1026 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



the rusher burns out too fast, and he is 

 never fit for duty." 



I found my host, while alert and active, 

 taking- life quietly — one thing- at a time, 

 and on this occasion it vs^as bee-keeping. 

 Mr. Watson explained that people have 

 told him the land was worthless — that it 

 was fit only for stock-raising; but he had 

 always believed that alfalfa and corn could 

 be raised on it; and in proof of that belief 

 he showed me hundreds of acres of stand- 

 ing- corn as strong- and thrifty as anj' I had 

 ever seen, and alfalfa by the square mile, 

 all growing- luxuriantly without any irri- 

 gation. All the old ranchers told him he 

 could never, never do it, and even after he 

 began they used to talk about "Watson's 

 foil}';" and with a knowing- shake of the 

 head would say, "Wait; he will learn some 



we were driving- was coming- up for one 

 more cutting-. It was then 14 or 15 inches 

 high, and soon the mowers would g-o through 

 the field, cut it down, and put up more 

 stacks, for it will be remembered that out 

 in that country it is not necessary to put 

 the hay in barns, or at least not as neces- 

 sary as for us in the East, where we have 

 so much of a rainfall. Indeed, barns suf- 

 ficientl}' large to accommodate 700O tons of 

 hay (for that was Mr. Watson's crop last 

 year) would be out of the question. 



But something that particularly interest- 

 ed me was the method of stacking. While 

 the old hand pitch-fork is still used, of 

 course, the amount of work that it does is 

 comparatively insignificant. Instead of, as 

 in the days of old, pitching- a little forkful 

 of hav over one's head, leaves and seed 



FIG. 2. — SOME OF THE IMMENSE STACKS OF ALFALFA HAV ON WATSON'S RANCH. 



day, just as we did." And he did learn — 

 not that his schemes were a failure, but 

 that he could make alfalfa grow, and is 

 teaching- all those same ranchers round 

 about him how to do it too. 



As we drove along we saw the immense 

 stacks of alfalfa, for the last cutting was 

 being- made and the hay stacked. The 

 reader will get something of an idea of the 

 immensity of those stacks by looking- at 

 Fig. 2. The carriage stopped a short dis- 

 tance from one of the stacks; then with my 

 kodak I receded to a position where I could 

 take a good view, and the result is before 

 you. How many hundreds of tons of hay 

 there is in one of those stacks, I can not 

 say, but they were scattered all over this 

 expanse of country almost as far as the eye 

 could see; and the alfalfa through which 



getting down one's back, this hay is gath- 

 ered up by this machine oflf from the ground, 

 a whole wagonload at a time, and nicely 

 deposited on top of the stack. One man 

 and a horse do all the work, and do it easi- 

 ly. Mr. Watson was kind enough to give 

 me every facility for taking pictures. He 

 stopped his men at several intervals, and 

 had them group in position to indicate the 

 several steps used in raking- and stacking 

 the hay. 



I have already shown how block and 

 tackle are used in Arizona for this purpose. 

 In Fig. 3 I show (somewhat dimly, perhaps) 

 another arrangement that is used b}' Mr. 

 Watson; but before describing the operation 

 let me show the rake for picking up the hay 

 after it is cut and dried — see Fig. 4. As 

 here shown, it is simply a large wooden 



