FEBRrARY. 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



77 



pioneer beekeeper of the State, said that he 

 had proved to his own satisfaction tliat it 

 paid, and paid well, to give bees protection. 

 It saves brood and saves stores, which, at 

 25 cents per ]iound, is no small item. 

 A Big Beekeeper and His Work. 



Speaking of ^lendleson, he is one of the 

 beekeepers whom I helped in his extracting 

 in 1901, and who proved to mo that the big 

 extractors should be run with an engine and 

 not by hand power. After he had "work- 

 ed" me all day in iurning the crank he gave 

 the boys the tip to flood me with combs — 

 and they did. 



Let me now introduce you to his farmer- 

 ette beekeepers, who, he says, are better 

 than boys or men for all beework except 

 taking combs from the hives and lifting and 

 toting supers to the extracting-house. These 

 farmerettes include one dressmaker, one 

 schoolteacher, a nurse, and the mother of a 

 boy in France. The suit without a blouse, 

 says one of the "ettes, " is a Peggy Jane. 

 The other suits with a blouse are one-piece 

 overalls gathered at the shoe-tops. Farmer- 

 ettes are so common in the West that they 

 do not attract attention. The girls go in 

 these suits from yard to yard. 



Mr. Mendleson has some 800 colonies, and 

 one year produced over 100 tons of honey. 



f'ig. 4. — The beekeepers who took the beekeeping 

 short course at San Diego, Cal., for the week of 

 Nov. 23 to 30. At the close of one of the sessions 

 tliey came out in front of the building where the 

 picture was taken. 



In addition to producing honey he is now 

 raising queens; and beekeepers out here tell 

 me that the farmerette brand are of the 

 very best — both the kind that the beekeeper 

 wants to cook his meals and the kind that 

 he puts in his hives. Of the former, Men- 

 dleson says he positively has none to spare. 

 He may need more, as some have swarmed 

 out already. 



Fig. 5. — This picture shows the staff of speakers (excepting Prof. Coleman of the University of California) 

 at the short beekeeping courses given at various jjlaces in California. Beginning on the left, the speakers 

 are Geo. S. Demuth and Dr. E. P. Phillips of the Bureau of Entomology; Frank C. Pellett of the American 

 Bee Journal; Jay Smith, special Government field agent in beekeeping for California; E. R. Root of this 

 .iournal; and M. H. Mendleson of Ventura, Calif. Just as the camera was clicking Jay Smith made a re- 

 mark causing a smile that wouldn't come off from the face of Mr. Root. The Jay, as he was called, had 



a habit of bubbling over now and then. 



