136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



cerning them, or a strife arises between bee- 

 iceepers. They had sworn falsely by king Da- 

 vid, and those saints will punish such delin- 

 quents. They had assembled on Mt. Zion, near 

 Jerusalem, and put their hands to the window 

 of King David's mausoleum, and had sworn by 

 the life of God and the prophet David that all 

 they said concerning our sixfold hives was true, 

 and some others had to swear that the men that 

 swore were truthful. 



Two years after, a beautiful apiary of some 

 300 hives was reduced to 30 hives, with almost 

 no surplus honey, and the taxes to pay. They 

 herein saw the just punishment for swearing at 

 all; for, though false swearing is a deadly sin 

 which the saint may kill on the spot, as they 

 believe, still they believe, too, that swearing is 

 no good, whether right or wrong, though they 

 do swear for mere nothings, but not in such a 

 solemn way as they did there. Years passed by, 

 and the villagers use all their efforts to call us 

 back. They very much regretted the annoy- 

 ance, but their selfish regrets have led to noth- 

 ing up to date, and meanwhile we have found 

 better bee-pastures, and have kept out of their 

 way. I mean my brothers have, for it is long 

 since I closed accounts with the despicable fel- 

 lahin of Palestine and Turkish misrule, and 

 hope they may continue to leave in peace the 

 bee-keepers settling in Palestine. 



Though the honey resources of Palestine are 

 excellent, the distance of the market, and, con- 

 sequently, the cost of transportation to the 

 nearest ports, Marseilles and Algiers or Trieste, 

 together with the duty laid on honey, are so 

 great that it would be preferable, if honey-rais- 

 ing were the only aim, to settle in some well- 

 organized place, with a view of selling honey 

 at a remunerative price, and avoiding the risk 

 of shipment, besides the cost. 



Nice, France. 



[It seems that the publicans and sinners have 

 not all passed away yet in Palestine. Strange 

 how history repeats itself. These things would 

 not be if Christianity still had a hold upon that 

 land instead of Mohammedanism. — Ed.] 



HONEY IN THE SAN BERNARDINO MOUN- 

 TAINS. 



HOW THEY CROWD OUT THE BEE KEEPEK. 



By C. [V. Dayton. 



The following observations and conclusions 

 were made in or close by the San Bernardino 

 range of mountains, which begins at the coast 

 on th(! west, and extend eastward for a dis- 

 tance of about 1.50 miles, entirely across the 

 inhabited part of the southern portion of the 

 State. 



As all old bee-keep(>TS know, and all n(^w 

 ones soon learn, there is little or no good honey 

 obtained but by keeping the bees in the moun- 



tains; so we may journey for many miles 

 across beeless ti'actsof farming or fruit country, 

 until, reaching the mountains, we find located, 

 one or two miles apart, along their base or in the 

 numerous canyons, apiaries as regularly located 

 as the stations indicated on the map of amain line 

 of railroad. To place another apiary anywhere 

 in the line is lilce adding another link to an 

 already perfect chain. These apiaries contain 

 from 50 to .500 colonies, as the location in the 

 range of mountains is more or less favored in 

 honey flora, and locations do thus exceed each 

 other almost to the extent of ten to one. 



The apiaries are placed at the point where 

 the valley ends and the mountains assert them- 

 selves. First, because these mountains exceed 

 nearly all others in abruptness, and can not be 

 climbed except by prepared trails; and, again, 

 the land close by them is formed of granite rock 

 and gravel mixed, that has been washed down 

 from the mountain sides for ages — land which 

 becomes too sterile for peaches, prunes, grapes, 

 or apricots under a few years' tillage. 



When chaparel (greasewood) and sage are 

 first cleared off, the land and the rubbish plow- 

 ed under, it supports trees for a time, but is too 

 high and dry for clover or alfalfa to grow; ar- 

 tificial fertilizers quickly disappear in the 

 gravelly subearth; and, fruit failing to pay for 

 expensive cultivation, the orchards are allowed 

 to " play out," and the possessor of high-priced, 

 nearly worthless land, goes into bee-keeping as 

 a last sustaining straw, with the idea that bees 

 " worlv for nothing and board themselves." Well 

 "heeled in" they seldom take a journal, or 

 produce comb honey, and construct their hives 

 with the main intention of keeping "millers " 

 out. 



Farther from the mountains there is an un- 

 derlying bed of hardpan which has, for years, 

 caught and accumulated the richness from the 

 higher lands, and nearly any crop may be 

 grown, and all fruits are of better quality. 

 While these mountain orchards are making as- 

 tonishing growths, and producing fine speci- 

 mens of fruit for a time, more " tender feet" 

 are enticed from the frozen North and East to 

 clear up new fields of greasewood and sage, and 

 capitalists obtain their fancy prices. 



Los Angeles is about midway along these 

 mountains, and near there more chaparel grows 

 than elsewhere, and the amount decreases 

 either east or west toward San Jacinto or Ven- 

 tura. The soil changes gradually from dark 

 granite to limestone and whitish clay, and the 

 different sages take the place of chaparel. In 

 winter the sages are dead and light brown in 

 color, and, with the light-colored rock and soil, 

 the whole mountains receive the distinctive 

 shade when viewed from a distance of twenty 

 miU^s. The granite and chaparel covered 

 mountains are known by their evergreen cast. 

 The yields of honey the past season in the dif- 

 ferently located apiaries has varied from 120 to 



