1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



67 



not for a single year, but for a series of years, he will have 

 some data that will be of value. But if he can always stop 

 swarming by giving -±8 sections he'll do better than others. 



Bees Cutting Leaves. — On page 45, R. Howell asks 

 about bees cutting out pieces of lilac leaves and carrying them 

 off. I think if he had followed up those bees he would have 

 found that they didn't go to hives, but were a sort of wild bee 

 that make very ingenious nests by means of pieces of leaves. 

 They make very rapid work in cutting the leaves with their 

 powerful jaws. I never saw them on lilacs, but I've watched 

 them many a time cutting rose-leaves. 



Mowing Sweet Clover. — In reply to C. Winn's question, 

 on page 46, if sweet clover be cut down as late as July 10, it 

 would in some cases be so far advanced that cutting it close 

 might kill it outright, although in some cases it would sprout 

 up again. But if it were cut down before coming into bloom, 

 and then cut down again July 10, I think he would find it 

 would bloom till frost. Indeed, it often sends out fresh shoots 

 on the apparently dead stalks that blossom late. 



Marengo, 111. 



No. 1. — Experiences, Impressions and Reflec- 

 tions After Five Years of Bee-Keeping 

 in California. 



BY RAMBLER. 



There is evidently no area of land on our continent that 

 excites more wonder and curiosity than the State of Califor- 

 nia. The story of its early settlement by the Spanish Padres, 

 the establishment of the missions and the civilization ol the 

 degraded natives, was full of romance, adventure and Chris- 

 tian fortitude ; and now that age is passed, and we have here 

 the ruins of those missions that long ago meant so much for 

 California. Their broken and vine-covered arches re-echo 

 now only to the tread of the tourist, and the bells that once 

 sent their sweet chimes echoing over mountains and plains, 

 hang in silence above the crumbling walls. 



California — then the land of romance, isolated from the 

 East by lofty ranges of mountains, and long stretches of alka- 

 line deserts — it required in the early days heroic efforts to 

 ^•each it. We all read with intense interest, even at this late 

 date, the adventures of Fremont and his fellow explorers, as 

 they opened up the pathway to this Coast. 



The discovery of gold, with all of its attendant excitement, 

 adventures, successes and disappointments, and the tide of 

 immigration from every quarter of the globe, added another 

 chapter to the romance of the land. With the influx of more 

 people the unknown canyons were explored, and the great 

 natural wonders continued to enlist a lively interest; and 

 when all other themes had been exploited, the wonderful 

 climate became a subject of never-ending admiration. 



In every sense of the word it is the "Land of Sunshine." 

 While blizzards are tearing the Eastern States, and intense 

 cold sends people shivering to their firesides, this strip of 

 country — 200 miles wide and 800 in length — is redolent with 

 the odor of roses, and the seasons are so gradual in their 

 changes, and so mild, that it seems like one unending summer; 

 the resident often forgetting that the balmy weather of Jan- 

 uary is indeed winter. 



In the early days of mining, fortunes of gold were not 

 bestowed upon all, and the agriculturist not finding the yellow 

 metal turned his attention to the cultivation of the soil. As a 

 natural sequence the honey-bee soon followed the orchardist, 

 and soil and tree and hive, all upheld the reputation of the 

 country for wonderful results, and the romance of the laud 

 has never been diminished. 



My theme, however, in these sketches, is not Caifornia 

 and its wonders, but they are to give experiences, impressions, 

 and conclusions drawn from five years' actual service in Cali- 

 fornia apiaries. In this service I have endured stings, rattle- 

 snakes, skunks, and coyotes, and, like a battle-scarred vet- 

 eran, I am spared to tell the tale. 



In a portion of these sketches .1 will necessarily go over 

 some ground that I have already written up in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture, and while the main facts have been given in part 

 before, I here touch upon actual work and impressions that 

 could be gathered only after living here a term of years. 



I was not attracted toward California by any sentiment 

 of romance, or in the pursuit of the ever-fleeting phantom — 

 gold ; but having followed wife and child, and parents, to 

 their last resting-place, I felt that the light and warmth of 

 loving hearts had gone from my old home forever ; an undefined 

 unrest took possession of me, and it seemed that no distance 



was too great to separate me from the scenes of my affliction ; 

 and that unrest has sent me far, far indeed from the scenes 

 and acquaintances of all of my previous life. 



