198 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



grooves, and they are therefore steadily 

 fixed, but in that case the frames are made 

 square with the box, and the latter put on 

 a level, which secures the frames in the 

 proper upright position. As some of your 

 readers may wish to try the single bar 

 plan, I will say that it is simply the up- 

 per stick of the frame used alon«. I take 

 an inch square piece and saw it off an 

 eighth of an inch shorter than the inside 

 of the hive, drive small nails into the ends 

 at corresponding corners, and let them 

 rest in rabbets, just as a frame does. The 

 lower angle forms the line guide for the 

 comb builders, abd in my experience they 

 invariably follow it; whereas, in frames 

 they often diverge from the top line, with 

 the view, I think, of avoiding the end 

 piece. The only way I can ever get 

 them to build true in frames, is, either to 

 put a frame between two combs, or else 

 elevate the back end of the hive to an 

 angle of ten or fifteen degrees. 



I. Applewaite. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Bees in California. 



I have lately received a letter from a 

 prominent Kansas bee-keeper who went to 

 California last Spring. I hope you will 

 publish the extracts from it that I send 

 herewith in answer to Mr. Whitney's letters 

 that have appeared in The Journal, and 

 may mislead a great many. As I intended 

 to go there myself, I have been interested 

 this season in getting information from 

 that section of our country, and I have 

 had very good facilities for doing so, as 

 many of my acquaintances went there 

 last spring. A few of the facts about the 

 country are as follows: Some 500 or 600 

 miles of the southern part of the state are 

 about, as my correspondent states, as near 

 a desert as can be. There is only one 

 stream that reaches the ocean from the 

 mountains for over six hundred miles, 

 and that only runs in a little dribble tor a 

 short time. 



When Mr. W. refers to the fruits and 

 the harvest fields, he must mean a portion 

 of the state five or six hundred miles from 

 where he lives, and then the facts are that 

 laboring hands could not there get em- 

 ployment at any price. The country has 

 been perfectly glutted with common 

 laborers this season. Mechanics have 

 done somewhat better; especially carpen- 

 ters — they getting from three to four 

 dollars per day (gold). Masons they have 

 no use for, as they don't .build brick or 

 stone on account of the earthquakes. 



As to bees in San Diego county, all 

 favorable locations are now occupied, and 

 it is probable that the country is already 

 over-stocked for profitable bee-keeping. 

 Mr. W. says " society is good." That may 

 be a fact, as it is always good in a new 



country sparsely settled, and especially 

 where there is no women, and the men 

 principally all "baching it." But to the 

 letter referred to above : 



" Though I have been here only three 

 or four weeks, I will give my impressions. 

 Of all the God-forsaken, dreary, desolate, 

 utterly useless, desert country you ever 

 saw, this is the worst. Sailing as I did 

 down the coast, we rarely left sight of 

 land from San Francisco here, the whole 

 way the country was barren of trees, and 

 the whole face of the country looked dead 

 and destitute all the time. San Diego is 

 a. small town, from which half the people 

 who settled here a half dozen years ago, 

 thinking they would make their fortunes 

 by owning town lots at the terminus of a 

 great railroad, have left for America, and 

 as a consequence, one half of. the houses 

 and stores are vacant, rents down to noth- 

 ing. The town is dead as to business, and 

 a general air of get away and live if you 

 can, if not stay and starve in the town. 

 They have a daily line of two-horse 

 stages from here up the coast to Los 

 Angeles, 120 miles, and a li,ne of steamers 

 from San Francisco, arriving once in 

 about five or six days. The town is sup- 

 1 orted maiul}' by invalids, who came here 

 for their health, and if they don't die of 

 ennui, they are well enough to live else- 

 where. 



"About every third man you meet, 

 curses the country, and wishes he had 

 been anything but a fool to come here and 

 invest money." 



''There is no green thing here, except in 

 small gardens, where they have wells and 

 wind-mills to throw on plenty of water. 

 They can't raise a thing here farming, for 

 they have tried it and been ruined by the 

 dozen and hundred. The whole country 

 is worthless for anything except sheep and 

 bees. The sheep men have now practical 

 possession of all the grazing lauds. I 

 saw thousands of sheep herded on laud as 

 bare as a road. They claim great profit 

 in the sheep business, and I presume they 

 do well if they only have the range. 

 Still wool is only 12 to 17 cents, so I 

 don't see any great money in it. The face 

 of the country, from 15 to 20 miles from 

 the coast, is rolling and covered with 

 cactus and bushes, none of which are 

 more than six to eight feet high, but 

 mostly about two feet. The soil is a 

 sandy gravel, mixed with cla}% overrun 

 with swifts, horned-toads, snakes, ground 

 squirrels, gophers, rabbits and quails. 

 Thousands of acres are perfectly honey- Q 

 combed with gopher and squirrel 

 holes, giving a homesick and desolate 

 look perfectly unendurable to one who 

 has been in Kansas. The climate is all 

 they have, and that is the same day after 

 day— warm, cold, warm, hot — but you 

 want to wear winter clothes. 



"A day or two after my arrival, I took a 



