454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



ness it will take just as much foundation, 

 whether with or without separators. There is 

 a further advantage that you do not mention, 

 although I am sure you must be familiar with 

 it, and that is, that a section without separators 

 has a plumper, nicer look. Certainly if I could 

 raise as straight sections without separators I 

 should prefer sections without them. 



Now, look here, Bro. Taylor: when you come 

 to compare T supers with wide frames I feel al- 

 most sure there's something I do not know 

 about; and when you make positive statements 

 about them as a result of your experience, with- 

 out any reasons, I suppose I may be allowed to 

 do the same, even if some of my conclusions are 

 directly opposite to yours. Cleaner sections are 

 obtained with T supers when taken off in good 

 season, for there are no angles to tempt propolis 

 on top, while with the wide frames it is not pos- 

 sible to have the edge of the section correspond 

 so exactly with the edge of the top or bottom 

 bar but that Inviting angles will be left. But if 

 the sections are left on after the harvest is over, 

 then the wide frames are better, for at that 

 time bees will paint propolis over the flat sur- 

 face of the top of a section in a T super. Sec- 

 tions are as completely filled and capped in one 

 as in the other. The T super can be filled in 

 less time than wide frames. It takes twice as 

 long to empty the wide frames. There is no 

 difference in the number of partly filled sections. 



Now, there's one comfort in the case. Seeing 

 the wide frame fits the climate of Michigan, you 

 can use it; and I can use the T super, which I 

 have found to fit a good deal better in Illinois. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



[Separators are now so generally used that the 

 bee-keeper who gets along without is the excep- 

 tion. The Doctorseems to have no trouble from 

 bees attaching combs to separators, and he uses 

 wooden ones at that. See editorial, elsewhere. 

 —Ed.] 



RAMBLE 109. 



gold-mines; sleeping in a granary, etc. 



By Ramble?'. 



*' Pass the word along the line, and let's move 

 'On the enemy !" That's about what Mr. Powell 

 said one afternoon when he called at my ranch. 

 I saluted by scratching my head, and saying, " I 

 am ready ; " and early Monday morning found 

 us mounted on a long-bodied wagon, starting on 

 a sixty-mile journey; and the enemy we had in 

 view was about 2(X) colonies of bees, all in fight- 

 ing order, and they were to be moved 40 miles. 

 The feet of our pony team pattered over Victo- 

 ria Bridge, in Riverside, waking the echoes up 

 and down the " arroyo." We followed Victoria 

 Avenue for a few miles, and then turned toward 

 the mountains, following another " arroyo " for 

 several miles. We were now beyond the ranch- 

 es, and the broken country seemed of but little 

 value for a bee-range, as there was an utter ab- 

 sence of sage or other honey-producing plants. 



An occasional sheep-corral, and a lonely shep- 

 herd with his sheep and faithful dog, were the 

 only living things to break the monotony of the 

 journey. Our shepherds are very pensive in ap- 

 pearance; their gait is governed by the hunger 

 of the sheep or the abundanceof the feed. Much 

 hunger and little feed causes a rapid movement 

 of the herd and a consequent move of the herd- 

 er: much feed and little hunger gives the herd- 

 er an easy time. The shepherd and his staff and 

 crook have always been inseparably connected 

 in my mind— imbibed, I suppose, from Bible pic- 

 tures. Our shepherds are far from Bible stand- 

 ards in various other ways; and instead of re- 

 clining gracefully on the hooked staff they sub- 

 stitute a bottle of wine. 



Our ponies had a very good road with little up 

 grade; but now after getting up into the moun- 

 tains the grade was more acute, and zigzagged 

 around the monntain-side — a sudden twist to 

 the right or the left around sharp spurs, under 

 overhanging rocks and through narrow defiles. 

 I felt so *' elevated " that I came near breaking 

 forth into the following song: 



While up the mountain climbing 



I sing this merry strain: 

 The echoes catch my music, 



And send it back again. 



I was afraid the strain might be too much for 

 my friend Powell. He was an excellent manag- 

 er of the lines and whip — especially the latter. 

 I didn't wish to see him skip off' down the moun- 

 tain, so I just whistled the strain, and so there 

 was no harm done. We at length crossed the 

 divide, and we found a comparatively level 

 country, with an abundance of rocks ahead of 

 us. This is a very fair honey country, with not 

 many apiaries. 



Gold-mines seem to be the fad here, and sev- 

 eral shafts were being sunk into the bowels of 

 the earth. We fed our tired ponies and ate our 

 noonday lunch near the Rosina mine. This 

 mine had been worked some time, and it is a 

 type of all the rest in the vicinity. The shaft 

 had been sunk about 200 feet, and at an angle of 

 about 60 degrees. The buckets for hoisting the 

 quartz were operated by a hoisting-engine; and 

 from the shaft it was transferred to the stamp- 

 mill, a little below. I secured a photo, which . 

 will give a very good idea of the mining-camp 

 and its surroundings — the white quartz from 

 the shaft, and the country, covered with gran- 

 ite boulders and greasewood, and a sprinkling of 

 sage. We did not see gold lying around loose; 

 and a question about the mine was answered 

 evasively. Gold-miners are all non-committal. 

 They are so used to sinking money in holes in 

 the ground, and taking out only a small portion 

 of what they put in, that being non-committal 

 becomes a second nature to them. 



There are several mines on this range of 

 mountains; and as we pass over the range and 

 down toward Elsinore we pass the Virginia 

 mine, now closed, and the Good Hope mine, now 



