Feb. 21, 1907 



Anu»rican "Bae Journal 



see ; but, surely, the man who was 

 able to tell them what they would see 

 was the real discoverer. Hard for peo- 

 ple to realize how great that discovery 

 was. Moreover, if I mistake not, it 

 opened the door for other great discov- 

 eries. It is now known that there are 

 at least four kinds of reproduction : 

 Sexual reproduction, Parthenog^enesis, 

 Gemmation, and Fission. In Gemma- 

 tion something analogous to a bud 

 (gemma) forms somewhere on the or- 

 ganism. It grows and develops, and 

 finally separates as a new creature. In 

 Fission the original organism gradu- 

 ally divides into two organisms just 

 alike, or nearly so. Joseph Cook, a dis- 

 tinguished preacher of Hoston, once 

 made a stir by claiming that the birth 

 of Christ was a Parthenogenesis. Then 

 he allowed himself to be frightened out 

 of his claim, I believe. In my small 

 field I would renew the claim. The 

 birth of Christ was a Parthenogenesis. 

 The birth of Eve was a Gemmation. 

 Page 27. 



Rbproduction by Fission. 



And here is another tremendous 

 thought which has just been trying to 

 get abroad in the world. In Fission 

 neither one is parent, and neither one 

 is child. Of the individuals produced 

 by Fission, many die from various 

 causes, but none (it is claimed) die of 

 old age. L/ife is a continually sub- 

 divided stream, but it is the same 

 stream. Here is praclicalimmortality, 

 not in any heaven, but visible to man's 

 eyes and right here upon the earth. 

 Why not an institute be endowed to 

 study Fission with a hundred micro- 

 scopes till the secret is discovered why 

 the cells of creatures that reproduce by 

 Fission do not grow old 7 And when 

 they get that secret can they not make 

 at least longevity out of it for human 

 beings? 



But, alas, the whole thing will prob- 

 ably turn out to be a mare's nest (big- 

 g^est one on record), although it is not 

 pleasant to say it. More likely it will 

 transpire that the facts have been over- 

 stated—observers observed well, but 

 not long enough. It will be found (I 

 can tell 'em) that after a certain large 

 number of divisions there will be a 

 rest, and something analogous to a 

 spore formation. If not so, then some 

 other way. Life will spit on its hands, 

 and take a new and rejuvenated start, 

 much as it does under other forms of 

 reproduction. Page 27. 



Honey as a Healtli-Food. — This 



is a 16-page honey-pamphlet intended to help 

 increase the demand for honey. The first 

 part of it contains a short article on " Honey 

 as Food," written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It 

 teUs where to keep honey, how to liquefy it, 

 etc. The last part is devoted to " Honey- 

 Cooking Recipes " and " Remedies Using 

 Honey." It should be widely circulated by 

 those selling honey. The more the people are 

 educated on the value and uses of honey, the 

 more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid— Sample copyJfor> a 2-oent 

 stamp; 50 copies for 70 cents; 100 for $1.25; 

 250 for f2 25; 500 for $4.00; or 1000 for {7.50. 

 Your business card printed free at the bottom 

 of front page on all orders for 100 or more 

 copies. Send all orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



r 



\. 



Pacific (toast 

 ITIunnurinc^s 



A Visit to the Home of Patrick Keat- 

 ing, Apiarist 



I spent a wcuk with a bachelor bee- 

 keeper just after the middle of October, 

 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Califor- 

 nia. The place is about as lonely as 

 one would wish to find, though, to tell 

 tlie trutli, tlicrc was lots of life not more 

 than a mile away, at the mines. 



It was to the little ranch of Patrick 

 Keating up on the Alaniedas above Ha- 

 cienda, Santa Cl.ara Co., that I hied my- 

 self. Near by, up on the hills, are the 

 shafts and tunnels of the New Almaden 

 quicksilver mines, for a long time the 

 richest in the world. Of late years, the 

 mines have not been yielding so largely 

 — in fact, there is a belief that they are 

 "petering" out. Yet there is a chance 

 of richer ore than ever being discovered. 

 The hills around were honey-combed 

 for the heavy metal — the prospector's 

 tunnels are to be found everywhere 

 about the hills. This year prospectors 

 are out in every direction trying to 

 "strike" lime and cement quarries. 

 Some have already been found. The 

 possessor of a cement quarry has some- 

 thing that pays better than a gold mine, 

 though, perhaps, not so fascinating. 

 The demand for cement in San Fran- 

 cisco is something enormous and there 

 are millions in it. 



