1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



617 



sons and daughters too numerous to mention. 

 Mr. Hatch and I had several bee conven- 

 tions that evening, and discussed the various 

 phases of the industry. Mrs. Hatch, and, in 

 fact, the whole family, are well posted in bee- 

 lore, and ought soon to graduate first-class 

 bee-keepers, for Mr. Hatch has put them 

 through a course of training in Wisconsin, 

 Arizona, California, and is now in Colorado; 

 and, after trying a few more States, he will no 

 doubt wind up in CaHfornia again. 



I think there was a lady present at some 

 stage of the evening's proceedings; but the 

 bee-question was of such absorbing interest 

 that I had no time to give much attention to 

 her except to note that she had a very pro- 

 nounced chin. When I see this characteristic 

 in a woman I am always shv of it, and I did 

 not make this case an exception. At an early 

 hour I wished to retire, and Irvin showed me 

 the room which I was to occupy with him, 

 and which was run in copartnership with the 

 Cole family. After lying awake half the 

 night trying to guess the motive Mr. Hatch 

 had in calling that chin to his house at that 

 particular time, I concluded to give up the 

 problem; and, if he asked me about my night's 

 rest, to turn it off with a joke. 



Accordingly, in the morning when he asked 

 the question about my night's rest I told him 

 the fact that I did not sleep half the night. 



" Why, what was the matter, Mr. Rambler?" 

 said Mr. Hatch. 



Said I, "Mr. Hatch, I did not think you 

 would serve me such a trick as yoii did last 

 night; besides, the weather being a little bit 

 warm you put me between two beds of live 

 Coles." 



"Live coals? how is that, Mr. Rambler? 

 I shall have to call Irvin to explain the matter 

 unless you can." 



" Certainly," said I; "that is easily done; 

 wasn't there Sam and Joe Cole in one bed and 

 Bill and Jim Cole in the other? and I guess 

 you would have thought them alive had you 

 heard their nocturnal gymnastics with legs, 

 arms, and lungs " 



" Oh ! I see7" said Mr. Hatch; " that was a 

 regular Cole pit, wasn't it? But Irvin stands 

 it, and I guess you can." 



Then I don't know whether Mr. Hatch 

 meant it as a counter- joke or not; but he said, 

 "See here, Mr. Rambler, I have an action 

 against you; that lady who was here last even- 

 ing felt as though you ignored her, and has 

 departed " 



"Thank fortune," said I;" and did she 

 take the chin with her? " 



Mr. Hatch ignored my remark, and contin- 

 ued, "You seel had arranged to have the 

 minister around here at an early hour; and 

 who knows, Mr. Rambler, but you might 

 have gone to Mount Wilson on your wedding- 

 tower ? ' ' 



" Wedding-tower? Why, Mr. Hatch, I'd not 

 have such a tower as that fall upon me for the 

 world; it woi:ld just crush all of the indepen- 

 dence out of me. I feel I have had a fortu- 

 nate escape." 



A little after breakfast the minister came 

 riding up in his canopy-top shay, and as fresh 



and smiling as a rosebud. He seemed in no- 

 wise disappointed at the turn affairs had taken. 

 Having quite a family of his own, and being 

 a sympathetic man, he desired as far as possi- 

 ble to help other men avoid trouble; and, as 

 though he wished me to get away from that 

 environment, said, "Mr. Rambler, we shall 

 take that tower to Mount Wilson, any way." 



Yes, he was a real good man; and the mem- 

 ory of him lingers with me. In accordance 

 with his wishes, Mr. Hatch and I mounted his 

 canopy-top shay, and away we whirled. 



We found Mr. Sturtevant at the foot of the 

 trail attending to the needs of the donkey- 

 riders ; several parties had gone up the trail 

 already. The first thing we attended to, how- 

 ever, was to investigate the apiary and the 

 bee-fixings. 



Land is valuable here, and, furthermore, 

 bees are liable to frighten people who go by 

 donkey up the trail; therefore the bees are 

 crowded back into the little canyon upon land 

 that is useful only to grow greasewood and 

 sage. Here the almost perpendicular side hill 

 is neatly terraced in a winding way, here 

 around a point and there curving into a gorge. 

 The photo shows only a small portion of the 

 apiary, and, owing to the numerous curves, it 

 was impossible for us to get a view of it as a 

 whole, as it numbers well up toward 200 col- 

 onies. 



In the photo before us the first man so well 

 protected is our friend the minister; the next 

 is the proprietor, Mr. vSturtevant; and the 

 next is that schemer Mr. Hatch. We saun- 

 tered around the pretty terraces, and canvass- 

 ed the prospects of a honey season. Mr. S. 

 despaired of getting nmch except from the 

 citrus bloom, which was then coming out, and 

 from which he hoped to get enough to save 

 from feeding his bees. 



Mr. S. uses the L. frame, and is introducing 

 a very shallow frame for extracting. The su- 

 per can be used either for holding sections or 

 frames; and the latter, I think, are only four 

 inches deep. One reason with Mr. S. for 

 using these shallow supers is to avoid the lift- 

 ing of heavy supers, which is quite an item 

 when the operation is performed all day, and 

 by a man not as strong as Goliah. 



Mr. Sturtevant's crop of honey was fair last 

 season; but owing to the prospective failure 

 this season, he had turned his attention to the 

 opening of a new trail to the north fork of the 

 San Gabriel River. Here he was laying out a 

 new 'camping-ground which I have no doubt 

 will be well patronized. For this new route 

 his donkey corral would have to be enlarged 

 with more donkeys. The donkeys for moun- 

 tain-climbing were quite valuable, and their 

 value increases with age and experience. 



We were duly mounted on our steeds for 

 the trail; and, while thus ready, the minister 

 snapped the camera at us. The donkeys all 

 have appropriate names, and Mr. Hatch was 

 mounted upon a warlike steed by the name of 

 Phil Sheridan. The name of my sad-eyedf 

 creature was Nelly Bly, while the minister 

 was mounted on one of the old members of 

 the band by the name of Noah. 



It is needless to say that our trip up the 



