32 



GI.IlAXIXGS in BtE CULTLkl!;. 



Jan. 1 



NOTES Of TRAVH 



t BY A. I.OOOT . 



While in Los Angeles we haii man^- side 

 trips, through the courtesy of the bee keep- 

 ing friends. Mr. J. W. P'erree, of Los An- 

 geles, was especiall}' busy in this work. I 

 do not know whether he owned the fine rig 

 that he took us around with or not; but I 

 suspect he got it at a livery-stable. Never 

 mind. We were royally looked after, how- 

 ever it was. In one part of the outskirts of 

 the city there is an industry that interested 

 ine greatly. It is not bees, but pigeons or 

 doves. We are told there are about 40,000 

 bees in a good colony. Well, someone said 

 this colony of doves comprised something 

 like jo,ooo, and they are all in one spot. 

 The air was literally filled with them; the 

 roofs of buildings in the vicinity were cov- 

 ered with them, and they were all the time 

 down at the creek getting water by the 

 hundreds if not thousands. Here is one 

 class of animals or birds, if you choose, that 

 does not seem to be troubled by being mass- 

 ed in great numbers. I think the man's 

 business is raising squabs. Perhaps some 

 of the Californians will tell us more about 

 It. I was told there did not seem to be anj- 

 4liflFiculty about having so many all in one 

 place, but perhaps it is because, like the 

 bees, they spend a great deal of their time 

 in the open air on the wing, where there is 

 no crowding. Some of the houses for them 

 were very pretty, with the entrances made 

 of different colors. I do not know whether 

 pigeons pick out their own domicil as bees 

 do, by instinct, or not. But it was a reve- 

 lation to me that this great number could 

 get along together without contagious dis- 

 eases getting in. Somebody said there was 

 some complaint made that they polluted the 

 waters of the creek. I do not know whj' 

 such an enterprise should be right in the 

 edge of so large a city. Why not have it 

 right out in the country? By the way, could 

 not a good business be done manufacturing 

 home-made guano at the same time? 



Friend Ferree dropped me at Mr. G. W. 

 Woodbury's, in Glendale. Our older read- 

 ers will remember I have written him up 

 once or twice before. W^hen I first visited 

 him he did not have any wife. Of course, 

 I remonstrated, as I always do. A few 

 years afterward I found him a happy man 

 with both wife and baby. Well, when I 

 called on him about a c'ozen years ago he 

 was using his leisure moments in leveling 

 down the mountain so as to make a nice lit- 

 tle spot for his home. I believe his ranch 

 is all on the side of the mountain. Now, I 

 am not certain he has been leveling off that 

 mountain all the while for a dozen years 

 past, but I found him still at the same job, 

 and a very pretty apiary indeed was plant- 

 ed on that leveled ground. By the way, 

 his good wife is now the bee-keeper. She 



takes care of the bees, and does pretty near- 

 ly all the work, if I am correct, while friend 

 W. can look after the town waterworks, 

 level down the mountain with his Daisy 

 wheelbarrow, or do whatever he likes. 

 Don't you see, friends, what a wonderful 

 advantage a married man has from det^in- 

 ning to end over the other fellow who "fool- 

 ed away " his life without getting married 

 at all?* 



You might think that the soil from the 

 mountain would not be very fertile. On the 

 contrary', many things grow with wonder- 

 ful luxuriance in this pulverized granite; 

 and some things grow without irrigation. 

 Mr. Woodbury showed us where he had 

 planted IJppia repens on the outside edge 

 of the bank, where the loose dirt stood at a 

 steep angle. He thought it was Lippia 

 nodiflora; but Prof. Benton, who was one 

 of our crowd, called it repens, and I assure 

 you it was a very pretty sight. In time it 

 will probably hold the loose sides of the 

 bank compactly in place, while it makes a 

 beautiful soft green carpet. 



I left the crowd at this point, and friend 

 W. took me back to the city with his own 

 conveyance. I wanted to go past a celebrat- 

 ed strawberry-farm, and it was actually 

 my privilege to see two strawberrj'- fields of 

 forty acres each. Of course, they are irri- 

 gated. The arrangements for gathering 

 the fruit, and sorting it, for applying the 

 water, and doing every thing that needs to 

 be done, is carried on like a well-managed 

 factory. Telephones run all over the plan- 

 tation so as to save steps. It is all leveled 

 oft like a brick3'ard, and the irrigating is 

 done with mathematical precision. There 

 may have been a weed or two in the eighty 

 acres of strawberries, but I did not have a 

 chance to see them. I did not see the own- 

 ners of the ranch, so I do not know whether 

 it is paying; but it was worth going a long 

 way to see such an object-lesson in the way 



*Andtliis reminds me that, while I was walkingalong 

 the streets of Los Angeles, a beautiful woman stopped 

 me and asked if I was not A. I. Root. Now, some of 

 you may object; in fact, I know one other woman who 

 objects frequently when I call her " beautiful; " but 

 when I add, " Well, you are beautiful in my eyes, any 

 way," she says, " Oh! well, that is all right; but I feel 

 kind o' sorry for you, after all." Perhaps I had better 

 say that the woman who accosted me with a smile 

 that made ray heart bump was beautiful in my eyes, 

 any way. After I told her I was the man in question, 

 she said, " I am Mr. J. P. Ivy's wife. You know him 

 prettv well." Before I thougnt, I said right out, 

 "Why, has my good friend Ivy gone and got mar- 

 ried? " I do not know but I colored a little, and per 

 haps she did too; but it only had the effect of making 

 her still more hatidsome (that is, in my eyes, you 

 knowl; and then we both had a good laugh. Then 

 she added, " Married ! I should think so— look here." 

 Then she called my attention to a little girl by her 

 side, whom I had hardly noticed Now, may be you 

 think I am getting along pretty fast; but when I got 

 a good look at the girl I thought, but I did not say it 

 this time, she was, if any thing, even better looking 

 than her mother. Then I remembered how I had ex 

 horted friend Ivy with a lot of other Arizona bee-keep- 

 ers to get married and have wives, and be somebody 

 and to amount to something in the world. Of course, 

 it does not follow that friend Ivy got married just be- 

 cause/told him it was a Christian duty he owed to 

 humanity to do so; and I really hope that those other 

 fellows who did not take my advice will come to their 

 senses when they get such a glimpse as I did of Mrs. 

 Ivy and the little girl. 



