1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



211 



a good price, and now with his wife and niece 

 he is to winter again in our beautiful city ; 

 and just think how luck will chase around 

 after some people ! He has a small apiary al- 

 ready. The very house he rented, and behind 

 the wainscotting of the very room he occu- 

 pies, there is a fine swarm of bees. All he 

 has to do is to rap on the wall in the night, 

 and say, " Are you there, my pets ? " and for 

 answer there comes a bu-z z-z. But now I 

 have a sequel to my little story. Mr. McNay 

 has concluded to make Los Angeles his per- 

 manent dwelling-place, and has purchased a 

 fine residence in the fashionable portion of the 

 city. Here is an example for almost any of 

 those prosperous Eastern bee-men. I can not 

 really understand why Wisconsin should be so 

 extra prosperous ; butitmustbe, for there is 

 another bee-keeper from Ashland, that State, 

 and his wife is with him. This is Mr. Smith — 

 John, I guess. He called just to see the Ram- 

 bler, and he said there was another bee-man 

 in Wisconsin who told him not to fail to call 

 upon the Rambler if he ever struck Los An- 

 geles. I was somewhat under the weather 

 when Mr. Smith called, and when I made a 

 remark about my condition he hitched his 

 chair up close and remarked that he was very 

 deaf. " Oh dear !" said I to myself ," I am 

 in for it now." But do you know Mr. Smith 

 was the best deaf man I ever talked to ? All 

 I had to do was to say a word now and then, 

 and Mr. Smith did the rest. Mr. Smith had 

 such a cheery, hearty way with him that I ac- 

 tually felt better for his little visit. When he 

 went away he said his wife wanted to see me, 

 " and," said he, " she is a greater talker than 

 I am." "Merciful heavings ! " said I, "is 

 that possible ? " But he didn't hear me. I 

 am sure I shall have a good visit with Mrs. 

 Smith. I think the more of these Wisconsin 

 people we get here the better it will be for us. 

 I expect that Mr. C. A. Hatch will drop in 

 upon me some day in the future. Mr. Hatch 

 is a very good man, but a little premature on 

 the housekeeper problem — i. e., housekeeper 

 for the Rambler. I suspect Mr. Smith will be 

 a little troublesome in the same way. 5 



. NO RAIN FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.7~J 

 At this date, Feb. 9, we bee-men are getting 

 anxious again about rain. Jan. 3 was the last 

 rainfall we had, and things begin to look dry, 

 and some of us begin to feel like flying to 

 some other portion of the country, and even 

 this flying may be to ills that we know not of. 

 I was in my apiary yesterday, thinking of the 

 ills that would come if we had another month 

 of such weather, when there came a h-e-1-1-1-1- 

 l-o ! I thought he strung the / out rather long, 

 but I shouted back a passably cheerful h e-1-1- 

 l-o ! and who should make his appearance but 

 Bro. Brodbeck? Well, we had a blue talk. I 

 tried to be bluer than he was, but I couldn't 

 match him ; and before he went away I felt 

 like apologizing to him for even trying to be 

 bluer than he was. Well, if we have no more 

 rain this winter there will be not a few blue 

 bee-keepers. But we bee-men always part 

 with the remark, "Of course, we shall have 

 plenty of rain yet ; there is time enough in 



March and April," and, having said this, we 

 try to feel happy. 



WILD DREAMS. 



Glad you came to my defense upon that au- 

 tomobile matter, Mr. Editor. Dr. Miller terms 

 it Rambler's " wild dream," and Editor York, 

 in the Anier. Bee Joiirnal, terms it "sport- 

 ive." Now, to come down to solid facts, there 

 is nothing wild or sportive about it — it is a 

 thing and a factor to be. Why, Dr. Miller, 

 don't you know that every invention, either 

 great or small, was at one time a wild dream, 

 or a mere figment of the imagination ? 



BEE-KEEPING AND BELGIAN-HARE GROWING 

 COMBINED. 



You will remember that Mr. McNay and 

 the Rambler went on a Crow-hunt last winter. 

 Well, that Mr. Crow has gone daft upon the 

 rearing of Belgian hares. There is not a bee 

 in his bonnet now. It is pedigrees, and all 

 about does and other things. Los Angeles is 

 the head center of the hare business for the 

 United States. Within the past year it has 

 grown to mammoth proportions. I don't 

 know that there have been fortunes made from 

 the business ; but one thing is certain, there 

 is a chance for the bee-keeper who goes into 

 it to have something to live upon ; for, if hard 

 pressed, he can live upon his hares. They are 

 very good eating. To-day there is a large ex- 

 hibit of Belgian hares in the city — some three 

 hundred entries — and there is much enthusi- 

 asm. Several bee-keepers have transferred 

 their love from the busy bee to the quiet and 

 peaceful hare, and they think they have struck 

 something better than the uncertainties of 

 bee-keeping. I am thinking that the Belgian- 

 hare business could work well with bee-keep- 

 ing, and there will be no use of giving up one 

 to go into the other ; but run both, and make 

 a good thing out of each of them. It is pos- 

 sible the Rambler may make a run after the 

 hares. If he does I shall expect Murray to be 

 after him too. We shall see what we shall see 

 later. 



THE HOREHOUND PLANT IN CALIFORNIA. 



Horehound is quite abundant upon this 

 coast, and is classed as a valuable honey-plant. 

 The honey is quite dark, and flavor strong. 

 In some instances it gives a strong flavor and 

 a taint to the lighter grades of honey, and on 

 this account some of our bee-keepers are in- 

 clined to banish it. Horehound honey is, how- 

 ever, not so disagreeably strong as eucalyptus 

 honey. Many prefer a honey with a tang to 

 it. About the right amount is found in hore- 

 hound ; and I am sure that, if we could get a 

 good amount of straight horehound honey, it 

 could be sold for its medicinal properties. It 

 will, perhaps, be remembered by some of the 

 older bee-keepers that Mr. Hoge (so called) 

 of New York, some years ago, claimed to own 

 several California apiaries where the bees 

 gathered nothing but horehound, and under 

 the name of horehound honey it was sold for 

 its medicinal qualities. Mr. Hoge's California 

 apiaries were wholly fictitious, and the honey 

 ditto as far as horehound was concerned. It 

 was something like the "pure Vermont maple 

 syrup ' ' on sale in California — neither honey 



