174 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 1. 



What would you lliiuk to see '• pinks " as large 

 as roses? In his circular he mentions them 

 •' three and loui' inches in diameter." 1 believe 

 the very large ones are inclined to burst. Now, 

 then, if you are an admirer of pinks I have per- 

 haps done you a service, as well as one to friend 

 L. There is quite a pretty family of them, both 

 bovs and girls; and as one boy has a Kodak, 

 and his sister paints in colors, I do not see why 

 our friend should not have his favorite flowers 

 llustrated. 



It was dark when we drove into the town of 

 Piru. and we were in another dilemma. I did 

 not take any more "landmarks" when I left 

 Mr. Lenton's than I did when I left the depot. 

 It was almost six. and the strawberries and 

 cream were doubtless ready and waiting. Fi- 

 nally Sue (that's Mrs. Root) suggested that 

 •Mohn " knew where he lived, and so I gave 

 him a loose rein. He seemed a little surprised 

 at first, then seemed to take in the state of af- 

 fairs: and didn't he just "fly" through the 

 streets! Sometimes he seemed a little undecid- 

 ed, looking up this way and that, with his ears 

 pricked up; and he inade so many turns we 

 reallv began to fear that he like ourselves did 

 not know where he was going; and when he 

 went right past the place which I thought was 

 right, we felt more troubled. Finally, however, 

 he wheeled suddenly into the well-known gap 

 in the beautiful evergreen lence. and there we 

 were in good time, i-ight in the midst of friends 

 who were waiting for us. Sue persisted in 

 thinking we must be intruding: but when she 

 found that these good people were, like herself, 

 from " Merrie England," and not very long ago 

 either, it was almost like a family reunion. 



And now about David Cook's ranch that I de- 

 scribed three years ago. Well, many of the 

 acres and acres of fruit are doing finely, and 

 some fair crops have been harvested already; 

 but it transpired that a good deal of it was 

 planted on ground not suited for it, and some 

 kinds of trees have, 1 believe, been dug up. and 

 something more suitable put in their place. 

 Lai'ge numbers of men and teams are still at 

 work; and the very pretty town and station, 

 with its school and church, are the result of his 

 venture. I feel quite sure that most of such 

 schemes, started (it oiicc, on such a large scale. 

 inuKt turn out a mistake,— much of it. Try a 

 little patch first: then an acre; then five acres; 

 and. if you make a success each season, then it 

 may do to put thirty or forty acres into one 

 crop: but even so fast is risky. Because your 

 ncvihbor has succeeded, it is by no means sure 

 that ijoti, will succeed. Look about you and see 

 if I am not right. Another thing, don't go and 

 raise a great lot of any thing until you know 

 just where you ai'e going to sell it, and what 

 you will probably get for it. Again, look out 

 that the expense of starting does not eat up all 

 the profits for years to come. A brother of mine 

 went into pigs largely, and made a success of it 

 the first year, to all appearances; but he lias a 

 great deal invested in pens that are of little or 

 no value unless he continues in the business. 

 Another thing, his pigs, without a close super- 

 vision that he and his family feel they can not 

 undertake another yeai-. are "a great nuisance to 

 the neighbors. Of course he could, at great ex- 

 pense, make a pig- proof fence around his ranch; 

 but the business would not warrant this. I sug- 

 gested making a good fence around smaller lim- 

 its: but he says experience and all the swine- 

 journals say this will not do. When he started 

 lie vei'y wisely got the books and journals per- 

 taining to the industry. These class-journals, 

 if well studied, will save one from useless and 

 expensive mistakes. 



Our friend J. J. Cole, of Tropico, near Los 

 Angeles, came liere about three years ago. He 



is the man who bought an apiary where they 

 run water down from the mountain in cane fish- 

 poles. I mentioned it three years ago. Friend 

 Cole went in pretty heavy on the start: but he 

 has had one good season in three years, and this 

 paid him back all he had invested. One part of 

 his apiary is made up of bees that came to him. 

 Last season he seemed 32 such: and the year 

 before, 'M. This seems astounding, and it indi- 

 cates that vast numbers of bees must be domi- 

 ciled in the rocks, trees, ground, and bushes, 

 away back in the great unused fields for lioney, 

 in the inaccessible mountains. Friend Corey 

 showed me quite a respectable apiary made up 

 of bees his wife had caught right there in town. 

 They are not only quite plentiful in the swarm- 

 ing season, but in the fall, after a poor year, it 

 seems a good many after-swarms are starved 

 out, for friend Cole got most of his during the 

 montlis of August and September. Our good 

 honest friend told in the convention of how 

 many bees had come to him and gone into emp- 

 ty hives in his apiary, and the number was so 

 great that our good friend l*rof. Cook (not being 

 acquainted with California) created a good deal 

 of merriment by asking whether these bees 

 came to him in the " iiiglit"' or in the "d(ty- 

 twie." 



Mi's. Root says if I am to start a bee-ranch in 

 California it must be at Tropico. Her princi- 

 pal reason is. they have soft spring water, 

 brought down from the mountain. At home 

 we always have cistern water to wash with, of 

 cuvri^c: but here such a thing as a cistern is 

 unknown; and.no matter how hard the water 

 is from the watei'works. everybody uses it for 

 every thing. I have seen only one cistern in the 

 State, and it belongs to my brother. He catches 

 water (uiough in the winter to last him all sum- 

 mer, and they have one orange-tree full of 

 fruit, irrigated entirely from this cistern. 



Friend Cole contributes a tobacco experience. 

 He lost his appetite, and could not eat, either 

 breakfast or supper. Pretty soon he could not 

 eat at rZi/i/icr time either. It was right during 

 the busy time with his bees, and he was fast 

 breaking down. His son's wife, with whom he 

 stayed when working with the bees, worried 

 because she feared her cooking was not equal 

 to that of her mother-in-law. Finally a Chris- 

 tian woman, one of the W. C. T. U.. I think, 

 suggested that the whole trouble was tolidrco. 

 C. is a man of sense, and, instead of getting mad 

 because some one told him the plain truth, he 

 tried it. Presto! His appetite came hack, he 

 fleshed up. and now he is getting jiouiuj again. 

 He said it was a hard fight; but when it was as 

 plain as the nose on a man's face, who wouldn't 

 fight the demon? My own father had a similar 

 experience. He had his youth renewed, after 

 he had used tobacco for more than tlian thirty 

 years. Now. I wish I could leave my tobacco- 

 story right here: but I am afraid I can not. if I 

 am fair and truthful. Friend C. gave up smok- 

 ing — chopped it right square ofl': but he chews 

 yet — " just a leetle." He says he can quit that 

 too if he has a mind to. but yet he doesn't. He 

 is a Methodist, one of the good old-fashioned 

 kind, and he knows he ought to quit. Shall we 

 not pray that tht^ Holy Spirit from on iiigh may 

 give him grace to shoulder this cross? He is 

 the man, you may remember, who told the 

 company who wanted his farm, to build on it a 

 great distilh-ry, that they couldn't have it for 

 any amount of money, even if he were poor and 

 badly in debt; and when they urged and tri(>d 

 to tempt him he said. " Get thee behind me. Sa- 

 tan," and he stuck to it, even though it cost him 

 something like a couple of thousand. He was 

 a Jtero when it came to '-conscience or money;" 

 but a little pinch of tobacco is a stumbling- 

 block. 



