648 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



■when I saw trees 20 inches in diameter, once 

 fence-posts, that were said to be only 10 years 

 old, with a barbed wire running right through 

 the center of them, around the big fields, then 

 I began to think there must be something in 

 the fence-post canard. Again, when I was in 

 Arizona and saw hens and chickens that had 

 been hatched on pantry shelves under the in- 

 fluence of the climate alone, I was pretty near- 

 ly prepared to believe any thing they told me. 



But speaking about hot climates, I have 

 been where it was up to 120, and ranged from 

 that down to 110 on the irrigated lands ; but I 

 did not feel the heat nearly as much in those 

 places as I do here at 90. The reason is the 

 excessive amount of humidity in the East 

 compared with the West. A high tempera- 

 ture with high humidity is killing, especially 

 when there are hot nights. A high tempera- 

 ture with low humidity is quite endurable — 

 :indeed, it is quite pleasant. A high humidity 

 with low temperature is chilling and killing, 

 .as those of us in the East know. 



But the great West does not have all that is 

 -nice and pleasant. I missed the ever present 

 shade-tree in the open fields, of which we 

 liave so many here. I missed the large areas 

 of woods, or hard-wood forests, some might 

 call them. In much of the West, trees grow 

 only along irrigation-ditches. One can leave 

 some Western towns, beautifully shaded, and 

 in an hour's drive get out into the desert 

 where, if he should lose himself, he would 

 die from want of water or food of any kind 

 unless he could knock down a j ack-rabbit And 

 then the great West, at least many portions of 

 it, has hot winds and sandstorms; and the ten- 

 derfoot who has been through one of these, 

 almost concludes he will put up with a foot of 

 Eastern mud in the road ; damp and chilly 

 weather ; rains, floods, hail, snow, sleet, zero 

 weather, and every thing else, rather than go 

 through another sandstorm ; and the worst of 

 it is, these sandstorms have a way of filling 

 the houses full of dirt and grit. One can not 

 screen it out, nor shut it out with the windows. 

 He has to live and endure it. If there is a 

 person who has ever eaten a " peck of dirt " 

 in this world it is the one who lives out west 

 in localities subject to sandstorms. I ardent- 

 ly hoped for a genuine sandstorm, and my 

 wish was gratified the very next day. My 

 face smarted from the sharp blasts of cutting 

 sand. It poured down my back ; it filled my 

 ears, went all through my clothing, into my 

 shoes ; and see? One might just as well shut 

 his eyes, plug up his nose, ears, and mouth, 

 occasionally catching a breath of air through 

 the dust and grit. 



There is another thing I did not like in the 

 great West in some places ; and that is, a sort 

 of weed known as foxtail. These peculiar 

 spears will rub off on one's clothing, come 

 clear through, and then turn around and come 

 out backward. I have been for weeks pick- 

 ing the uglv things out of my clothes. They 

 are about 3^ inch long, and bearded in such 

 a way that they slide easily one way but not 

 the other. 



While the nights in most portions of the 

 West are cool and delightful in spite of the 



noonday heat, I was most disagreeably re- 

 minded of the presence of fleas and mosqui- 

 toes ; and occasionally some other nocturnals 

 that neither fly nor hop. 



But veith all the disagreeable features that I 

 have described, if I were a young man, and 

 desired to seek an occupation outdoors, I 

 would take Horace Greeley's advice and "go 

 west," for there is plenty of room in the irri- 

 gated regions, and the most of the time a de- 

 lightfully pure air ; little or no rain ; and, 

 where when the ground gets too dry, one can 

 irrigate. Many and many a place that I saw, 

 once a barren desert, is now, thanks to the 

 mountain snows and irrigation, a veritable 

 garden of Eden. The luxuriant vegetation 

 and fruits of the tropics make one feel that 

 these beautiful ranches could never have been 

 any thing but beautiful and fruitful. 



THE HONEY SEASON FOR 1901 ; HOW WILL, 



PRICES RULE? 



Before going into detail I would say that 

 the reports show that there were fewer bees 

 that produced honey this year than the year 

 before. In fact, the number has been drop- 

 ping down from year to year, owing to the 

 poor seasons that have prevailed in so many 

 of the good honey localities. This is particu- 

 larly so in Southern California, where proba- 

 bly three-fourths of the bees have died through 

 neglect or starvation, just because the owners 

 could not afford to keep on feeding them from 

 year to year — at least they thought so. 



In a general way we may say that white 

 clover yielded better this year in the States 

 where it grows than it has done for several 

 seasons past ; but the trouble was, there were 

 not the bees to gather the nectar that there 

 have been in years when clover was in abun- 

 dance ; so that, notwithstanding there has 

 been a fairly good clover yield in the northern 

 and central States, the actual amount of clover 

 honey is not as great as it ordinarily is. It 

 also appears from the reports that there is less 

 basswood honey than a year ago. There will 

 be less alfalfa honey from the western States, 

 and so, as a natural result, the tendency of 

 the market in the East, so far as the fine grades 

 of honey go, should be as high as last year 

 rather than lower ; and I should not be sur- 

 prised to see it advance * 



While Southern California has had a good 

 year for honey, there have been so few bees 

 to gather it that the amount of California sage 

 that will be offered in the eastern centers will 

 be comparatively light. Buyers in California 

 have been trying to scatter broadcast the im- 

 pression that there was a tremendous crop of 

 sage honey, and that, therefore, prices would 

 rule low. But that is a great mistake. Prices 

 should be the same as last year, and will be, 

 if I am not very much mistaken. The large 

 producers, rather than sell at a low figure, will 



♦There has been, up until now, a general impres- 

 sion that this would be a big honey year, and, as a 

 natural result, the market on extracted has been tem- 

 porarily weak ; but we are expecting it to stiffen up 

 very soon now. Comb honey has not been put on the 

 market yet to any extent, and it ought to start off at 

 good prices. 



