544 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



trally located. I longed to plunge in and bathe 

 and shave, for it had been ten days since I had 

 enjoyed such a privilege, and I felt rough, and 

 looked as rough as I felt. The ponies were tied 

 near a drugstore. The proprietor soon came 

 around, and, observing the bee-hives, com- 

 menced to talk bees. He looked me over so 

 suspiciously that I thought he had mistaken 

 me for a stray member of the Industrial Army. 

 He soon arrived at a point, however, where he 

 couldn't hold in any longer, and he exclaimed, 

 " Well, sir, I do not believe there is any person 

 I ever saw who will answer to the description 

 of Rambler better than yourself. I shall charge 

 you with it, any way." 



After a laugh at his shrewdness we had a 

 pleasant chat. I will introduce Dr. Ellis to 

 you. He is a bee-keeper, and finds running a 

 drugstore in connection with bees a profitable 

 business. Our conversation was cut short by 

 the arrival of the rest of our cavalcade. A halt 

 was made ; a consultation followed, and, 

 though black clouds hung over the mountains, 

 and the shadows were creeping into the can- 

 yons, George cracked his whip over his big 

 team. We all fell into line, and moved forward 

 on the last 12 miles of our journey. It was a 

 tough pull up those hills, made greasy by the 

 recent rains: but they were surmounted; and 

 at ten o'clock, when within two miles of the 

 prospective location, the darkness was too deep 

 for the trail, and we were lost — didn't know 

 which way to go; so we did the next best thing 

 — camped then and there. A camp-fire was 

 started; we warmed our noses and toses, for 

 the night was chilly; ate a brief lunch, rolled 

 ourselves in our blankets, and went to bed un- 

 der the wagons. We were lulled to slumber by 

 the murmur of the bees above us. Before it 

 was fairly daylight, George started us all by a 

 series of lusty crowings. It took but a short 

 time thereafter to get the bees over the remain- 

 ing two miles, properly located, and released 

 from their imprisonment. We then had a good 

 square meal at the hospitable cabin of the 

 overseer of the Virginia gold-mine. George 

 and I pushed on to Riverside with the big 

 teams; and. ere night came, the Rambler sat in 

 his cosy home, where it seemed necessary that 

 he should be to repair damages to body.' 



An inventory revealed the fact that I had a 

 powerful sore thumb ; right hand blistered 

 with much sawing; ankle so near broken as to 

 make me lame; lame neck, and rheumatics un- 

 der the shoulder-blade. From such a hustling 

 time in moving bees in the future, deliver me. 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



liy lidmhln: 



It sounds very good to hear the hopeful pre- 

 dictions in relation to the prospective eastern 

 honey-tlow. We like to hear of other people's 



prosperity, even if we are temporarily under a 

 cloud. 



Not a few bee-keepers here complained, in the 

 spring, that their colonies were honey-bound. 

 It was a good bind this year. Those colonies 

 will pull through the off year. 



I quote from a reliable medical authority: 

 "Although derived from nutritious food, glu- 

 cose is in a perverted shape, and to it may be 

 attributed the rapid spread of Bright's disease." 

 The same authority says that all beers contain 

 glucose, and all beer-drinkers are liable to die 

 of said disease. 



Mr. Hasty calls attention to the Britons using 

 the clamped boards, or gang of boards, for dip- 

 ping foundation. I would inform friend H. that 

 the gang plan is an old California invention; 

 is used now, and has been for several years o^^ 

 this coast, and probably prior to their use in 

 England. It is, therefore, an American inven- 

 tion. 



Osburn, of Cuba, gives that island a boom in 

 the A. B. K.; but those moths seem to be a ter- 

 ror. The bee-moth is not a troublesome factor 

 in this State, as one might suppose. Cool nights 

 are probably detrimental to its rapid propaga- 

 tion. If it were a great destroyer the careless 

 bee-keepers would own but few bees, and there 

 would be fewer careless bee-keepers. 



It is said that eastern bee-keepers come to 

 California from reading rosy-hued descriptions 

 of the country ; and, finding the rose in this 

 case is not without its thorn, they return with a 

 depleted pocketbook to their eastern homes. 

 Their journey will not have been in vain if they 

 will take the lessons to heart, and boom their 

 own eastern town with the vim that a Califor- 

 nian does his. We have heard eastern men ac- 

 tually denounce their own town as a place ut- 

 terly unfitted for habitation. We honestly be- 

 lieve it to be the duty of every householder to 

 hold the honor of his town next to that of his 

 family, and never speak ill of it. Enthuse over 

 it. and that is the way to boom in now and then 

 a new inhabitant. 



Foul-brood Inspector R. B. Herron, of San 

 Bernardino Co., has found a new bee-disease 

 near Ontario. He thinks fully .5000 colonies are 

 affected. The larvffi have a watery and ffrayish 

 appearance, and it is fully as destructive as 

 foul brood. Mr. Herron and Prof. Cook are at 

 work upon the case, and it is hoped that some 

 remedy will be found to banish the disease. 

 This malady has made its appearance in the 

 same locality that has been aftlicted with bee- 

 paralysis, and may be akin to it. A Mr. Ste- 

 vens, of Etawanda, claims to have a cure for 

 paralysis. He cures for 10 cts. per colony, and 

 will sell the recipe for $10(K). I was intending to 

 go over and buy it; but our jack-rabbit bounty 

 dropped off so suddenly that it cut off my re- 

 sources for ready cash. It would be worth 

 many thousands of dollars to Southern Califor- 