I arrived in Sacramento July 17, 1891, and stopped a 

 few weeks with a kinsman, who is in business in that beauti- 

 ful capital city. I soon learned that bee-keeping was a pur- 

 suit of not much consequence here — a few small apiaries were 

 located in the suburbs of the city, the owners living in peace 

 and harmony with their fruit-growing neighbors; down the 

 river were other and larger apiaries, but the honey they pro- 

 duced was not in large quantities, and not of a high grade. 



In the early days of California bee-keeping the Sacra- 

 mento valley had been a noted field for honey-production, and 

 it was here that Mr. Harbison commenced the career that 

 afterward give him world-wide fame as a honey-producer. But 

 the Sacramento valley was the first to be put to agricultural 

 uses, and the sages and a multitude of wild flowers were de- 

 stroyed, wide areas of wheat usurping their place. Mr. Har- 

 bison finding his occupation crippled in this valley, moved to 

 the extreme southern end of the State, and in sight qf the 

 Mexican line had, for many years, an unmolested field. 



After a few weeks in Sacramento, I followed the example 

 of Harbison, and also traveled to the south. Here, indeed, I 

 found bee-keeping conducted upon those extensive plans about 

 which I had so often read — the out-apiary in some remote 

 canyon; the wild country ; the honey-flora so different from 

 the flowers I had observed so much in the East ; and the win- 

 tering problem no factor whatever. All of these features 

 were new and novel, and though the same principles are ap- 

 plied here for the production of honey, they are applied under 

 more favorable circumstances than when applied under East- 

 ern skies. 



Merry Christmas found me in the city of Riverside — a 

 stranger among strangers. Not a person in the city, and in 

 fact amongst the active thousands of all Southern California, 

 that I had ever met before ; and if there is any time that will 

 try one's remembrance of the old friends that annually gath- 

 ered around the hearth of the old homestead with good cheer 

 at Christmas time, it is this utter separation and isolation, 

 thousands of miles away. New homes have been planted here, 

 and we see the families gathering for their happy festivities. 

 Would you call it a weakness if a tear comes to the eye in re- 

 membrance of the faces I shall see never more "? And a moment 

 of sadness steals into the heart as I take my seat and eat my 

 Christmas dinner at the table of a restaurant with a jostling 

 crowd of individuals like myself — homeless. 



But such are the changes of life. 



The fame of Riverside as an orange-growing city had long 

 been known to me, and now the noble fruit was ripening; the 

 train sped through miles of orchards, orange trees upon every 

 side ; up the long rows at the right and the left, perfect balls 

 of golden fruit resting against a back-ground of dark-green 

 foliage; then there are breaks in the rows, and a green lawn 

 appears, as a symetrical evergreen hedge, a quaint residence, 

 often hid beneath trailing vines, upon which are fragrant blos- 

 soms on this Christmas day. Another break, and we look up 

 a long avenue of pepper-trees, their branches trailing to the 

 ground like those of weeping-willow. Another avenue, and 

 the palm and the century-plant greet us. Still another, and 

 the magnolia, the cork-elm and the gum-tree serve as orna- 

 ments and shade. 



It is said that first impressions are often lasting, and so 

 this first impression of Riverside was that of beauty, and 

 though I have since seen many cities in California perhaps 

 equally beautiful, this first impression of most beauty in River- 

 side clings to me still. It was no less an interesting experience 

 when a few weeks later the orange-tree was in bloom and the 

 air laden with its perfume, the busy hum of the honey-bee 

 could be heard upon every hand, in that loud, busy hum that 

 denotes the gathering of honey, giving one the idea that the 

 orange-orchards alone would sustain many apiaries within the 

 bounds of Riverside. 



(To be continued.) 



^ 



Working Two Queens in One Hive. 



BY J. A. GOLDEN. 



From the South comes a letter requesting me to give my 

 plan of working two queens in one hive, for the production of 

 section honey. In order to do so I will give the method that 

 proved the most satisfactory of any experiments tested, and 

 what I learned about the width of brood-frames and the 

 spacing of the same, which produced two very desirable fea- 

 tures to the producing of section honey, namely, a capacious 



