THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



61 



best reward for his labor. 



There are few cultivated farms in the 

 county, 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 leading up north from San Diego, 

 you may travel twenty miles and not see 

 a cultivated field. It is a constant war- 

 fare to get and keep things growing. The 

 gophers, ground squirrels (grey and but 

 little smaller than the grey squirrel 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 vegetables on this 

 account. Some of the land is moist, on 

 which, if properly guarded, nearly 

 everj'^thing will grow, and with marvelous 

 rapidity. Bnt such laud is the exception, 

 ^ and wherever found in any considerable 

 quantit}', it is pretty sure to be covered 

 by a grant, and consequently not to be 

 settled on. 



Very little rain falls from April to 

 November — in fact but one shower has 

 fallen since May 1st, and that wet the 

 parched soil but from two to four inches, 

 and was speedilj^ dissipated under the 

 succeeding days of sunshine. 



I have not seen any estimate of the 

 relative proportions of cultivable lands too 

 worthless, but my judgment is that not 

 one acre in fifty is good for any purpose 

 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 bush and at the same 

 time, the most worthless for bees, is the 

 chemise or chemisel — a harsh, rough 

 bush from 4 to 6 feet high, through which 

 it is impossible to go either on foot or 

 horseback. The little forays occasionally 

 made upon it only result in torn clothes, 

 bleeding hands and bad tempers. Of 

 course in such a country, from the great 

 scarcity ot 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 axe, 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 tliat 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 soon as enough 

 is made to live on elsewhere to pick up 

 and leave. 



Physicians 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 charge 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 ought to have some drawbacks, for 

 on coming here, one abjures comfort, 

 society — everything. 



To place a man alone on a bee-ranch 

 for a year, he is a! fit subject for a lunatic 

 asylum — the solitude is terrible. The op- 

 pressive silence of these canyons and 

 mountains with no trees through which 

 the light winds can sigh ; the nearly en- 

 tire absence of birds of song to gladden 

 the heart; the distance to neighbors, all 

 contribute towards the feelings one might 

 have in 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 con- 

 clusion to accept everything as strange. 



While the farmer has so many difii- 

 culties in the way of getting crops to 

 grow, all is not plain sailing for the api- 

 arist. The moth miller has twelvemonths 

 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, wlien he will roll over 

 and over until the poor bees are crushed 

 or stunned, and then he will eat them. 

 Poison, or traps, have to be regularly 

 inserted 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 an 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 

 nauseous thing to repel them. Houses 

 intended 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 an "Ant Destroyer," sure to kill or 

 drive them away, can come here and 

 make a small fortune selling it. 



The water is generally good, though 

 hard, and is usually found at less than 30 



