18<)0 



GLEANINC.S IN UEE CULTURE. 



509 



od. ami wo procoodod on foot. A .^^iiitablo placo 

 was foiiiui for lofatins: an auiaiy. Tlir [)asUii- 

 asr*^ was fcitainly unlimited, hut it looUtnl like 

 a dn>ary spot to a man inst from the East; hut 

 1 siijiposc, (Mc this will he rcaii. Mf. K. will 

 liavf an apiary in full blast in tlicrc. 

 C'TIh' oKi Spaniai'd had a few rattle on his 

 ranoli, and had also made iiimself famous a 

 few months pn<vioiis by lassoing a bear that 

 was i)i'o\\ lintr ai'ound his pi-emis(>s. 

 ' I found, dui'ini; th(> cabin experience, tiiat 

 Mr. K. was an excellent cook. He could maUe 

 cotTee. take beef out of a can. and slice bread 



i"ust as iiandily as a woman. Duriii); our stay 

 If. R. pave me the choice of sleeping in a strad- 

 dling sort of cot or on the Iloor. 1 chose the 

 floor, and was pleased to see him mount the cot 

 and pili^ blankets on top of ids corporosity wliih; 

 Jh> had nothing but canvas under lum. The 

 night being ipiite cool, and being attacked from 

 that quarter, my friend's slumbers were much 

 agitated with dreams. 



On the morning of the third day we broke 

 camj) and started for civilization. My friend 

 felt it his duty to bid good-by to all the lone 

 widows, who seemed to be abundant in the 

 canyon. 



There are several apiaries in the canyon. 

 Mrs. I>yon and daughter have an apiary, and a 

 very pretty home completely embowered in 

 shade and fruit trees; and in the season of 

 flowers the rose lends its charm to beautify the 

 surroundings. These ladies are also lieroines 

 in their exploits with wild animals. A moun- 

 tain-lion came down upon their fold one night, 

 and. having no man around to call upon, they 

 went out and shot the lion themselves. Such 

 is the grit possessed by the women of Matilija 

 Canyon. A little further down, Mr. Lewis has 

 a large apiary, and runs his extractor by weight 

 power. The machine was not visible. It was 

 behind locked doors, and there was nobody at 

 home. At another point we see, away across 

 the river, the Hellow apiary, and the owner 

 means that everybody passing that way shall 

 know it, for the words are painted on the end 

 of his cabin in letters over a foot long, which 

 can be read a mile away. I have no doubt about 

 the proprietor's .'sociability, for his cheery, 

 warm-liearted greeting is always there if he is 

 not. 



I parted with my friend Rapp on the streets 

 of Ventura, and shall ever hold in grateful 

 remembrance the many kind bee-keepers who 

 reside in Ventura, that beautiful city fanned 

 by the breezes of old P'acilic, and lulled to re- 

 pose by the music of her dashing waves. That 

 evening, in order to make railroad connections, 

 I left Ventura a little more abruptly than I 

 intended to. and again the ratth; and turmoil of 

 a train was the music that surrounded the 



Rambler. 



[Now, friend R., you have gone and trodden 

 on and run over a good many things that are 

 almost sacred to my memory. It is not .so. that 

 I carried Medina soil all the way to the hot 

 springs of Matilija. Mrs. Root would have 

 never married me if I had done that way. That 

 Matilija Canyon is one of the things of nature 

 that makes my heart swell when 1 think of it. 

 Your description of it is grand, especially where 

 you come on to me, lixed up like a wild Indian 

 on the war-path. Your description of the way 

 in which bee-keepers go up there and get shut 

 in by the high waters is a real truth; and it 

 seems to me a little sad to think that, not- 

 withstanding the immensi' yields of honey that 

 this wilderness affords, most people sooner or 

 later abandon it. The jncture of riding 'n a 

 cart down the canyon is wonderfully lifelike; 

 and the old inhabitants have a provoking way of 



looking so cool and indilTerent, exactly like the 

 man in the picture who sits by your side, that it 

 used to vex me. The pony, too. will walk right 

 straight through heaps of rocks half a big as 

 liiinself, with the utmost indilTerence; tluwi the, 

 occupants of the Nchii'le won't e\en make a re- 

 mark or lose the smile on their faces, even wln^n 

 they are shaken about in a way that must dis- 

 lodge all their fals(> teeth — if they have any. I 

 found out, after my last visit, that there was an 

 apiary and a hot Uir spring up there. Why! I 

 thouglit I was chuir to th(! borders of civili/.a- 

 tit)n. l{y the way. I wondei- wluither anybody 

 could kee]) climbing for ever, furth(!r on into 

 tliose wild t'anyons. Yes, no doubt Ventura is 

 a nice place to live in; and what lots of good 

 people are to be found there! Now, in regard 

 to your remark that it is the Devil's Slide that 

 makes the spring water so hot. Why, friend 

 R., have you forgotten that we gave a most 

 beautiful picture* of the i)lace whefe his Satanic 

 Majesty is reputed to have slidden down? You 

 will lind it on p. 27, .Ian. 1st issue, '8'.).] A. I. R. 



ftUESTIONS ANSWERED. 



FACT.S FKO.M OI5SEIJVATION, BY DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes: "Will you please 

 answer the following questions through (Ji.kan- 

 iNGs? 1. What is the significance of lindingin 

 the morning, say from twenty to fifty little 

 round caps of wax near the entrances of the 

 hives?" 



Answer.— So far as ray observation goes, the 

 finding of such caps signifies that drones are 

 hatching out; for if any one will take the time 

 to examine, he will find that the drone, in 

 hatching from the cell, bites the cover of the 

 cell entirely off by a smooth cut, while the 

 workers leave only fragments of the cappings 

 of their cell-coverings in hatching. The queen 

 cuts off the capping of her cell the same as does 

 the drone, except, as a rule, a little piece on one 

 side is left, which often acts like the hinge to 

 a door, the door often closing after the queen 

 has gone out. Where no such hinge is left, 

 then the caps to the queen-cells are tumbled 

 out of the hive the same as are the drone cap- 

 pings. but in no case would there probably be as 

 many caps from queen-cells seen as our cor- 

 respondent mentions. If the little door thus 

 closes as spoken of above, the bees often make 

 it fast, so that the inexperienced bee-keeper is 

 often deceived into thinking that the queen has 

 not hatched. It often happens, as soon as the 

 queen has emerged from her cell, that a worker 

 goes into the cell to partake of the royal jelly 

 left in the cell, after which the cell-cover flies 

 back, or is pushed back by the ever traveling 

 bees, and the worker is a prisoner, which has 

 caused many to think that the inmate of the 

 cell was not a queen but a worker; hence they 

 call their colony queenless, and send off for a 

 queen, only to have her destroyed when they 

 try to introduce her. It is well to understand 

 all of these little things in bee culture. Some 

 suppose that the round ca|)S spoken of by the 

 corres|)ondent indicate the uncapping of cells 

 of lioney. either by robbers or preparatory to 

 tlie carrying of the honey from the outside to 

 the center of the hive: but I think this is a 

 mistake, as the cappings of the honey-cells are 

 gnawed off in little fragments, and not in the 

 round form spoken of. 



"2. In gathering honey, do bees visit different 

 kinds of llowers on one trip, or gather honey 

 from one kind of flowers only?" 



Answer. — From the fact that bees never bring 

 in pollen of different colors in their pollen-bas- 

 kets at the same time, the idea has obtaiiK'd 



