California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



Mm- 



1 



Six Months Among the Bees in 

 California. 



5S@ THE "BLUE side" OF THE QUESTION. 



^VqlOU have had in your journal from 

 jjj time to time, during the past yeiir, 

 ■Xill many rose-colored reports from this 

 yS country, which are inclined to mis- 

 Sc? lead your army of readers at the 

 East, who have felt an interest in this 

 land of honey. A few items of other facts 

 may also be of interest to your readers, 

 from one who has had pretty good facil- 

 ities for "learning the ropes," though I 

 do not profess "to know it all," yet. 



The tirst thing an apiiu'ist does after 

 his arrival here, is usually to hunt up a 

 "ranch," or location, on which to estab- 

 lish his apiary. This is usually located 

 on government laud, after many weeks 

 search, and may then turn out not to be 

 a good one. The main point is to get 

 within the granite or bee range— a strip 

 of mountainous country 8 or lU miles 

 wide, extending from Lower California 

 up into Lo3 Angeles county, over lUO 

 miles long. 



To select a location here intelligently, 

 one needs to be somewhat of a botanist, 

 or at least to know by sight all the diti'er- 

 eut kinds of honey-plants, their order of 

 blooming, and the relative quantities of 

 each required. Of course one cannot find 

 everything just as ho would order it; but 

 take as near a perfect jiasture as he can 

 find. In the early days of bee-keeping 

 as a business in San Diego county, the 

 ranches were established on the Sweet- 

 water, a "C;Jiforuia stream," whichruns 

 out east from just south of the town of 

 San Diego, among the mountains. It is 

 only within the past two years, or since 

 the great excitement began, that other 

 localities were sought for further north. 

 At this writing nearly every location, 

 good, bad or indifferent, has been settled 

 on as far as Temecula, 75 miles north of 

 San Diego, to which point all the pro- 

 ducts of the apiary have to be carried in 

 ■wagons, and all supplies brought out, 

 making it very expensive to carry on the 

 business. The roads generally are good, 

 but as all the mountain ranges tend from 

 the seashore toward the southeast, it is 

 easily seen that there are some heavy 

 grades. All or nearly all the teams we 

 meet in traveling (.re four or six horse — 

 two to draw the wagon, and the balance 

 the load. 



There are few "old settlers" except 

 "greasers," or Indians and Mexicans. 

 The former are half-civilized, dress like 

 whites, live in adobe huts, and either 

 herd their own flocks of cattle, sheep or 

 horses, or else are herders for the Mexi- 

 can stock men. Since the great rush and 

 settlement in Los Angeles count}', which 

 lies next north of this, the larger portion 

 of the sheep men have had to search other 

 and less populated sections for their 

 flocks. 



Many thousands of sheep were driven 

 into this county, where they are now 

 overstocked, many herds decreasing in 

 numbers from insufficient food or water. 

 The price, too, this fall for the wool — 9 

 cents or 10 cents — has disgusted many 

 with the business. 



Cattle and horses will not feed after 

 sheep. 



The stock men dislike to see new set- 

 tlers come in, as the laws here require 

 herding of stock or suits for damages. 

 The "bee men", too, dislike to see stock 

 around them, particularly sheep; for al- 

 though they eat but sparingly of the white 

 sage and other honey-producing plants, 

 they break down the brittle stems, and 



soon wear out a fine field. 



California is famed for its freedom from 

 insect pests injurious to fruit. While 

 that may be true, it nevertheless is quite 

 true that a worm was found in nearly 

 every white sage flower last spring.which 

 will account for the rarity of pure white 

 sage honey in market this year. This 

 worm, with the April frost and extreme 

 dryness of the season, cut off the crop of 

 honey to an average of not over 25 lbs. 

 pa.- hive, and an increase of not over 25 

 per cent. Indeed, I know of one apiary 

 of 250 stocks which gave but two swarms 

 this whole year, and when I was there 

 last — at the end of the busy season — the 

 owners had taken but 09 cases of honey. 

 One other apiary of 150 stands came out 

 equally bad, and both did remarkably 

 well last year. One apiary of 500 hives 

 did not give a single pound of surplus. 

 I have heard of but half a dozen or less 

 in this whole county who have made 

 enough to pay expenses, counting the 

 time and attention required as anything. 

 One gentleman had 150 stands, hired an 

 experienced apiarist at $15 per month 

 and board, In return he got seven cases, 

 or 400 lbs. of box-honey, and an increase 

 by dividing of some ten or twelve stands. 

