108 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



is taken aboard the boat to move one of 

 the sections of the train. Port Costa is 

 soon reached, and the two sections run 

 ashore, and again the run is resvinied to 

 Oakland. But I must get back to 

 Stockton. 



This is a prosperous and compact city, 

 of about 15,000 people, located in the 

 lower end of the great San Joaquin 

 Valley, noted for its prodigious wheat- 

 fields. It is no wonder the city is able 

 grind up so much wheat every yeai-. 

 This flour, the output of which is said to 

 be 6,000 barrels daily, is mostly shipped 

 to China and other places beyond the 

 Pacific. 



There are other places in the upper 

 San Joaquin where bees do remarkably 

 well, but Stockton is no home for them. 



Some of the flouring mills are really 

 large — 5 or 6 stories high, and stand 

 near the edge of the Stockton slonghj 

 which is an arm of the San Joaquin 

 Eiver. Bigger mills will soon be built. 



California has insane asylums in six 

 difl'erent parts of the State. The oldest 

 is located at Stockton, and the several 

 buildings are fine brick structures, es- 

 pecially the latest built. 



After calling on a few old friends dur- 

 ing the day, I embarked on the beauti- 

 ful stern wheel steamer, "J. D. Peters," 

 and at 5:15 p.m. of Dec. 17. I loft the 

 city behind me. It was my first trip on 

 the San Joaquin. The boat is supplied 

 with incandescent lights, and is the fin- 

 est river boat in California. 



At this time of the year the trip is not 

 enjoyable, at least I did not so consider 

 it. For about an hour it was pretty 

 fair ; the electric lights of Stockton were 

 fair to behold as they seemed to recede 

 fi'om the boat ; the banks of the river 

 were devoid of anything to add to the 

 landscape — in fact, the country — the 

 islands — were all one dead flat. 

 \ The islands, all of which, I believe, 

 have been reclaimed from the river or 

 overflowed lands, are very fertile, and 

 make fine gardens. Some of these are 

 cultivated by Chinese, who do not mind 

 the wetness of the. surrounding lands as 

 do the whites. 



When about an hour down the, river 

 we stopped at one island (we made fast 

 to a pile driven in the shore), and took 

 on a lot of sacked potatoes belonging to 

 a Chinese farmer. The boat's crew — 

 that is, the more idle ones — joked and 

 chatted with the Mongolian farmers as 

 the rousters hustled th6 " spuds" on to 

 the already heavily-laden steamer. 



Here I may mention, to show our 

 diversity of industries, that tlie boat had 



aboard hundreds of rolls or ivebs of 

 newspaper from the Stockton mills for 

 the San Francisco Chronicle, and bales 

 of paper for paper firms in San Fran- 

 cisco ; a couple of hundreds of tons of 

 flour, dozens of crates of chickens ; agri- 

 cultural implements from the several 

 factories ; other manufactured goods, 

 and farm products, etc. Stops were 

 made at a few other places. At one 

 place a few tons of great big sturgeons 

 were taken on for the San Francisco 

 market. 



At 6:15 a.m. we were in the ailready 

 busy streets of San Francisco, having 

 made the trip from Stockton in 13 hours. 

 Fifteen minutes later we were leaving 

 the slip of one of the big ferry boats for 

 Oakland, where we would be in 85 

 minutes. 



Thus I was "left" in the convention 

 that was to be. It had been announced 

 in Oleanings to be given as stated above, 

 in honor of Professor Cook, who had 

 years ago been a dweller on the banks 

 of the Sacramento. The whole affair 

 looked like a hoax. Surely, it seemed so 

 to me ; but I know it could not be laid 

 at the door of the two — Prof. Cook and 

 Mr. Root. 



While in San Francisco the Monday 

 following, I stepped into the rooms of 

 the State Board of Trade, where there 

 is a permanent exhibit of Californian 

 products, to see if the Eastern bee-men 

 were there registered as visitors. Dis- 

 appointment again ! I really do believe 

 that the Fates were against me, or that 

 the scientists were taken sick en route, 

 and could not reach our fair and golden 

 shores. 



North Temescal, Calif. 



Do Bees Seiil Oat Scouts ? 



.JOHN 1>. A. FISHER. 



I have read with much interest Mr. 

 G. W. Demaree's article on page 818 

 (1891). Evidently he does not believe 

 that a swarm of bees sends out scouts to 

 hunt a new home. The writer believes 

 that bees do send out scouts, and that a 

 swarm of bees is often led to a location 

 by the scouts. 



The idea that the bees that leavfe the 

 swarm, after it has clustered, are^imply 

 field bees, and have no interest ili the 

 swarm, hence they just start right off 

 after stores — the writer cannot so under- 

 stand it. If this be true, why do the 

 busy little workers nuirk the new loca- 

 tion ? Why do they not get their load. 



