NOVEMBER 15, 1915 



925 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, Kedlaeds, Cal. 



^,1^ On page 844, Oct. 15, is an ar- 



f ^^ tide and illustration of my two 

 friends, the bee and the spider. 

 The spider was my friend before I 

 knew the bee. At about the age 

 of seven my father lived on the 

 prairie in Douglas Co., Kansas, 

 where the life of a small boy was made up 

 principally of tlie things he found to inter- 

 est him and fill out his time and employ his 

 energj'. I took up the study of the wasp, 

 or, as we called them in those days, " mnd- 

 daubei*s." I did not know I was studying 

 —I simply thought 1 was playing to fill in 

 the time. But I followed the mud-daubers 

 to the mud by the horse-trough and back to 

 the barn to see where and how they used 

 the mud. I became expert in following 

 them, and solved the mystei-y of the feeding 

 of the young larvae. 



After the long cells of mud were noulded 

 and sufficiently dried, the wasp beg.an the 

 search for spiders with which to fill the 

 cells, and, strange as it may seem, the spi- 

 ders pictured on page 844 were the princi- 

 pal kind used by the wasp. Never a very 

 large one nor a very small one, but only 

 those of uniform size, were placed in the 

 cell. When the cell was about half filled, 

 the egg for the future wasp was laid on 

 the body of one of the spiders. The cell 

 is then filled with spiders, and the sealing 

 is done. I formed a boyhood love for the 

 spider, for he made food for my fnenJ the 

 wasp. So while the spider is getting a few 

 of my friends, the bees, they are preyed 

 upon by the wasp, and each in turn helps 

 to work out the plans of a God-giAen na- 

 ture, a part of the great plan of the life to 

 fill the world with beauties, wondi^is. and 

 interest to the fullest extent. 



• « « 

 In the Country Gentleman of Sc]jt. 18 J 

 find an editorial headed thus: '"A IKsease 

 to Beware of." It is so good and so full 

 of simple truths that I give an outline of 

 its contents, substitutinfj honey for ivords 

 used therein. It is a disease that attacks 

 the grower and not the crop. It is spread 

 through a germ, Sellius itchii. Now, in 

 plain terms those two words mean itching to 

 sell. The germ is not visible, oven under 

 the microscope, but is communicated from 

 person to person in a prosperous farming 

 neighborhood, or caught while talking to 

 honey-buyers or reading the bee-papers. 



Shortly after the infection the patient be- 

 gins to show definite symptoms. First he 

 has a general uneasiness about the si/e of 

 the crop being harvested in his neighbor- 

 hood, accompanied by a feeling that crops 

 all over the country are too big. Then 

 follows a depression, with a deep fear tha<^ 

 even one hundred million people cannot eat, 

 in the next eight or ten months, all the 

 honey that is being harvested. About the 

 third day after coming down, the patient 

 developes a blind monomania. He is ob- 

 sessed by the idea that he must soil his 

 crop; must get ahead of his neighbors be- 

 fore they sell and leave him without a mar- 

 ket; must get his honey off his hands some- 

 how quickly ; must sell ! sell ! sell ! There is 

 never going to be any tomorrow, so far as 

 he can see, nor any next winter, nor any 

 spring. He sees wagonloads, carloads, and 

 tradnloads of honey everywhere, and is per- 

 suaded that prices are permanently shatter- 

 ed. I will quote the remainder of the article 

 verbatim. 



"In this condition he has a pitiable weak- 

 ness for going into some dark corner with a 

 produce buyer, and, with trembling hands, 

 counting whatever money the latter will 

 give him in actual cash. Or, if he cannot 

 sell to a produce buyer, he will ship on 

 consignment to glutted markets where his 

 crops, joining those of thousands of otli.er 

 growers suffering from the same disease, 

 temporarily demoralizes values. No trust- 

 worthy cure for this disease has ever been 

 found. Once attacked, the patient can only 

 allow it to run its course. It ends when his 

 crop has been sold below cost of produc- 

 tion, bleeding of his pocketbook, bringing 

 relief of mind. The real remedy is preven- 

 tion, and the best treatment is mental rather 

 than medical. During the season when there 

 is danger, every gfi'ower should build up 

 within himself confidence, assurance that 

 the world will hold together until after 

 harvest, that pi'ices will sti'cngthen when 

 gluts caused by this disease have run their 

 course, and that patience is as necessary in 

 making a profit as any thing done in actu- 

 ally producing the crop! " 



If this had been written of the conditions 

 in the California honey market it would not 

 have been — in fact, could not have been — 

 any nearer the truth. The California honey 

 market undergoes a violent attack t'n'ough 

 the producers annually; and if the disease 

 could be cured we should all profit by it. 



