

 animals: 



•• No true lover of bees, I am persuaded, ever 



