1804 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



51 



ranch of ten acres, all in growing fruits, and 

 have a tine apiary of some less than 100 colo- 

 nies, all in liie brush near by. 



Mr. S. and his whole family scouted tiie idea 

 that this town was called Sncl<ertown, and im- 

 puted evil motives to. the man in the cabin. 

 Mr. iSealer's bees are of the dark order of Ital- 

 ians; and as he had very good success in the 

 East with a strain of Italians bred by a Mr. 

 Metcalf, he had ordered queens from him since 

 he came to California. This same strain of 

 l)ees in the East was quite gentle, and it was a 



pleasure to work with them: but out here they 

 were very cross, and that is the general expe- 

 rience with bee-keepers who have managed 

 bees both in the East and in this far West. In 

 the East yon can handle bees with impunity 

 while they are gathering honey: and the more 

 bountiful the honey-flow, the more wondrous 

 kind they get: but here, the greater the bonan- 

 za they are working, the more anery they are, 

 and they will go half a mile to find something 

 to sting. During the extracting season, that 

 length of old rusty stovepipe that sticks out 

 from the Rambler's cabin roof is a persecuted 

 object. They rattle against it about as you 

 "would rattle a typewriter. T have thought 

 sometimes that it was their telegrams for some 

 of my excellent pancakes — but I digress. 



Mr. Sealer wanted me to see some more of the 

 country to the north of his location, and we ac- 

 cordingly iourneyed onward toward the Cajon 

 (Cahoan) Pass. Mr. Ronart, another full-blood- 

 ed German bee-keeper, we found about five 

 miles along on our journey. His apiary was 

 also in the brush, and evidently had no care ex- 

 ■cppt to take the honey from the hives at the 

 proper time. There were either 3.50 or 400 colo- 

 nies in the apiary: the owner did not know to 

 within .50 or 75 colonies of how many he did 

 liave. Mr. Sealer assured me that Mr. B. was 

 a warm-blooded Dutchman, and very cheerful: 

 bnt to-day he was in a sad state of mind over 

 the fact that his wife was dangerously ill with 

 the pneumonia. His main idea seemed to be 

 that, if she should die. every thing would be so 

 lonesome whenever he would go into the ^ouse 



where he always found her. I sympathized 

 with him for a short time in English, and then 

 Mr. Sealer sympathized with him in Pennsyl- 

 vania Dutch, and I was afterward greatly 

 pleased to learn that his true and tried wife 

 was on the road to recovery. The main thing 

 to be noticed around Mr. B.'s ranch is the fact 

 that bees and grapes seem to harmonize. Aside 

 from the bees, the ranch is devoted to fruit, 

 and there are many acres of wine grapes. Mr. 

 B., having emigrated from the land of beer and 

 wine, his principles are strongly bentwineward, 

 and his grapes are carted by 

 the ton to the nearest winery. 

 Mr. B. says that the bees work at 

 the gra pes, but the greatest dam- 

 age is done if the grapes are left 

 on the vines too long: otherwise 

 there is little damage done. He 

 linds many other enemies to 

 grapes: but the bees, going with 

 a vim, for the remnants, get all 

 the blame. Mr. B.'s neighbors, 

 who are more or less in the fruit 

 and grape business, were going 

 to., drive his bees out; but Mr. 

 F>., hearing of the Bee-keepers' 

 l^nion, became a member, and 

 vociferously declared his inten- 

 tion to hold fast to his bees, and he does unto 

 the present day. lieing about the first man 

 to reclaim that portion of the wilderness of 

 brush, he claims to have a prior right to stay 

 therewith all of his apicultural possessions as 

 long as he pleases. 



His honey-pasturage is acres of sage and 

 many other honey-producing plants. The pe- 

 culiarity of the growth of honey-plants here 

 seems to be certain plants in certain localities. 

 Here we would drive through hundreds of acres 

 of wild alfalfa; a few miles further along, wild 

 buckwheat would have full possession; then 

 there would be acres, or, more like, square miles, 

 of sage- bushes. Mr. B.'s workers, in order to 

 get to these various fields, had merely to change 

 their course of flight, or to fly a little further 

 in certain directions. Mr. B.'s ranch showed 

 much hard work, and also bore the evidence of 

 genuine tJerman thrift. The only thing that 

 seemed uncared for was the apiary. I suppose 

 the reason might be. that, while a grapevine or 

 a tree will not iiear fruit unless it receives ir- 

 rigation and thorough tillage, the bee-hive will 

 produce honey, even if surrounded with brush, 

 and be left from yt^ar to year in an unkempt 

 condition. 



It would probably be useless to argue with 

 such men, that bett(!r results could be secured 

 if the apiary were kept clean. A clean apiary, 

 however, whether giving better results or not 

 in pounds of honey, is a better place in which 

 to work; and a hand.some apiary is always a 

 pleasure to the eyes of the 



1\AMBLKH. 



