n 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



311 



With this shorter length the bees can cover 

 all the combs, and mold is prevented. 



The doctor's product is rearly all comb 

 honey, and he sells it in the home market at 

 10 cts. per lb. He complains that the farmer 

 bee-ke pers sometimes ruin his market by 

 selling their honey at a lower price than is 

 necessary. Said he, "I should like to see 

 some of those fellows who can write so glibly 

 about selling honey in the home market just 

 come here and try it about the time our farm- 

 ers bring in their honey. I'd like to have 

 them show me how to do it." 



The doctor informed me that, though he had 

 sold thousands of hives, there are not many 

 bee-keepers in Oregon who are in the business 

 extensively or exclusively. There are but few 

 in the Willamette Valley and to the south. 

 The greater number are in the northern por- 

 tion of the State. 



THE WAY THEY GROW CHERRIES IN OREGON. 



The seasons are variable in this portion of 

 Oregon. In one of the extra seasons, the 

 doctor had produced 200 lbs. of comb honey 

 from one colony of bees, and on one occasion 

 one colony stored 150 lbs in ten days from 

 fruit-bloom. The doctor did not say what 

 particular fruit was most plentiful around 

 Salem ; but one can readily imagine that, if 

 bees were near one of those large cherry - 

 orchards which are plentiful in some parts of 

 Oregon, the bees could do a good business in 

 their vicinity. White clover makes a rank 

 growth here ; and when the weather is favor- 

 able bees do well upon it ; but the doctor has 

 known it to be so rainy during the height of 

 the bloom that the bees would not get a drop 

 of honey from it. I suppose it is just as ag- 

 gravating to the Oregon bee-keeper to have 

 such an abundance of water as it is for us here 

 in California to have such a meager supply. 



It is needless to say that I passed two agree- 

 able hours with Dr. Chase ; and when I left 

 him I mentally hoped that the blessed bees 

 would again give him success. 



The grocer and the doctor gave me direc- 

 tions how to find another bee-keeper who lived 

 two miles out of town ; but the misty condi- 

 tion of the weather, and the fact that, through 



the blunder of the baggage-smasher, my bicycle 

 had been sent on to Portland, caused me to 

 leave in pursuit of it. 



At Salem I had a choice of routes to Port- 

 land, either by rail or water. The Willamette 

 River is navigable over the intervening 52 

 miles for quite large boats, and much further 

 up for smaller ones. 



At Oregon City, 13 miles from Portland, the 

 river cuts its way through the basalt rocks, 

 and a portion of the city has a very pictur- 

 esque appearance perched upon the summit of 

 a cliff. The river here plunges over a fall of 

 42 feet, and gives an immense waterpower, 

 which is utilized for large woolen, paper, and 

 other mills, besides having an electric plant 

 which supplies Portland and all the surround- 

 ing towns with light and power. A canal 

 with locks allows steamers to pass this barrier. 

 The Willamette Valley, which I entered 

 over the Calipooia Mountains, 

 is about 150 miles in length by 

 an average of 75 in width ; and 

 it is most fertile and productive. 

 Its output of wheat in 1897 was 

 over 7,000,000 bushels. I found 

 that much of the land was held 

 in tracts of 640 acres. The first 

 settlers were given that amount. 

 Although the valley is the most 

 thick ly settled of any portion of 

 Oregon, it would bear a much 

 greater population should these 

 large holdings be broken up. I 

 also find that land is not held 

 at such high valuation as in Cal- 

 ifornia. I am informed that 

 prices range from §5.00 to $35.00 

 per acre. 



Oregon, as the reader may 

 know, is divided into East and 

 West Oregon by the Cascade 

 range of mountains. While the 

 eastern portion is at a higher elevation, and 

 colder, the western portion enjoys an equable 

 temperature ; and while it is termed Webfoot 

 on account of the amount of the rainfall, the 

 precipitation is no greater than it is in New 

 York or the New England States. I mention 

 these facts because I have received inquiries 

 from the home-seeker about Oregon. In my 

 humble judgment it is better for a young man 

 to make his home in some of these fertile far- 

 western States, where a few acres will produce 

 more than a hundred on the stony hills of 

 the far East. Bee-keeping can be run in con- 

 nection with fruit-raising ; and as the trees 

 become more plentiful and larger, the possi- 

 bilities of honey from that source alone are 

 encouraging. Just imagine the work there 

 would be for an apiary near a cherry or prune 

 orchard of several thousand trees in full 

 bloom ! The western counties of the State 

 seem to be the natural home of the cherry, 

 and it can grow to its greatest perfection only 

 where the bee can perform its work of fertil- 

 ization. 



There were bee-keepers of more or less local 

 note near the little towns of Oregon City and 

 Milwaukie; but they were out a few miles, and 

 the mist and the mud presented an insuper- 



