978 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



he might call diuing the week. The little 

 Congregational church is new and rather 

 plain, but very homelike and pretty inside. 

 As we stood on the steps before the service 

 opened, the brother who came with us said, 

 '' Two years ago I could see only s houses 

 from where I now stand.'' Since then 

 hundreds of dwellings have been built, and 

 many stores and groceries ; this church has 

 been put up within a year, and the attend- 

 ance pretty well filled it. After church was 

 Sundaj'-school ; and the sight of the chil- 

 dren, gathering from the many humble 

 homes, was inspiring. In an arch over the 

 pulpit, in beautiful letters of bright blue 

 paper, were the words, '• Praise ye the 

 Lord.'" On a little blackboard, at one side 

 of the pulpit, the pastor gave the text and 

 the hymns to be sung at opening as well as 

 the closing of the services. 



The Sunday-school is after the services, as 

 it is at home, and they also have an evening 

 prayer-meeting, just as we do. It really 

 seemed like home when the pastor said they 

 would all be glad to have a word from 

 "brother Hoot." I told them briedy of how 

 glad I was to meet, in God's holy place, 

 those who love the Lord, and something of 

 our young people's prayer-meeting, and the 

 Endeavor society in Medina ; and when the 

 service was over, (juite a good many crowd- 

 ed around us t(> shake hands and give 

 words of encouragement. The pastor, dur- 

 ing the evening discourse, spoke of the 

 liardening process of sin, and closed with 

 the parable to the effect that, even if one 

 arose from the dead to warn the sinnei-, he 

 would not do any different. As the day 

 closed I felt happy. The Christ Jesus, who 

 has lifted me and cheered, in years gone by, 

 I found here in California. Had 1 allowed 

 circumstances to prevent attendance at 

 church, how differently 1 should have felt. 

 and how poorly prepared for the duties of 

 the week, when Monday morning camel 

 Truly, I can say with the Psalmist, — 



How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord ! My 

 Roul long-eth, yea, even t'ainteth, for the courts of 

 the Lord— Ps. 84:1,3. 



Nov. 27.— 1 want to say a few more words 

 about the motor cars. It seems to me these 

 have almost solved the problem of using 

 steam on common roads. They run on an 

 ordinary railway track, but the track runs 

 up and down hill, and turns short curves 

 that we never see on the ordinary railways. 

 The cars are, part of them, open,ofor those 

 who prefer to be outdoors, and one can step 

 off so easily that the conductor needs only 

 to slack up, and then off we skip again at 20 

 or even oO miles an hour. The track runs 

 off' between the hills, and round to every lit- 

 tle group of houses ; and the stations, which 

 are, many of them, only a small plank plat- 

 form, are often only a few rods apart. Both 

 numbers and names are used to designate 

 them. The one where I am now sitting as 

 I write is nearest my brother's, and is call- 

 ed < 'hollas Valley, but is pronounced " Cho- 

 way \'alley.'' The names of places are al- 

 most all Mexican (Spanish) names, and are 

 pronounced almost any way but as they are 

 spelled. The town of Tia Juana, on the 

 line between ('alifornia and Mexico, is pro- 



nounced " Tee-ah Wahnali.'"' ISun Jo.se * is 

 pronounced here San Hosay. \ few .Ameri- 

 can names are used, such as Sunnyside, 

 Sweet Watei-, etc. 



I never took a ride in boat or carriage, or 

 anywhere else, so exhilarating and invig- 

 orating as these rides on the open motors. 

 The people have had the good sense to coin 

 an easy short word for this cheap and rapid 

 means of transportation; viz., "■motor.'' 

 "Take the motor at 9:45,'' or any other 

 hour, is a common expression ; and, in- 

 deed, without the motors I hardly see how 

 the people here, hemmed in by mountains, 

 could live and get their produce to market 

 without them. 



I have just returned from a visit to one of 

 J. S. Harbison's bee and fruit ranches. It 

 is about s or 10 miles from San Diego, at 

 the further extremity of what is called the 

 " Old Mission Valley." As it is out of sea- 

 son for the bees, there was not much to see 

 about them. The Harbison hive is a tall 

 hive, and not much on the plan of those 

 used in the Eastern States. AH the honey 

 1 have found in California is in the Harbi- 

 son section, holding 2 lbs. or more. The 

 fruit-garden took my attention at once. 

 Mr. II. was just sinking an immense circu- 

 lar crib, oO feet across, as a reservoir for 

 water for irrigation. A steam-engine was 

 turning a centrifugal pump that sent out a 

 small river of water, while a dozen men 

 shoveled out the sand so as to let the crib 

 down as low as wanted. He does all his ir- 

 rigating with this engine, and does not 

 ha,ve any elevated reservoir at all. 



He was digging some beautiful White 

 Plume celery when 1 found him, and right 

 back of the celery were the finest rows of 

 strawberries I ever saw. Back of the straw- 

 berries was a peach-orchard of trees that 

 have borne some peaches this season, only 

 the second year from the seed. Tliey were 

 not budded. "Wonderful growths of all kinds 

 of fruit-trees, including lemon and orange, 

 were also seen. Gregg raspberries had also 

 made a wonderful growth, and had borne a 

 fine crop. A crop of melons had been 

 marketed in June, but the ground was still 

 covered with melons which proved to be 

 about the finest I ever ate. Our host kind- 

 ly filled our buggy when we started away. 

 There are several kinds of iyuit that are 

 said not to do well in California, but friend 

 H. manages to succeed with nearly all of 

 them. He is, however, back about a dozen 

 miles from the coast, so the winters area 

 little more frosty. In his neighborhood 

 they give the orange-trees a little protec- 

 tion. Mr. Harbison has the credit of first 

 bringing the Italian bees to this coast, and 

 he informs me that he at one time had as 

 many as ;;oOO colonies, bein^ the largest 

 bee-owner in the world. With the vast 

 amount of property he now owns, it is not 

 strange that he finds little time to attend to 

 bees or much else personally. He has a 

 beautiful dwelling and a wholesale fruit- 

 house in the city of San Diego, besides 

 more farms and bee and fruit ranches than 

 I can remember. 



*The Spanish .1 is pronounced like our li in hat. 



