336 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



the honey-tank. When one tank is full the 

 spout is shifted over to the other one. In 

 the mean time a piece of cheese-cloth is tied 

 over the top of the filled tanks to allow of 

 evaporation. 



The extracting--house and the storage- 

 tanks on the side-hill shown in No. 4, Fig. 

 1, are representative of dozens that I saw in 

 California. The house is just large enough 

 to accommodate an extractor, uncapping- 

 box, and the necessary tools for working. 

 The hives in this case, as will be seen in 

 No. 2, Fig. 1, are located above on the side- 

 hill. The extracting-comhs are set in a 

 barrow or cart, and the load is run down- 

 hill until it reaches the extracting-house 

 shown in the lower left-hand corner. The 

 whole arrangement of these California api- 

 aries is such as to provide for honey going 

 downhill all Ihe ivay, so that about all a 

 man has to do when he loads up his cart or 

 barrow is to let the thing go itself down 

 grade. When the honey is extracted it runs 

 from the machine downhill again into the 

 tanks. These are usually set up on the 

 ground about IS or 20 inches, or just high 

 enough to let the honey run from the honey- 

 gate into the square 60-lb. can — the favor- 

 ite package for extracted honey on the Pa- 

 cific coast. These are filled one at a time, 

 and put into a wagon that is backed right 

 up to the tanks. It is then delivered to the 

 nearest railroad station, or sometimes haul- 

 ed all the way to market, as at times freip ht 

 rates in California are almost prohibitive. 



FREIGHT RATES IN CALIFORNIA. 



The railroad company proposed, I thinlc, 

 in one case to charge a bee-keeper $120 f( r 

 hauling a carload of honey only 40 miles, 

 and then did not deliver it at the dock. He 

 finally hired a teamster with a truck, and 

 hauled it to the boat-landing, for less than 

 $40. But the aggravating part of the whole 

 thing was that the railroad company was 

 mean enough to offer to deliver the next car 

 for $40, when before it had staled it could 

 not haul it for less than $120 and make a 

 profit. The agents of some of the compa- 

 nies, I am told, are instructed to "charge 

 all the traffic will bear," and they do. 

 And that reminds me Ihat one of the things 

 the residents of California have to put up 

 with is exorbitant freight charges. In some 

 cases the common roads are too mountain- 

 ous for wagon traffic, and the poor rancher 

 has to pay the rate or go without marketing 

 his product. 



We drove that da}' something over 40 

 miles — 46 in all, I believe. We stopped at 

 a good man}' different apiaries, and took 

 some photos; but those I have reproduced 

 are representative lots showing the apiaries 

 as they appear round about Los Angeles, 

 and, I should say, prett}' much all the rest 

 of Ciilifornia so far as I went through it. 

 I found Mr. Bennett to be a man who is ex- 

 ceptionally well posted on bee-keeping as it 

 is carried on in that land flowing with 

 milk and honey; and the long pleasant 

 drive I had that day in that valley will re- 

 main as a pleasant spot in my memory. 



CALIFORNIA; THP: BLESSING OF THE RAIN. 



The fears of a drj' season have been dis- 

 pelled; abundant rains have fallen in all 

 parts of the State. In the South, where 

 the rainfall is always less than in this 

 northern section of the State, much relief 

 and thankfvilness are felt, for it means 

 prosperity to the bee-keepers as well as to 

 the fruit-growers, ranchers, and stock-men 

 generally. Here in the Santa Rosa Valley 

 (fifty miles north of San Francisco) the 

 rainfall up to P^eb. 3 was 18 inches, and 

 since then we have had gentle rains almost 

 continuously, making a total of 25 inches 

 recorded up to Feb. 26. During the past 

 three days nearly 6 inches have fallen, and 

 some damage is feared from rising waters, 

 for the rain has not yet ceased. 



At Los Angeles, on the 25th the precipi- 

 tation was one-fifth of an inch, with rain 

 still falling, making six inches for the sea- 

 son against 12.68 inches to the correspond- 

 ing date last year; but a continuance is 

 expected. Even in those sections where the 

 showers have been lightest and least fre- 

 quent it appears that there has been a suf- 

 ficient supply to insure the spring crops. 



At San Bernardino they have been visited 

 by a steady downpour. At Santa Barbara, 

 ^4 inch fell in one day; and at San Louis 

 Obispo, 1.09 inches fell in the last 24 hours. 

 At Eureka, in Humboldt Co., in the ex- 

 treme north, 1.42 of an inch fell in the same 

 time, against .20 at San Diego, in the ex- 

 treme south. Ensenada, in Lower Califor- 

 nia, received more rain than did San Diego. 



To none will it bring more gladness of 

 heart than to the bee-keepers; for without 

 this rain the sages, which form so large a 

 part of the natural pasturage of the great 

 hone.v-producing sections, would not have 

 yielded nectar. To the olive-groves, vine- 

 yards, and great fruit-orchards, the com- 

 ing of the rain means bountiful crops; for 

 at hardl}' any season are the showers more 

 propitious than those that fall in Februar}'. 



We have lost one good bee-keeper from 

 this section — Mr. G. O. Miller, of Healds- 

 burg, who has gone to Los Angeles to take 

 his part in the hoped-for prosperity of that 

 southern region. We wish that he and all 

 the workers there may find abundant re- 

 ward for their toil and skilled efforts in 

 the bee-field this coming season. 



Dr. Frederick Weblev. 



Santa Rosa, Cal., Feb. 26. 



BEES IN THE WALLS OF A HOUSE; HOW TO 

 GET THEM OUT. 



This is from a poor ignorant woman 

 whose knowledge of bees consists of the 

 two facts that they sting, and also make 

 honey. She lives in an old house where 

 bees also live, they having entered years 



