1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



489 



that help to make matters move easily. As the 

 months rolled by, and one stage succeeded another 

 in the "year airiong the bees," I found myself 

 watching eagerly to see how the next step would be 

 taken. I had been upon the same ground, and it_ 

 was interesting to see how my friend Miller would 

 step. And then the charming manner in which the 

 book is written! Let me give an extract or two: 

 "Now that the apiary is in running order, you may 

 want to take a look at it. ' You don't think it looks 

 remarkably neat?' Neither do I. If I had only six 

 dozen colonies, and were keeping them only for the 

 pleasure of it, I should have their hives painted, 

 perhaps ornamented with scrollwoi-k; but please 

 remember that I am keeping them for profit, and 

 I can not allord any thing for looks. Some of them 

 are painted with a cheap reddish-brown mineral 

 paint; but that was years ago, and they look very 

 dingy. More of them are unpainted, and the oldest 

 of these look dingier still. I suppose they would 

 last longer if painted, but hardly enough longer to 

 pay for they paint. Besides, in the many changes 

 constantly taking place, how do I know that I may 

 not want to throw these aside and adopt a new hive? 

 I have already changed three times, having begun 

 in 1861 with a full-sized sugar-barrel * * *." 



" Having a hive ready, now for a seat. Bro. 

 Doolittle once tried to poke a little fun at me in 

 convention, because I accidentally admitted that I 

 sat down to work at bees. If I were obliged to 

 work all the season without a seat, I am afraid I 

 should have to give up the business from exhaus- 

 tion. Moreover, if I had the strength of a Samson 

 I don't think I should waste it stooping over hives, 

 80 long as I could get a scat. I generally have 

 three or four seats about the apiarj', and I just 

 take for a seat a box in which 500 sections have 

 been shipped, whittling a hole in it to carry it by. 

 By placing it differently, it gives me a seat of three 

 different heights, suitable for working at a one- 

 story hive, or one with supers tiered up on it." 



I can not close without saying how agreeably I 

 was surprised to find that friend Miller contracts 

 the brood-nest to /our or. /Ji'c combs at the time of 

 putting on the supei's; also that his bees usually 

 require feeding in the fall, and that he feeds them 

 sugar syrup. 



Brother bee-keepers, you will learn mauj- little 

 " kinks," and enjoy a real treat, if you read " A 

 Year Among the Bees." W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Mich. 



DR. 



GALLUP AND J. P. 

 HOME. 



ISRAEL AT 



THE ADVISABILITV OF GOING TO C.^LIFOHNIA TO 

 MAKE MONEY AT BEES. 



T HEREWITH present your readers with a few 

 (^ " notes by the way," on a trip to California. 

 ^l We left Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Nov. 37, on 

 -*■ the emigrant car of the A., T. and Santa Fe 

 R. R.; fare $45.00. Right here let me say that 

 the emigrant car is hitched to the expresp train, 

 and makes the same time as first class. My wife 

 did not like the idea of traveling that way, but now 

 she says she prefers to go on the emigrant car, 

 rather than to take first-class passage at the same 

 price. We arrived at Emporia, Kansas, where was 

 a fine stone depot, two stories, and a town 

 of 18,030 inUabitantg. On the morning of the second 



day we arrived ut La Junta, Col. We passed 

 through the great plains of South-western Kansas 

 during the niglit. Aljout 11 A. M. we are only 31 

 miles from the Spanish Peaks, where all is white 

 with snow. At Trinidad, Col., many of the houses 

 are made of adobe, or dried mud. Hat roofs; 6000 ft. 

 above sea-level. At 1 p. m., going up the mountains, 

 grade 113 ft. to the mile; takes two engines to pull 

 us. We pass through a tunnel, and enter New 

 Mexico, 7633 ft. above the sea. Here it is quite 

 cool, and here, also, we saw some mountain goats. 

 The scenery is very rough— large rocks and vast 

 lava-beds. We are now 1000 miles west of Kansas 

 City, and have passed hundreds of miles of ti-eeless 

 plains, without enough grass to feed a prairie-fire. 



The fourth day we crossed the Colorado River in- 

 to California, and traveled all day with nothing but 

 sand and cactus in sight. I thought if all of Califor- 

 nia were like this, tiuit I would leave very soon. 

 On the fifth day we passed through a tunnel 1^ 

 miles long. I then saw some good country within 

 30 miles of Los Angeles, at which place we arrived 

 in the afternoon. We rented a house and got to 

 housekeeping, and I bought myself a ponj^ and 

 took a ten-days' ride over Southern California. I 

 started Dec. 7th, and on the first night stopped 

 with Dr. Gallup, of Santa Anna. It seems that the 

 doctor has no family— at least not here. He has a 

 nice young orchard and vineyard, and had a very 

 nice house just ready to plaster. The doctor has 

 not kept any bees for several years. He sa3'S the 

 bees went back on him, and that they will chew a 

 raisin right vip after it is dry. His statement about 

 making a start with f.50 or less, applies to himself, 

 not to any one who has no trade. He is a water- 

 doctor, and works at his profession, M'hich is a 

 good one for this country, as so many come here 

 sick. 



The second day on horseback I traveled 47 miles, 

 and went 33 miles without coming to a house. I 

 then would have fared poorly if I had not had 

 my blankets to sleep under. I next saw the grand 

 old ocean for the first time. The breakers, when 

 seen from a distance, look like a long line of 

 clothes flapping in the wind. 



The third day I came to the ranch of J. P. Israel, 

 and found it after dark. I almost got lost in the 

 canon, which is a hax-d place for a stranger to find, 

 twelve miles from a small postoflice and store, 

 and about 35 miles to San Diego; he seems to have 

 a first-rate location, with only one apiary anywhere 

 near him. I found he was and had been "ranch- 

 ing" it for three years. Mr. Israel is an old man, 

 about 50 years, I should judge. You remember the 

 laugh he had on the Heddon bee in his big report. 

 Well, I should say his liecs were very much like the 

 Heddon stock, for I did not see a hive that had all 

 the bees with even one yellow band. I called them 

 very poor hybrids. 



Dec. 10th, the day I was there, the bees were 

 working on some weed that grows on the moun- 

 tains, and some of them had good loads of honey, 

 which made them drop. There was not a day dur- 

 ing my ten-days' trip (from the 7th to the 17th of 

 Dec.) that bees did not get honey. Think of that, 

 Oye"friz-up" bee-men. Mr. Israel uses dry horse- 

 dung for smoke, and it works first rate. The way 

 the bee-keepers of Southern California work their 

 surplus boxes is like this: Suppose you have a 

 Simplicity hive with a solid honey-board, small 

 enough go that the bees can come up around the 



