25G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 1. 



brood law. Some States, I am told, make per- 

 sons ineligible to that office unless they were 

 born in the United States. If that does not 

 interfere he would honor such a position. 

 it/ 



Dr. Miller thinks catalpas are not of much 

 value for honey, although bees are plentiful 

 on them in the spring. Bees swarm on them 

 here, but the blossoms, I should judge, are des- 

 titute of honey. 



ifc 



Mr. Getaz begins with a serious investiga- 

 tion of the subject of "locality." He admits 

 it sounds like a joke, for, of late years, this 

 word has been used to account for every irreg- 

 ular and strange antic the bet-s cut up, a good 

 deal as some folks lay all their trouble to the 

 weather. He shows plainly how much his 

 management in Tennessee must vary from 

 that of a man living in the middle of New 

 York . 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES L 



H. MARTIN, 



I would sa}' to Bro. Wilkin, in reply to his 

 remarks upon page 9n, that I prefer the slat- 

 ted zinc hone}' -board for the reason that it at 

 all times has the proper bee-space, and the 

 fact that he has to peel it off from the hive is 

 a sufficient condemnation of it. It sags down, 

 holes get stopped, and unless there is more 

 care exercised than by the most of the Cal- 

 ifornia bee-keepers there will be many of the 

 bees killed when putting them on the hives. 

 In fact, there is no end to the evils of the 

 plain sheet-zinc honey board. 



The Chamber of Commerce of this city is 

 an up-to-date organization, and at this writ- 

 ing they are considering the feasibility of 

 producing rain by artificial means. Prof. T. 

 S. C. Lowe, the great balloonist of the Feder- 

 al armies during the rebellion, and now a 

 resident of Pasadena, has given the Chamber 

 many valuable suggestions in the line of rain- 

 making. Los Angeles spends many thousand 

 dollars nearly every year upon a fiesta, which 

 is ninety per cent foolishness. Prof. L. says 

 that an equal amount spent in an effort toward 

 rain-making would result in much good. He 

 says it is not necessary to bombard the skies 

 by firing cannon. The release of certain gases 

 and the creation of smoke will answer as well. 

 I hope the experiments will be tried, and hope 

 to report the results a little later. 



I wish you would not allow Dr. Miller to 

 say so much about having hives with the 

 worse than useless hand-cleats clear across 

 the ends of hives. Of course, there is no ob- 

 jection to the doctor using such out-of-date 

 things, but what is the use of allowing him to 

 harp and harp upon it ? Say, doctor, if you 

 want to get such a tight grip upon your hives, 

 why not put on handles such as they use on 

 coffins? Don't allow yourself to use that pug- 

 nose affair recently illustrated in Gleanings. 



Get something substantial, as I have recom- 

 mended, and then stop harping about it, and 

 there would be a great relief to a long-suffer- 

 ing community who believe that simple hand- 

 holes are a good- enough handle to a bee-hive. 



Not long ago I received a honey-leaflet from 

 parties in Denver, and it had a beautifully il- 

 luminated cover, and I immediately recog- 

 nized the design and the coloring as one of 

 my long lost children. I was pleased to find 

 a good use made of it, and perhaps the Root 

 leaflet would be more effective with that or 

 some similar design. I fail to see where it 

 would be improper to use artistically illustrat- 

 ed honey-leaflets with as much vigor as that 

 used in advertising pickles or chow-chow. 



Bee hive manufacturers on this southern 

 coast are preparing for but not anticipating 

 much business during the coming season. 

 There will be any quantity of empty hives in 

 every apiary. We hear of quite a number who 

 have nothing now but empty hives. Mr. 

 Madary, supply-dealer of Central California, 

 put in a minute's appearance at the State as- 

 sociation meeting in January. He expects a 

 fair trade in his localit}-. Alfalfa yields 

 honey every year, for it is under irrigation. 

 The amount of the honey crop is, however, 

 dependent in a certain measure upon the at- 

 mospheric conditions, and these conditions 

 are better after a normal rainfall. 



The moving of bees is still a topic of inter- 

 est to our bee-keepers. Where to move is the 

 question. A Santa Monica man is about to 

 move a wagonload of bees into Inyo Co. This 

 involves a haul by team across the Mojave 

 Desert a distance of 150 miles. I do not envy 

 this man his job. 



Mr. W. T. Richardson and wife, who spent 

 several months in the East, have returned to 

 his ranch and his bees in the Simi Valley. He 

 reports better bodily health, but a sickly dry- 

 weather feeling when he considers bee-mat- 

 ters. A goodly number of his 1200 colonies 

 are still on deck, but a good amount of feed 

 will be necessary to carry them through the 

 season, provided it dees not rain. Our con- 

 versation in this country is regulated by that 

 proviso. 



Messrs. Wilkin and Mclntyre will move a 

 large number of bees into the Bakersfield 

 country. They think it will pay them, even 

 if they do not get much honey, or merely 

 enough to carry their bees through to another 

 season. 



Recently a young bee-keeper was holeling 

 up to ridicule some ideas of bees and bee- 

 keeping entertained by his best girl, when she 

 exclaimed, with some spirit, " Well, Charlie, I 

 have lived through two dry winters in this 

 country to some purpose. I am not so green 

 as I look." 



In sending queens to Jamaica by mail, a 

 customs declaration is not necessary. Some 

 parties sending us queens have made declara- 

 tions, thus causing delay at both ends of the 

 route. Jamaica Bee- supply Company. 



Mandeville, Jamaica, W. I., Nov. 9. 



