ISifJ 



(JLKAXINCS IN HEECULTURK. 



543 



ings— weeds and hrusli. a harbor fctr verniiii and 

 destniotion to b(>t>s. and an iiieoiiveiiiciu'e in 

 manipiilatin!; lo the best advantaK'' and hi;,'h- 

 esi piolii. 1 lives, seelions, ete.. an' seatlered 

 aronnd, a tiaibor lor rats ami mice; tools, also. 

 in di.sorder. expt)sed to the weather, and good 

 ot>nibs exposed to thi' moth. One friend had a 

 ten-ineh mill fi'om yon. not iis(>d as yet. He 

 left it ont in rains and lofis. Our fogs are worse 

 than the rains to iient'trate and rnst tools. Hut 

 little thouglil is exercised for thi' same; and 

 these bee-ket'pei's. too. are men of intelligence. 

 Again, you will tiiid apiaries in prime condition 

 — order on every hand, and which it is a plea- 

 sure to visit. 



THK NEED OF OJ{I)KK IN THE AflAUV. 



It is a pleasure to me to have proper places 

 for my tools, hives, etc.. and to know where to 

 tind them without taking valuable time to hunt 

 them, and to have all in order for immediate 

 use. I'll allow for some disorder with some 

 from inconveniences: but general disorder is in- 

 excusable. I have a friend here whose disorder 

 and waste would keep an oidinary family. His 

 excuse would b<'. "" I haven't any time." His 

 lime is taken up in looking around for what he 

 wishes. The time so lost would, many times, 

 put it in its proper place, oesides resulting in the 

 preservation of the same. When a customer 

 wishes a certain article in a store. 1 wish to 

 wait upon him with the least possible delay, by 

 knowing where goods are. I do not expect per- 

 fection in any one. Laziness will cau.se disor- 

 der, or. at least, it is one cause. 



Now as to the season. To begin with, many 

 apiaries were starved out through the pa^t win- 

 ter: some were not able to feed, while others 

 did not realize their loss until too late; conse- 

 quently the amount of bees to begin the season 

 with was small coinpaicd with past seasons. 

 One cause of loss of bees was an unusually long 

 cold winter and backward or very late spring, 

 causing a greater consurapiion of honey. In 

 some sections last season bees did not gather 

 suflicient to carry them through an ordinary 

 winter. I'>y the time these weaker colonies were 

 strong the season was over, the stronger being 

 in prime condition for winter; consequently I 

 expect a greater loss of bees next spring than we 

 had during the past. 



As to the flow of honey, the requisites are. a 

 real wet winter and soaking late rains in spring, 

 keeping the vegetation and sages continually 

 growing. I have noticed that, if the sages have 

 a check in growth, they do not produce nectar 

 as freely: in other words, the stem gets hard, 

 and the bloom is not as thrifty; while, appar- 

 ently, the blooiTi seems healthy to the inexperi- 

 <'nced. Again, we have bad unusually drying 

 coast winds, or idse we should have bad a fair 

 crop of honey near the coast ( whci'e I anu. from 

 altilaree and other small vi'getation, although 

 we seldom get any-surplus from altilaree. 



Have you ever used excelsior for smoker fuel? 

 It makes a dense smoke. 



WOOD yLKEXEXCI.lTDEKS A FAlI.UKi:. 



I made a trial of 1(X) wood queen-excluders 

 last sea.son and this. They are a failure; with 

 rae, as the bees enlarge the cuts, and the queens 

 go above : and a few. where they were cut 

 smooth, did fairly. If hard wood wen; used in 

 its construction, and the apertures cut to a bev- 

 el (><) the bees would crawl through much 

 easier. The wood zinc is my prefenmce. 



.SAXTA CRUZ ISr..\NI) FOIJ (^lEEN-KEA |{I\(;. 



Since Rambler spoke of Santa Cruz Inland as 

 a good place to raise queens, I have taken a 

 trip over there to investigate. Tne island at 

 its nearest point is about rjfj miles from the 

 mainland. It is .30 miles long. 15 across. It is 



owned by .some San Francisco parties, and they 

 employ from :.'(K) to r)(K) men annually to work 

 upon it. They have 1'.' large ranch houses, all 

 connected liy ielephone. They have hail thou- 

 sands of head of shicp upon it; and of late 

 they are. as 1 was intormeO, changing to cattle. 

 Some vegetation dilt'eis from that on the main- 

 land. In all it is piclui'esque, and it would be a 

 l)leasure for you to visit it. I nearly forgot to 

 mcnition that, while a friend and 1 were walk- 

 ing over a mountain ridge, I was surprised to 

 lind nuuiy bei's at wt)rk: and. walking a short 

 distance further, we were reniinded of their 

 presence in force, my fi'iend making a hasty re- 

 treat, while I went to lind the cave close" by, 

 which an immense swarm was working to and 

 from, and which it was a n^al jileasure to wit- 

 ness. Theic were other bee-caves close by. but 

 I did not have time to go further, as my stay 

 was limited. I went over a small scope, but I 

 shall soon go over the whole island, as one of 

 the foremen has promised to show me around. I 

 shall also borrow a Kodak of one of my friends, 

 to take a few choice views for some of my 

 friends on the mainland. 



We had frost near me. on the second of this 

 month, at .'> a.m.. and at noon it was up to 80° in 

 the shade. This is unusual for this section. 

 This has been a very odd season indec^d. 



It will take ten tons of honey to winter my 

 bees properly for another honey-How in 1S1«. 



THE ROOT BEE-TENT. 



I am Using your tent for inspecting bees. It 

 is very handy. I'd suggest some material much 

 stronger than the mosquito- bar. It is easily 

 torn, and the bees crowd out through the ridge, 

 for I use it also during swarming time.. I set 

 the tent over the swarm, and attend to some 

 other swarm. When I return, the swarm is 

 clustered at the ridge. I think I shall have a 

 number of those tents another season. I tind 

 them convenient for other purposes. I should 

 not wish to be without them, and shall have 

 them in each of my apiaries. The tent is a la- 

 bor-saving device. " M. H. Mendei.son. 



Ventuia. Cal.. June ll. I8'.t:i. 



[Our readers will recognize the writer as the 

 one whose portrait and apiary Rambler gave on 

 pages 4f)3 and 463. The slotted wood separators 

 were first introduced to us, we think, some- 

 where in the latter "TO's; but just exactly by 

 whom, and when, we can not now say. The 

 spring has been before suggested by one of your 

 old California bee-keepers. We use the wooden 

 key because it is much cheaper. ' We use the 

 excelsior, or such as comes from handholes of 

 hives, to the exclusion of all other fuel.] 



EAMBLE 63. 



ON THE SIDE TltACK; .STRAY STRAWS AND 

 LON(i STRAWS. 



The Rambler in his travels has many times 

 been run off upon a side track to let another 

 train pass; but as I watched the other train, 

 all at once that would apparently stop and my 

 train would be the one apparently going; and 

 how nicely our train did glide without a tremor! 

 but .just as I began to r<;joice at the; smooth and 

 rapid rate we were going, the trains parted, 

 and. behold. I hadn't been moving at all. Now, 

 there is a little moral to this. A great many 

 people imagine they are on the train, and go- 

 ing like Jehu. when, in fact, they are side-track- 

 ed, and are standing stock still. 



P^very now and then some one will arise, and, 

 right in the face of all the brilliant lights in 



