I8i»l 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTUkE. 



75 



TIjose great, mountains befoi'e and beliind your 

 pretty littl(> i-knrli kept me staring- so mucli of the 

 time with open moutli tliut I am afraid I did not 

 look at the apiary as mueii as I might liave done 

 otherwise. Perliaps not all the readers may be as 

 fortunate as you are in having access to stones of 

 any particular size you may happen to need. I 

 want to explain to the friends, that right in fi'ont 

 of his house a big block of granite about tlie size of 

 a meeting-liouse stands as tranquillj'and unconcern- 

 ed as if it had a perfect rig-ht thej-e; but friend M. 

 told me, when I looked at it in a questioning way, 

 that it came down tlie canyon one night in afltxul, 

 and stopped right tliere. In my innocence 1 spoke 

 about following the iiath up to the summit of a 

 mountain right across the stream, while waiting 

 for the buggy. They said I would not have time, 

 and asked me if I noticed some animals away up on 

 the summit of the mountain. I told him I saw some 

 little black pigs, if that was what he meant; but aft- 

 er looking carefully tlie little black pigs seemed to 

 have hoi'iis on their heads. When told they were 

 cows, the mountain seemed to si)ring up a quarter 

 of a mile all at once, and I concluded I would not 

 go up where those little cows were, especiall.y as 

 we hadn't more than an hour to spare. 



Do you want to know something- more about the 

 apiary ? Well, Pesiie apiary, as they call it, is one 

 of the prettiest I ever saw. The honey-house is at 



PLAN OF SESPE AI'lAKY, BELOISGING TO .J. F. MIN- 

 TYHE, FILI.M(JKE, CAL. 



tlie foot of the incline, just below the bee-hives, so 

 that a cartload of honey goes down through those 

 open lanes without much labor. Between the hon- 

 ey-house and the road is a great iron tank. These 

 Iron tanks are to be seen near every honey-house 

 in California. An iron pipe runs from the extractor 

 into the tank; then a gate at the bottom of the 

 tank lets the lionej' into the square cans, standing 

 on a platform just right to load into a wagon. 

 Thei-e is no need of bililding any roof over the tank, 

 lor it never rains in California during the honey- 

 How. You will find a, photograph of .some of tlie 

 mountains back of Sespe apiary, in oui- ABC book. 

 Eight back of the ai)iary, on the western slope, is 

 an irrigating canal that pleased me greatly. It is a 

 sort of wooden hume; and the sight of the pure 

 babbling bi'ook that glides down over the sandy and 

 gravelly bottom, as it it were in a big hurry to get 

 somewhei-e, was to me a fascination. These streams 

 of water mean business — market-gardening, fruit- 

 raising, etc. The picture of R. Wilkin's apiary, in 

 the ABC book, does not begin to do justice to the 

 .spot. The trees seen scatteied about are orange 

 and flg trees, and the oranges and flgs are good too. 

 Do you want to know what our young friend 



Mclntyi-e is doing with K.Wilkin's apiary? Why, 

 he married fiiend Wilkin's youngest daughter— 

 that is how it comes about. Oh, yes! I want to tell 

 y(ai one thing more al)out young Mclntyie: He is 

 a young Canadian, like "our .lohn;' and i tell you, 

 friends, when you find better lioys to \v(nk than 

 tliese young " Laiuu'ks " you will have to tly around 

 lively. When friend Wilkin was i)utt ng up his 

 shipload of lioney to take to Europe there was a 

 great demand for tinners, to solder uj) cans. The 

 best tinner in San Buenaventura succeeded in sol- 

 dering only about lluo cans in a day; but ti'iend 

 Mclntyre, after a couple of weeks' practice, .solder- 

 ed up 140U. 



You know I am greatly interested in irriga- 

 tion ditches; and the one above the apiary on 

 the side of the mountain attracted my atten- 

 tion at once. The; mountain-side was so steep, 

 however, that I was pretty well tired out when 

 I reached the edge of the; canal; and when I 

 attempted to stand up straight, the sight of the 

 apiary away below down the vei'y steep moun- 

 tain-side made nie so dizzy that I was forced to 

 grasp hold of som(> little bushes that grew 

 along its bank; and even then I greatly feared 

 I should ios(> my footing and roll down in an un- 

 dignilied way among the hives. Besides, I was 

 puffing and blowing because of the effort re- 

 quired to climb the mountain-side. Just then, 

 whom should I see right behind uk; but friend 

 M."s little girl? She had followed unobserved, 

 at least by myself. I was so sure she would 

 fall and endanger her life that I was going to 

 make haste to catch her in my fright. As hei- 

 father manifested no uni^asiness, howf>ver, I 

 turned to him qiiestioningly. "Why, Mr. Root," 

 said he, "you need not be worried at all. She 

 and her younger sister come up here almost 

 every day." And then I discovered that she 

 had not only kept up with us great stout m(m, 

 but had lugged along a pretty good-sized dollie, 

 and seemed none the worse for the exertion. 

 You see, they iiad been brought up among th(i 

 mountains, and had learned to climb them, 

 even in their infancy. 



Many thanks, good friend M.. for your kind 

 invitation; and i assure you that. Providences 

 permitting, I will some time give myself the 

 pleasui-e of going over those great mountains. 

 In fact, ever since my visit I have felt a little 

 tJ'oubled because I was in such haste to get 

 home when there were such wondei's to be seem. 

 I wish to say to our readers, that the picture 

 showing the mountains on the east and north is 

 the most perfect and life-like of any view of 

 the mountains I have ever seen.] A. I. R. 



BACILLUS DEPILIS— WHAT CAUSES IT •? 



SEE DOOLITTLE's ARTICLE, PAGE &J2, .SEPT. 1. 



From my observations in three States — In- 

 diana, Texas, and California — I am convinced 

 that writers have confounded two distinct and 

 radically different diseases under the name of 

 "nameless di.sease." Bacillus depilis is a very 

 appropriate name for the one wherein the bees 

 attiicted become hairless, shiny black, and 

 tremulous bt^fore death, which, so far as I 

 know, was first described by A. I. Root, under 

 the nomenclature of '" nameless" disease. Bro. 

 Doolittle, the disease you encountered is not 

 bacillus depilis, but a much graver malady, and 

 the ants had nothing to do with it, only when 

 they dug up the germs of the disease where 

 you had buried it; and changing queens is ut- 

 terly useless as a remedial measure. 



This disease often plays havoc in the spring, 

 especially where brood-rearing is progressing 

 rapidly in cold or chilly weather, and in hives 

 without sufficient protection. In an apiary so 

 situated, let the microbe (or bacillus, if you 



