836 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



for the whereabouts of Mr. Theodore Rey- 

 nolds. 



"Oh, yes!" said the man; "Mr. Reynolds 

 lives over in the colony;" and, pointing across 

 the plain, called my attention to a long stretch 

 of green trees extending miles up and down. 

 "You see that red roofed building through 

 the trees ? That is a new schoolhouse. Mr. 

 Reynolds lives near it. It is two miles out 

 there." 



Those green trees gave me assurance that I 

 should find my friend in better circumstances 

 than I had feared, and I trudged over the two 

 miles with a lighter heart. Before I had cov- 

 ered .the two miles I knew that good people 

 lived there, for eve^y one, old or young, had 

 a bow and a smile for the stranger who was 

 approaching their town. It was an agreeable 

 change from what I had been used to in Los 

 Angeles, where every one rushes past you as 

 though you were of no more account than a 

 hitching-post. 



Here by the schoolhouse I met my last man, 

 who pointed out the residence of my old 

 friend. It was embowered in fruit and other 

 trees, and flowers filled the ample space in 

 front of the house; all betokened prosperity. 

 I confess that my heart beat a little faster as I 

 approached. 



Twenty years and their changes ! would 

 they know me ? and were they their former 

 good selves? " Yes," I almost shouted, as a 

 woman came to the door. "That is Jane, 

 just as natural as ever; and her first exclama- 

 tion, " Whv, Johnnie Rambler, as I live! how 

 do you do?" Then Theodore came limping 

 from an inner room. He too gave me a cor- 

 dial greeting. He had several twists of rheu- 

 matism corked up in his leg, but it did not 

 diminish the old friendship a particle. We 

 all got aboard a train of conversation that 

 night, and did not get off and to bed until 

 after midnight. 



Mr. Reynolds came out here from Nebraska 

 some seven years ago with a company of peo- 

 ple from that State, to found this colony. I 

 did not expect to find any thing of interest to 

 bee-keepers here, so was agreeably surprised 

 to find that I had stumbled into quite a good 

 bee locality, and that my friend had quite an 

 apiary. He had been interested in bees about 

 as long as I had; in fact, we once bought all 

 the btes a neighbor had, away back in New 

 York, and divided them between us. That 

 was years ago; but the memory of it still lin- 

 gered, and here he was again dabbling with 

 bees. 



I asked my friend how many colonies he 

 had, and he guessed he had about sixty. 

 " But," said he, "I'll count them to be sure." 



Out through the peach-orchard, along the 

 irrigating-ditch, back of the hen house, and 

 in various other places, and he reported that 

 he guessed there were sixty-five of them. I 

 concluded that my friend had too many irons 

 in the fire, as the old saying has it, and was 

 allowing the bee-iron to burn, and he agreed 

 with me, and then and there he made me such 

 an offer on a bee-trade that I was sorry I had 

 agreed to go further north; but my promise 

 was made, and north I must go. At my visit 



in the first week in April the bees were swarm- 

 ing, and all new swarms were being put into 

 new Dovetailed hives, and I had the pleasure 

 of helping hive a few swarms, and to show 

 my friend how to transfer colonies from box 

 hives. I am quite sure that he will work into 

 a first-class bee-keeper if he devotes more 

 time to his bees and less to his ranch. "When 

 he came to the colony he performed just as 

 they do in Nebraska — wanted land, and 

 bought forty acres. Owing to the fertility of 

 soil here, that was twenty acres too much, and 

 the care of it keeps the family busy all the 

 time. 



The most extensive bee-keeper in the colo- 

 ny is Mr. Burr Ray, who has an apiary of 200 

 colonies. In 1897 he produced from 160 col- 

 onies 12 tons of honey. I found his apiary 

 not a particle more orderly than many I had 

 seen in the southern portion of the State; but 

 he gets a good crop of honey every year. In- 

 stead of sending it to commission houses, he 

 spends several months on the road, and dis- 

 poses of his honey to all who are disposed to 

 be sweetened. In this way he gets a fair 

 price for his honey 



Bee-keepers further south had heard of this 

 little paradi^e, and the Flory Bros, had moved 

 a large apiary to within two miles of Mr. Ray. 

 I do not know whether Mr. Ray was at all 

 anxious about it or not; but it would be no 

 more than human for him to look a little jeal- 

 ously that way sometimes. There are a few 

 other bee-keepers in the colony, and I have 

 no doubt their apiaries will grow, and the 

 field be well stocked. 



Mr. Steele, a near neighbor of my friend, 

 had a small apiary, and I was pleased to note 

 that he had the bees in Heddon hives. He 

 brought them with the bees all the way from 

 Nebraska; but in his case, as well as with 

 friend Reynolds, he had more irons than he 

 could attend to, and the bees were not in that 

 first class condition they should have been. 



The source of honey in this colony is alfal- 

 fa. There is a great abundance of water for 

 irrigation. It is brought from the vSan Joa- 

 quin River in a large canal 2o miles in length, 

 and the water never fails. 



Besides alfalfa there is other honey-produc- 

 ing flora, and my friend pointed out a little 

 white blossom upon a running vine that was 

 locally known as carpet grass, which produced 

 a fine quality of honey. 



The colony contains twelve square miles, 

 and it adjoins the great Miller ranch, which 

 contains the generous area of 180,000 acres. 



I was favorably impressed with the prosper- 

 ity of the colony; and should I mention the 

 extent of the crops of alfalfa and barley that 

 are produced here I fear some of my eastern 

 friends would think I was drawing on my im- 

 agination. The leading fruits on my friend's 

 ranch are peaches and prunes; but, besides 

 the above, he was growing apricots, pears, 

 plums, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, 

 quinces, oranges, lemons, olives, persimmons, 

 figs, all varieties of berries; and of nuts, the 

 almond, walnuts, and the chestnut. Dos Pa- 

 los certainly presents many features favorable 

 to the home- seeker. 