 There are many long faces among the bee 

 men, and many a poor fellow would like 

 to sell out and quit. I sincerely believe 

 that for a man who understands the bus- 

 iness, and whose heart is in the work, 

 bee-keeping here will pay in the long run ; 

 still, I think some changes in the pre- 

 vailing methods of gathering and market- 

 ing the products are necessary. 



It seems that there has never been any 

 effort made to save the large surplus of 

 honey from the manzinita and blue sage, 

 which bloom in January and Ajjril, be- 

 cause they do not produce quite so white 

 a honey as the white sage, and yet many 

 a hive at these times becomes too full of 

 stores for the good of the colony. 



At the time (May 20th to July 20th) 

 when the white sage is in bloom, the su- 

 mac and grease-wood also yield fully as 

 well. The color of the sumac honey is 

 several shades darker than either 9f the 

 others, so that it is rare to find se'ions 

 filled exclusively of either sort. 



Possibly the extractor will be reverted 

 to, at least to give it a fair trial to know 

 whether or not it will pay. 



Those who are engaged in bee-keeping 

 rarely do anything else, consequently 

 each one has to watch carefully for the 

 best reward for his labor. 



There are few cultivated farms in the 

 country, which are as large as a good 

 sized state — the habitable portion being 

 about 60 miles east and west, and 100 

 miles north and south. Take either of 

 the two roads leailing up north from San 

 Diego, you may travel twenty miles and 

 not see a cultivated field. It is a con- 

 stant warfare to get and keep things grow- 

 ing. The gophers, ground squrrels (grey 

 and but little smaller than the grey squir- 

 rel at the East) and kangaroo rats are 

 omnipresent, eating the seeds or young 

 plants as they appear. Dozens give up in 

 despair of raising even their own vege- 

 tables on this account. Some of the land 

 is tnoist, on which, if properly guarded, 

 nearly everj-thing will grow, and with 

 marvelous rapidity. But such land is 

 the exception, and wherever found in any 

 considerable quantity, it is pretty sure to 

 be covered by a grant, and consequently 

 not to be settled on. 



Very little rain falls from April to Nov- 

 ember — in fact but one shower has fallen 

 since May 1st, and that wet the parched 

 soil but from two to four inches, and 

 was speedily dissipated under the suc- 

 ceeding days of sunshine. 



I have not seen any estimate of the 

 relative proportions of cultivable lands 



too worthless, but my judgement is that 

 not one aero in fifty is good for any pur- 

 pose of cultivation. The mountains and 

 in fact almost the entire country is bare 

 of trees. The extreme dryness of the 

 climate producing only bushes of a 

 stunted growth averaging five feet high, 

 over tens of thousands of acres in one 

 body. 



The principal bu.sh and at the same 

 time, the most worthless for bees, is the 

 chemise or chemisel — a harsh, rough 

 bush from 4. to (1 feet high, through 

 which it is impossible to go either on foot 

 or horseback. The little forays occasion- 

 ally made upon it only result in torn 

 clothes, bleediug hands and l>ad tempers. 

 Of course in such a country, from the 

 great scarcity of timber, wood is high and 

 not of good quality. 



Such as is taken to market being either 

 small limbs of an inch in diameter, or 

 short, crooked, intractable sticks, which 

 successfully resist the ax, but bring a 

 good price in money. Of churches, there 

 are several in San Diego — not one, to my 

 knowledge, in the country outside the 

 city, except Catholic, and the service in 

 these is usually carried on in Spanish. 



There are a few school-houses, but the 

 people live so far apart that the children 

 cannot attend. It is twelve miles from 

 where I am located to the nearest school- 

 house or any other public building. 



As a consequence, the children must be 

 taught by their parents, or allowed to 

 grow up in ignorance. 



The idea seems to prevail that all are 

 here temporarily — that as soonasenough 

 is made to live on elsewhere to pick up 

 and leave. 



Fhyscians are rare outside the town of 

 San Diego — and when called upon to go 

 out 20 to 50 miles to attend a case, their 

 charges are simply extortionate. I recall 

 one case of a chai'ge of §1,000 for going 

 50 miles. 



It is all very well for people at the East 

 to keep bees, where they are surrounded 

 by the comforts and amenities of life — 

 they oiujid to have some drawbacks, for 

 on coming here, one abjures comfort, so- 

 ciety — everything. 



To place a man alone on a bee-ranch 

 for a year, he is a tit subject for a lunatic 

 asylum — the solitude is terrible. The 

 oppressive silence of these canyons and 

 mountains with no trees through which 

 the light winds can sigh;Mhe nearly en- 

 tire absence of birds of song to gladden 

 the heart; the distance to neighbors, all 

 contribute towards the feelings one might 

 have iu solitary confinement. 



