136 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



find Marble Mountain, a region bnt little 

 known, and accessible only on pack animals, 

 but in point of grandeur the scenery ap- 

 proaches that of the Yosemite. 



Owing to these mountain barriers there is 

 no way of getting to the coast except over 

 these pack-trails; but directly west from Scott 

 Valley and Siskiyou Co. we find in the ex- 

 treme and obscure northwest corner of the 

 State the county of Del Norte. The only con- 



venient route whereby to get into this county 

 is by water from San Francisco to Crescent 

 City, the county-seat. I understand, however, 

 that around said city, and in the nearby towns, 

 is a good location for bees. Alfalfa is grown 

 there, and my informant spoke in glowing 

 terms of the abundance and good quality of 

 honey-dew. This gentleman was not then a 

 bee-keeper, but was engaged in the cattle 

 business; and from his point of view Del Norte 

 would be just the place for profitable bee- 

 keeping. His reasoning was from a cattle- 

 dealer's point of view, and as follows : The 

 owners of cattle in these mountains during 

 the long winter have to pay $6.00 per ton for 

 alfalfa hay. The same cattle could be winter- 

 ed in the Sacramento Valley for .$3.00 p r ton 

 for the feed. The natural supposition of the 

 uninitiated would be th it, from an economical 

 point of view, the cattle should be wintered 

 there. The cattle-dealer acknowledges that 

 there would be a saving if the cattle were 

 moved south ; but there is another and more 

 profitable end to the proposition. " Here in 

 the mountains," said the cattle man, " we are 

 just half way between San Francisco and 

 Portland, and w r e command both markets. If 

 the price of beef rules low in San Francisco we 

 ship to Portland, and vice versa." 



He thought the same rule would work well 

 in producing a large amount of honey in 

 Crescent City, and shipping the product by 

 water, as the case might be, to northern or 

 southern markets. There would certainly be 

 a great saving in freight rates, for shipping by 

 water is always economical. There is much 

 wisdom in this reasoning ; and perhaps it 



would be well for some of those who are be 

 coming disgusted with the dry seasons of: 

 Southern California to make a further inves- 

 tigation. 



While sojourning in Scott Valley I made a 

 radical change in my method of locomotion. 

 Whenever I have heretofore been siezed with 

 a bicycle fever it has usually ended in the 

 purchase of a horse and cart ; but here the 

 purchase of such an outfit meant the sale of it 

 again in a few weeks ; there- 

 fore, owing to all of the cir- 

 cumstances, my wheel-fever 

 took such an acute form this 

 time that one evening the 

 mail coach from Fort Jones 

 dropped off a brand - new 

 Cleveland wheel to my ad- 

 dress. We became quite 

 well acquainted in a short 

 time ; in fact, we became 

 boon companions ; and the 

 turns we had whirling along 

 the tortuous roads, through 

 the pine forests, stirring up 

 the crisp pine neeHles, and 

 breathing to the full the bal- 

 samic fragrance, are times 

 and seasons not to be forgot- 

 ten. 



We have roads in Siskiyou 

 County that will give the 

 rider in any conveyance all 

 the variety desired, and my 

 first essays on the wheel were full of thrill- 

 ing experiences. Just imagine the "thrilling 

 experience" of pushing the wheel ahead of 

 one's self up a steep mountain side, and then 

 just imagine sailing down the other side with 

 a large pine bough attached to the wheel frame 

 with a strong cord, and dragging in an un- 

 willing manner in the rear. This was my 

 only brake, and it worked well, and made the 

 verv welkin hide itself in the dust. But ex- 



perience is a great teacher, and I now have a 

 better brake method. I place the toe of my 

 shoe on the forward wheel just back of the 

 fork, and it gives such control that I can 

 approach the steepest grade without fear. 



I have before remarked that this is a great 

 game country. The mountain fastnesses are 



