984 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



I would not fool away time with such stu- 

 pid slowness; how I afterward paid my 

 five dollars like a little man, and went up 

 on the cog- steam road. But all these and 

 more would be of little interest, perhaps, to 

 the readers of a bee paper, and I should 

 only fail in the attempt to describe what 

 others have done before me far better than 

 I am able to do it. Some of the bee-keepings 

 friends after the Denver convention did take 

 in some of this scenery, and I know they 

 will join with me in saying- that one who 

 loves the beautiful and the wonderful will 

 miss one of the greatest pleasures of this 

 life if he does not somehow some time see 

 the scenery of the Rockies. 



But we hasten on to Denver, for we are 

 now getting- near our journey's end. We 

 will stop to see only two or three local bee- 

 keepers, for we have been already two 

 months awaj' from home, and we feel like 

 hurrying back. A very urgent invitation 

 from W. L. Porter caught me at Los An- 

 geles; and knowing- something of the kindly 



Among- the number was our old friend W. 

 Whipple, whose picture I showed in these 

 columns some time ago. He is a g-ood bee- 

 keeper, and a whole host at a conventi< n. 

 He reminds me a great deal of Dr. Miller. 

 Staying- long enoug-h for a little chat we 

 drove on and stopped to look at an out-apia- 

 ry of Mr. Porter's, under the shadow of some 

 beautiful overhanging- willows. I took a 

 photo of this; but, unfortunately, it was one 

 of the very few ones that failed to develop 

 into a satisfactory picture. As the alfalfa 

 was very luxuriant I took a view of a part 

 of one stalk, the top of it, life size, as seea 

 on the preceding- page. 



It is very difiicult to g-et a picture of a 

 small flower and plant like this, for no pic- 

 ture will begin to show the beauty of color- 

 ing- and delicacy of the flowers that are 

 found in the real alfalfa-blossoms. But a 

 photo will serve to g-ive one a fair idea of 

 the general proportion and arrang-ement of 

 the flower-clusters. If you can imagine 

 hundreds and hundreds of acres of violet- 



THE RAUCHFUSS BROTHERS' APIARY AND HOUSE-APIARY NEAR DENVER. 



hospitality extended by the Porter familj^ I 

 was g-lad to make another visit to those de- 

 lightful people. I have already introduced 

 the Porters to our readers, especially Mr. 

 Porter himself, one of the most influential 

 and extensive bee-keepers at Denver. I had 

 previously visited this metropolis of the 

 West in the fall or near winter; but now it 

 was during- midsummer, and I had a curi- 

 osity to note the weather conditions that 

 prevail at that time of the year. I had 

 seen the wonderful growth of alfalfa in 

 Arizona, and was anxious to compare it in 

 and around Denver. Mr. Porter very kind- 

 ly gratified this wish by driving me some 

 forty or fifty miles around the outskirts of 

 the city, taking in some of the outyards, 

 and giving me an opportunity to visit some 

 of the local bee-keepers in his vicinity. 



tinted blossoms, sprinkled through a strong 

 foliage of dark thrifty green, you can get 

 some idea of a genuine alfalfa-field as it 

 grows in the irrigated portions of the West. 

 But the alfalfa of Colorado was not quite so 

 luxuriant and so large as that in Arizona; 

 nor does it furnish as many cuttings of hay. 

 Before leaving Denver I called at one of 

 the outyards of the Rauchfuss Brothers, 

 near Denver, under the direct charge of 

 Mr. Herman Rauchfuss. The feature of 

 this apiary that struck me particularly was 

 the house-apiary. As will be seen from the 

 illustrations, an inside and outside view, it 

 is very cheaply constructed, made of a sin- 

 gle thickness of % boards, battened on the 

 outside and lined on the inside with build- 

 ing-paper; and yet, if I count correctly, it 

 is large enough to hold about 35 colonies. 