Coming to California, you give up for- 

 ever all your old associations and enter a 

 new world. The trees, the flowers, the 

 birds, the climate, the soil, the sky — -all 

 differ from what one has been accustomed 

 to from childhood. 



It is true they call many trees, bushes 

 and birds here by the same names they 

 do at the East, but you fail to recognize 

 them, and soon come to the wise conclu- 

 sion to accept everything as strange. 



While the farmer has so many difficul- 

 ties in the way of getting crops to grow, 

 all is not plain sailing for the apiarist. 

 The moth miller has twelve months in a 

 year here to work. Skunks and ants 

 abound. 



A skunk will get up in front of a hive 

 and tap on the front of it until enough 

 bees come out and get entangled in his 

 hair for a meal, when he will roU over 

 and over until the poor bees are crushed 

 or stunned, and then he will eat them. 

 Poison, or traps, have to be regularly in- 

 serted to keep them from despoiling an 

 apiary. 



Of ants there are many kinds : from the 

 wee red one of one-sixteenth of an inch 

 in length to those of au inch or more. 



On account of these legions of ants, 

 they have to make stands for their hives 

 to set on, and keep the legs greased with 

 coal-oil or axle-grease, or any other nau- 

 seous thing to repel them. Houses in- 

 tended for honey have to be set on stilts, 

 which are kept greased to keep out the 

 pests. This is really the plague of the 

 country; and any man who will invent 

 au "Ant Destroyer." sure to kill or drive 

 them away, can come and make a small 

 fortune selling it. 



The water is generally good, though 

 hard, and is usually found at less than 

 30 feet in depth. I do not know of any 

 artesian well in the country, but would 

 suppose they would be tried, to avoid the 

 great loss of crojis during the long seasons 

 of drouth. 



In the town of San Diego, the water is 

 not good, but such as it is, is sold at the 

 rate of three cents a bucketful. 



The Water Company is now trying to 

 remedy this by pumping water from the 

 bed of the river of the same name. Nearly 

 all the water we get from wells is warmer 

 than the outside air, when first drawn, so 

 that you have to let it stand and cool. 

 Ice is out of the question. A little is 

 brought down from somewhere up toward 

 the North Pole, and sold at 5 cents a 

 pound. 



Those of us who keep horses, usually 

 have to by hay for them or submit to 

 their getting too poor to do any work 

 during the long dry season. 



Hay in this country is not the hay of 

 the Eastern States. It is wheat, barley 

 or oat straw, cut while yet green. This 

 is often hauled fifteen to thirty miles, as 

 it is only at rare intervals that any is 

 grown. 



The seasons here are two— the wet and 

 the dry. The former extending from 

 December to March, during which time 

 rain usually falls in sutficient quantities 

 to overflow the sand iu the beds of the 

 streams, and exen create a torrent 

 through which, over the treacherous 

 quicksands of the streams it is dangerous 

 to cross. Some of the streams are 

 bridged, and few have steep banks where 

 the roads cross them. At this season of 

 the year, the real summer in California, 

 the country gets green and is beautified 

 with flowers. 



With the advent of March, the ground 

 dries up, vegetation dies, and by the first 

 of May the country looks parched and 

 brown. From this time on to December, 

 the same state exists, with nearly the 

 same temperature. 



The climate, meantime, is superb. 

 Nothing any of us have ever been ac- 

 customed to will equal it. And this one 

 thing, climnle, is the great charm of the 

 country. I have not heard it thunder 

 but once iu six months, and that was a 

 weak roll. Neither have I felt any 

 strong wind during the same time. 



The nights are invariably calm, or with 

 the gentlest of low breezes wafting the 

 delicionsly soft air across the sea. The 

 early mornings are often foggy and 

 nearly calm until nine or ten a. m., dur- 

 during which time, if it chance to be 

 clear, is the hottest part of the day. 

 Then the sea breeze springs up, gently 

 at first, increasing to a fair breeze by one 

 or two p. m., and then dies down again, 

 and thus will go the rounds — the same 

 thing day after day, week after week, and 

 month after month.— (?. F. Merriam, San 

 Jjkgo, Val., in American Bee Jounxal. 



A if.is said to his gardener: "George, 

 the time will come when a man \rill be 

 able to carry the manure for an acre of 

 land in one of his Waistcoat pockets." 

 To which the gardener replied: "I be- 

 lieve it, sir; but he will be able to carry 

 all the crop in the other i^ocket." 



