582 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



these abandoned bee-ranges are as prolific in honey as they ever were. To those 

 who will be content to produce a dark-colored honey, these ranges offer a fine field 

 for operation. There is no doubt that the time is not far distant when all kinds of 

 honey, .as long as it is of good flavor, will sell readily enough. And the difference in 

 the price will not be so great as to make it an object for the producer to desire to 

 produce white honey to the exclusion of the darker grades. The noise that the 

 sugar-honey controversy made will have the effect in making consumers believe that 

 all light-colored honeys are the product of the sugar manipulators. Of course, this 

 will be a very erroneous belief, but it will work to the benefit of the man whose bees 

 have a " dark " honey range to work upon. Verily, " it is an ill wind that does not 

 blow somebody good." But, I am digressing. 



Some of California's old-time apiarists have become fruit-growers of no mean 

 order. To cite instances, I will name first the man who, perhaps of all others, did 

 more to make the State famous as a great honey-producing gar den — J. S. Harbison. 

 Then there is Mr. Corey, Mr. Touchton, Mr. Bliss, and, I believe Mr. Wilkins, and 

 a number of others. Now, strange to say, none of these men file serious indictments 

 against the bees being the worst kind of fruit robbers. Experience has taught them 

 that, though the bee may help itself to all the loose fruit-juice it may find, it does 

 not maliciously and burglariously break into the fruit and steal the contents there- 

 of. It is the fruit-grower pure and simple who makes this broad and unjustifiable 

 charge. 



The senior editor of OLeanings, who made two trips to this State, and who wrote 

 up these trips in an interesting manner for his periodical, made some statements 

 about the country which were a little " off color." I am sure he made these mis- 

 takes unknowingly. Often a traveler will get things a little tangled up in his notes. 

 This is nothing uncommon with newspaper reporters, and is the reason some people 

 say they never believe what they see in a newspaper. It will not be my purpose to 

 try and set Mr. Root right ; in fact, I did not keep track of his writings, and I am 

 sure that at this time I am unable, without re-reading said articles, to tell just 

 where he did misstate things. I remember one thing, however, which seemed too 

 funny to me to forget in a hurry. It was something he said about the kind of hay 

 we raise; about it looking so much like straw. I am afraid some of those "stray 

 straws " from Dr .Miller's hay (?) stack must have become raveled in my good friend's 

 brain. The Doctor would do well to keep those straws of his under control. 



I don't know where Mr. Root saw that " hay-straw," but it could not have been 

 up this way ; and, from what I saw in my southern travels, I am sure they are not 

 engaged in raising bamboo for fodder for their horses. True, we don't raise timothy, 

 but we do raise a hay that gives us the fastest horses in the world. A hay that will 

 produce such horse-flesh it not to be laughed at. Surely, somebody must have im- 

 posed upon the sage of Medina. 



A word about our hay. It is as easy to raise as grain. In fact, it is cut out of 

 the same field ; the difference is that the hay is cut before the seed of the oats or 

 wheat has got well into the " dough " state. When it is passing from the milk into 

 the more advanced state, it is ready to cut. It is not left to dry up in the field, but 

 raked up after the mower and left in winrows for a day, when it is cocked up, as we 

 call it. Then in a weesk or so, it is stacked up and let cure for a couple or more 

 weeks, when It is pressed and is ready for market. Some growers do not stack it, 

 but haul it directly to the press. When this sort of hay is properly cured, it looks 

 anything but like straw. Grain sown for hay is scattered thicker than that for 

 grain ; the consequence is that it comes up finer, and is not so rank. This hay is 

 sold at about $12 per ton. The price varies with the conditions of the season. 

 When we have had a sufficient rainfall the price is reasonable ; when the season is 