My friend invited me to see him. I 

 went expecting to stay but 4 days, but 

 so pleasant and entertaining were my 

 days made by "mine host" that a week's 

 length was reached before I left for 

 home. I will hereafter call my friend 

 by the name that he is known by for 

 a score of miles around. So I shall 

 just say "Pat," though his neighbors 

 know him as "Pat, the Bee-Man." No 

 matter where you go, every one knows 

 "Pat," and he is looked upon as the 

 philosopher of the mountain fastness 

 and of the valley below. He took me in 

 his buggy behind his fine horse, 

 "Teddy," (so named, I suppose, because 

 he likes to take the bit between his 

 teeth, like a distinguished ruler by the 

 same name, and run things to suit him- 

 self), and I could see that not only 

 the old settlers but the school-children 

 looked up to Pat as something of a 

 wonder. It may be because he could 

 subdue the bees, and it may be because 

 of his learning and the quaint way he 

 had of discussing the subject he was 

 dealing with. 



Pat was a bee-keeper before he came 

 to America where he soon foreswore al- 

 legiance to his former sovereign, Queen 

 Victoria. He was reared on a small 

 farm in Tipperary County, Ireland. He 

 says that bees did not do well on the 

 "old sod," owing to the dampness of 

 the weather. He tried keeping bees in 

 Southern California. He found that the 

 yield was phenomenal some years, but 

 there were too many dry, or ofT years. 

 While his present location is not the best 

 in the world, still he likes the place be- 



cause there is plenty of water the year 

 around, even in the driest of dry years. 

 He finds lliat it is not the dry years 

 in Northern California that fail of 

 honey, but the cool ones, like the past 

 year, whicli was noted for its abundant 

 rains. 



A finer stream of pure, limpid water 

 I never saw than was the Alamedas, 

 which flows r-ght through Mr. Kcating's 

 place, and there was such an abundance 

 of it. I walked some 3 miles up the 

 bank of the main stream to near its 

 source to get a better idea of the flora 

 up the canyon. . There was an ever- 

 lasting tangle of plants on both sides, 

 and clean up to the top of the mountain. 

 And there was so much of those moun- 

 tains, you could easily understand that 

 there was no level land within sight. 

 It seemed a shame that so much waste 

 land could be everywhere about. There 

 were no timber-trees in this canyon. 

 One has to get nearer the coast to strike 

 the timber belt. But nearer the coast 

 the honey-plants are not so good, so 

 there is where the law of compensation 

 comes in, I suppose. 



Pat lives a quiet life, free from strife 

 and worry, amid the hum of his bees 

 and the babbling of the saucy brook be- 

 low his cottage door. Companionship 

 he has, in a measure, in his self-willed 

 Teddy ; the brindle cow ; his dogs, Spink 

 and Stock; a few black cats; and a fine 

 flock of chickens. Almost as a hermit 

 of old, Pat lives with his pets, and, for 

 aught I know to the contrary, he may 

 call them his "brothers," as did that 

 austere poet of old, St. Francis, of As- 

 sisi. But how many of us could "batch" 

 it far from the haunts of men, even 

 with such "brothers" and "sisters" about 

 us as the dogs and the cats, and the cow 

 and the horse, and several million of 

 bees thrown in? But the life is a heal- 

 thy one, and with the work to be done 

 the day passes rapidly enough. 



In the evening my friend meanders 

 down the creek to his nearest neighbor 

 for his mail. Here he spends some little 

 time talking with the stockman (for this 

 neighbor is a cattle-raiser) and his good 

 wife. Whether Pat's way is wended 

 nightly to his neighbor's, around many 

 a tortuous bend in the creek, just to get 

 his mail, which is delivered there, may 

 be questioned somewhat when it is re- 

 membered that there is a comely young 

 lady dwelling there with her parents. 

 This suspicion has to be set aside for 

 the trick is an old one and something 

 would have come of it ere this. Yet 

 who knows what may happen? 



My friend Pat's ways as a bee-keeper 

 may be more interesting to my readers 

 than his life as a citizen. l\Iy excuse 

 for this character-sketch is just to show 

 what life out in the hills on a California 

 bee-ranch is like. Other features of 

 such life will appear in succeeding 

 sketches. 



With this appears a view of Pat's 

 apiary and honey-house, with himself 

 shown "forninst" the middle foreground. 

 This is from a photo by a San Jose pro- 

 fessional. The other view was taken 

 by myself during my recent visit. It 

 gives a pretty fair idea of the bee-ranch 

 and the surrounding hills. The place is 

 rather picturesque, aside from its pro- 

 prietor. W. A. Pryal. 



