368 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



largest bee-ranches have about a thousand hives, 

 and are carefully and skilfully managed, every 

 scientific appliance of merit being brought into 

 use. There are few bee-keepers, however, who 

 own half as many as this, or who give their undi 

 vided attention to the business. Orange culture, 

 at present, is heavily overshadowing every other 

 business. 



A good many of the so-called bee-ranches of Los 

 Angeles and San Diego counties are still of the 

 rudest pioneer kind imaginable. A man unsuc 

 cessful in everything else hears the interesting 

 story of the profits and comforts of bee-keeping, 

 and concludes to try it ; he buys a few colonies, or 

 gets them from some overstocked ranch on shares, 

 takes them back to the foot of some canon, where 

 the pasturage is fresh, squats on the land, with, 

 or without, the permission of the owner, sets up 

 his hives, makes a box-cabin for himself, scarcely 

 bigger than a bee-hive, and awaits his fortune. 



Bees suffer sadly from famine during the dry 

 years which occasionally occur in the southern 

 and middle portions of the State. If the rainfall 

 amounts only to three or four inches, instead of 

 from twelve to twenty, as in ordinary seasons, then 

 sheep and cattle die in thousands, and so do these 

 small, winged cattle, unless they are carefully fed, 

 or removed to other pastures. The year 1877 will 

 long be remembered as exceptionally rainless and 

 distressing. Scarcely a flower bloomed on the dry 

 valleys away from the stream-sides, and not a 

 single grain-field depending upon rain was reaped. 

 The seed only sprouted, came up a little way, and 



