82 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



Mr. F. E. Monroe, the venerable bee-keeper of erizzled old 

 Mt. Diablo, pointing out to Mr. W. E. Stewart holes made in a 

 redwood frame by wax-moths. Mr. Stewart holds a pine frame 

 in his left hand. 



is possible, though some may now look upon the 

 prophet as visionary. 



I found the apiary well equipped with bee-ap- 

 pliances, the most notable of which was a big 

 six-frame reversible honey-extractor. Mr. Stew- 

 art has a large honey-tank in the yard, which 

 may be noticed in accompanying half-tone. The 

 apiary is not compact; it is strung out along the 

 creek, and the hives are far apart. This is con- 

 sidered a good plan, as it reduces robbing to a 

 minimum. He is going to lay a track and install 

 a hand-car so the iioney can be run into the ex- 

 tracting-room. He contemplates building soon 

 a model honey-house with work and extracting 

 room attached. 



I must not fail to mention that this enterpris- 

 ing young gentleman is an active worker in the 

 church he belongs to, and takes much interest in 

 civic matters. I'm sorry there are not more like 

 him, as it is common repute that the affairs of 

 his county sadly need a moral uplift. His views 

 on the liquor-traffic are pronounced, too, and I 

 believe with him that we would have better gov- 

 ernment if the saloon could be eliminated from 

 the politics of the dominant parties. The bosses' 

 offices and homes, too often, are amid the fumes 

 of bad beer and worse whisky. But the saloon's 

 going, thank God! 



Mr. Stewart drove me to visit an elderly apia- 

 rist on Mt. Diablo, some four miles from the 



former's home, and I found this one of the most 

 pleasant rides I ever took. 



We called on Mr. Francis E. Monroe, a vete- 

 ran apiarist, on the Livermore side of Mt. Diablo. 

 We found him one of the pioneer ranchers of 

 California. One would wonder why a man 

 could come to such a place over half a century 

 ago when the surrounding country was little bet- 

 ter than a wild woods, and when near the then 

 young civilization were to be found fully as good 

 soils at a price that was almost as cheap as gov- 

 ernment land. But he picked out this place be- 

 cause he considered it one of the most ideal spots 

 he had seen in his travels over the United States. 



Although Mr. Monroe has been sixty and 

 more years in California he still retains many of 

 the characteristics of the far-east Yankee, even to 

 the manner of speech. He told me some of his 

 life-history. He was born among the rugged 

 hills of Vermont, over ninety years ago, and but 

 for a slight cold which afflicted him at the time 

 of my visit, he was hale and hearty, although, ac- 

 cording to his statement, " not nare so spry as I 

 y uster be. " I got him interested in the subject of 

 relative merits of redwood and white-pine frames. 

 He was shown that the former are flimsy, and, 

 when the moth begins depredations in a hive, the 

 redwood frames are eaten to pieces very quickly. 

 He was pointing out to Mr. Stewart some of the 

 doings of moths when my camera's eye caught 

 him in the position shown in the accompanying 

 half-tone. 



I noticed a multitude of bees at work about 

 the trunk of a beautiful live-oak that ornamented 

 a portion of the front garden. Investigation re- 

 vealed the fact that Mr. Monroe was practicing 

 open-air feeding, and the bees were just having 

 the time of their lives. Poor things! too many 

 of them were paying dearly for the feast, many 

 being drowned in the sweet liquid, Others were 

 so bedaubed that they crawled away through the 

 dust and dirt, few of them ever reaching the 

 hives. The reason of the feeding in the fall was 

 not that the bees needed food, but because there 

 was some unsalable honey on hand, and to let 

 the bees have it was about the easiest though not 

 the best way to get rid of it. 



I was surprised at the excellence of the honey 

 gathered upon this mountain. It was light in 

 color, heavy in body, and of as fine flavor as any 

 white-sage honey I ever tasted. The yield most 

 years is good. Seldom is there a failure. 



Oakland, Cal. 



THE AUTOMOBILE FOR THE BEE- 

 KEEPER. 



BY A. KIRSCH. 



Very little is mentioned in the different period- 

 icals in regard to the use of an automobile in the 

 apiary. Probably it would interest the readers to 

 hear a little about it. The writer of this article 

 was in need of some conveyance to transport his 

 family to and from church on Sundays, and he 

 was thinking of buying a horse and surrey; but 

 the largest rig would not quite hold his family, 

 and two trips he would not make. He finally 

 decided to get an automobile; and in looking 



