846 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. n 



ranch several years, and was among the first 

 settlers. We also advised him to join the 

 Union and let his neighbor run against some- 

 thing that might astonish him. 



When we came away we felt as though we 

 had cheered up our friend, and we hope he will 

 remain cheered up. 



When we departed we called upon a fruit- 

 drying concern; and from the foreman, who is 

 also interested in bees, we learned that, in dry- 

 ing peaches or any other fruit that is fumigat- 

 ed with sulphur, the bees seldom if ever touch 

 it, while the yellow wasps will continue their 

 depredations. Our foreman threw in the re- 

 mark, that many fruit- men didn't know the 

 difference between wasi)s and bees, and were 

 always n-ady to curse them all under one head, 

 and put all the blame on the apiary that might 

 be in sight. 



We stopped at the fruit-drying camp for din- 

 ner; and after seeing the chief cook scour the 

 knives and forks by jabl)ing them down ijito 

 the ground a few times, we returned to Los 

 Angeles, feeling well repaid for our journey, or, 

 at least, that feeling was enjoyed by the 



Rambler. 



THE WHEEL OF 1892. 



WHAT ITS PROBABLE EFFECT WILL BE, PHYS- 

 ICALLY, FINANCIALLY, AND MORALI-Y. 



Lest some of the friends may complain that I 

 am taking up too much space for the wheel 

 business, I wish to say that we have added 

 eight extra pages to this issue, in order to make 

 up for this long article that seems to me should 

 come in right liere, if we expect to keep up ful- 

 ly with the times. 



In taking up this matter, as I feel moved to 

 take it up, the first thing tiiat confronts me is 

 the fact that a great part of our people have 

 but little money to spend for wheels or any 

 thing else in that line. Bee-keepers, as a rule, 

 have had another poor season, and farmers 

 generally, as well as market-gardeners, have 

 had a rather hard time. In consequence of un- 

 favorable weather, the crops have been poor 

 and labor has been high. There seems to be a 

 little discrepancy here; and, by the way, do 

 not these •' calarnity " people lose sight of this 

 very discrepancy? If one of the farmer's 

 troubles is, that labor is so high that he can not 

 afford to hire men, then surely the laborers 

 must be the gainers if he is the loser. These 

 men, therefore, who work for higli wages are 

 the ones who can afford to buy the wheels; 

 and I believe it is the class generally who work 

 for wages who are the owners of wheels. 

 Notwithstanding this, however, a great amount 

 of money is being invested in wheels. As I 

 write, th(>. wheel of 1893 is a craze. Perhaps I 

 should apologize for using the word " wheel " 

 instead of saying '"Safety bicycle;" but I feel 

 satisfied that any word that is on the tongue of 

 so many people so constantly should be a short 

 one. Most of you remember when we used to 

 say "telegraphic dispatch." Go-ahead Young 

 Amei'ica, however, could not tolerate two such 

 long clumsy words, and pretty soon " telegram " 

 came of itself. No one stopped to inquire 

 whether it was in the dictionary or not. By 

 and by, even " telegram " was too long and 

 hard to remember, and now, at least in busi- 

 ness circles, the plain simple term "wire " has 

 taken its place. If a man is going rapidly on a 

 moving train, he can call to liis friend, " Wire 

 me at my expense;" and there are lots of such 

 contingencies in every busy man's life, where 

 he has but a moment to make his wishes under- 

 stood. A hired man is going in one direction to 



the field, and another is going in another direc- 

 tion. Before they are out of sight the boss 

 wants to make suggestions and give orders to 

 both of them; therefore we want plain simple 

 words that everybody may understand. For 

 this reason I say " wheel." A few days ago a 

 traveling man, a strangei', left a pair of valua- 

 ble gloves on our lunch counter. One of the 

 waiters brought them to me just as his carriage 

 was disappearing in the distance, drawn by a 

 couple of smart ponies. I stood with the gloves 

 in ray hand, my mouth wide open, waiting to 

 decide what to do. Somebody sang out, " Jump 

 on your wheel I" Almost before the words were 

 out of his mouth I was pushing on the pedals. 

 I kept him in sight enough so I could see him 

 turn the corner, then the team started rapidly 

 down a decline. By this time I was just flying. 

 I could not make him hear, so I outstripped his 

 ponies, and ran in front of him while he was 

 going down a pretty steep hill at a pretty good 

 rate. He was a good deal surprised when I 

 brought his team to a standstill, and I was too 

 much out of breath to do any thing more than 

 extend to him his gloves. -Now, there are 

 thousands of times in life when the wheel will 

 help us out of such emergencies. It afforded 

 me no little gratification. I assure you, to dis- 

 cover that I could, when circumstances make it 

 necessary, "run faster than a horse;" and I 

 sometimes tell the friends, after I have made a 

 long trip, that I can not only run away from a 

 horse, but that I can almost eat like one. If 

 the latter expression is too sla,ngy, you can skip 

 that part of my talk. 



So much by way of introduction. It illus- 

 trates, however, that the wheel is destined to 

 be something more than a craze. The results 

 secured by it are too substantial and important 

 to be a craze and nothing more. Last week 

 Mr. Calvert wanted to attend a church confer- 

 ence, nine miles distant. He did not wish to be 

 out of the office any longer than necessary. He 

 made the distance on his wheel in just 45 min- 

 utes, notwithstanding he weighs 174 lbs., and a 

 sprained ankle has been troubling him for two 

 years past, making it very difficult for him to 

 walk even half a mile. In fact, physicians 

 have been telling him for a few months back, 

 that, if he keeps on his feet as he has been do- 

 ing, he must submit to a painful surgical oper- 

 ation. Well, his sprain has iVn proved since he 

 lipgan riding the wheel instead of going on foot. 

 The philosophy of it seems to be in the fact 

 that tlie weight of the body is supported on the 

 wheels. The wheels have pneumatic tires, 

 and the ball bearings have been so perfected 

 that the wheels probably move with less fric- 

 tion than any thing the world ever knew of un- 

 til within recent times. As a piece of mechan- 

 ism this modern wheel is the achievement of 

 the present age. You may say a horse and 

 buggy will do at least pretty nearly as well; 

 but it takes a good deal of time to hitch up a 

 horse; and it is rather expensive to keei) one so 

 that you may have it ready at hand to be 

 hitched up. While the wheel costs almost as 

 much (that is, it does just now) as a moderate- 

 priced horse and buggy, it requires no hitching 

 up, no feed, and there can not very well be any 

 cruelty to animals ta attach to it, even if for- 

 gotten and neglected. 



Probably one of the great results brought 

 about by the wheel will be that one may live 

 five or ten miles out of the city, and easily be 

 on hand during business hours, and that, too, 

 without any expense worth mentioning. Of 

 course, we must have better roads than we find 

 in country districts or country towns, if we ex- 

 pect to use the wheel in all kinds of weather. 

 And this wheel business has already awakened 

 our people to the fact that one of the greatest 



