iM 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



435 



RAMBLE NO. 146. 



The Lot of a Tenderfoot; Prospects for the Coming 

 Season very Poor. 



BY RAMBLER. 



To Southern California there has been giv- 

 en a light rainfall this year ; and short crops, 

 empty pocketbooks, and a light grub-stake 

 will be the rule with a large class of people 

 who live upon dry ranches. The entire grain 

 crop on such ranches will be a failure ; our 

 sugar-beet industry will be crippled to the 

 extent of several hundred thousand dollars ; 

 even the irrigated districts will 

 not escape some shortage in r }, - , i 

 crops, for the rainfall has not 

 been sufficient to fill the moun- 

 tain springs and reservoirs. The 

 bee-keeper south of the Tehach- 

 api range of mountains will feel 

 this condition of things as keenly 

 as any class. 



There are not a few who make 

 the honey business their chief or 

 only source of income. Here in 

 this cosy nook in the foot-hills 

 is a little cabin, a little wife and 

 a little child or two. The man 

 at the head of it has pardonable 

 pride if he desires to make an 

 earthly paradise for himself and 

 loved ones ; the roughnt ss of the 

 little cabin is hidden under the 

 drooping branches of a pepper- 

 tree, and the climbing rose and 

 sweet-scented flowers surround 

 the home. Five or ten acres are 

 set to fruit-trees ; and, though he 

 came to California with a few 

 hundred dollars, he has spent it 

 all, and, ten chances to one, he is 

 quite a little in debt. Not much 

 revenue will be derived from the 

 fruit-trees for at least five years, 

 and something must be done to 

 tide the little family over until 

 the place becomes a pa} ing in- 

 vestment. Our rancher had 

 some knowledge of bees when he 

 lived away back east, and now far 

 back in the canyon he starts an 

 apiary. 



With a succession of fair honey- 

 yields there is no business that 

 can be taken up and increased 

 with such light expense, and so 

 quickly, as bee-keeping ; and 

 even when the honey is sold at 

 a low price the apiary becomes the 

 main support of the family. Un- 

 der such circumstances it is easy to imagine 

 how a total failure of the honey crop will 

 bring anxiety into the little family circle. 



There is another class of bee-keepers, mostly 

 unmarried men, otherwise known as bachelors, 

 who own no fruit-ranch, no land, no rib, no 

 kid ; they live on canned goods and flapjacks 

 for half the year, and ' ' blow in " a good share 

 of their earnings during the next six months. 

 I now have in mind one of this class who 



received a good amount of cash for his honey 

 crop, came to town, flashed out in fine clothes, 

 dined and wined expensively, cultivated mu- 

 sical tastes on the piano, and also trained his 

 light fantastic toe in a dancing-school. With 

 expenses in other light accomplishments it is 

 needless to say that, after a year's total failure 

 of the honey crop, he is glad to get back to his 

 cabin and his bees with the little he has left. 



The Rambler does not belong to either of the 

 above classes. He has an apiary but no fruit ; 

 he also has the fantastic toe, but it performs its 

 fantasies in climbing mountains, crossing val- 

 leys, and descending into rugged canyons; here 



B. S. K. BENNETT'S APIARY, IN I,OS ANGELES, CAL. 



there is no use for a piano, for there is music 

 in the waterfall, in the song of the mocking- 

 bird, in the howl of the coyote ; even the gen- 

 tle evening breeze that lulls you to sleep has 

 its place in nature's symphony. 



To sit on rocks, to muse over flood and fell, 



To slowly trace the forests' shady scene, 



Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 



And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been; 



To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, 



With the wild flock that never needs a fold, 



