iyo4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



33 



of high-pressure gardening, and to have ac- 

 tual demonstration that some things can be 

 done right out in the fields as beautifully 

 and as accurately as our catalog people oft- 

 en do it on paper. 



On page 855, in describing the Agua Ca- 

 liente springs I mentioned a three-days' 

 trip across the desert; and I wish right 

 here to tell you a little more about that trip. 

 I was beginning to feel a little bit lazy and 

 dull under the influence of a long-continued 

 temperature of over 100 degrees. I told my 

 brother T should have to get to work at 

 something to keep my blood circulating. 

 He thought the hundred miles across the 

 desert, with a mule team, would be the 

 thing. I confess I looked forward with 

 considerable anticipation to such a trip. 

 The greater part of the distance there were 

 no dwellings whatever. In fact, it was 

 only at long intervals we could find water 

 for the mules. At one place we had to dig 

 down in the sand in the dry bed of a moun- 

 tain stream to find water. Over a great 

 part of the trip there was little or no vege- 

 tation, for in these places there is no rain 

 to speak of for almost a year at a stretch. 

 Occasional!}', however, great floods come 

 across these tracts from cloud-bursts on the 

 mountains near by. Different mountain- 

 peaks come into view and disappear. As 

 some of these mountains are visible a hun- 

 dred miles away, it gives the traveler a 

 chance to preserve his landmarks if he 

 watches carefully the contour of the moun- 

 tains around the horizon. At one place we 

 saw the head of a giant, visible almost all 

 day long. With a little imagination the 

 features were very classic, and sometimes 

 handsome. The principal game we en- 

 countered was quail and cottontail rabbits. 



As the wheels made their way through 

 the sandy trail they left a kind of V-shaped 

 mark or furrow. Pretty soon I began to 

 notice queer hierogl3'phics in the bottom of 

 this V-shaped furrow in the loose sand. 

 My brother told me they were caused by 

 reptiles that got into the wagon-track and 

 could not get out. Sometimes they would 

 wiggle along a great distance. I was es- 

 pecially interested in the trail left by what 

 is called the side-winder rattlesnake. My 

 brother said it was the same thing that is 

 often called a hoop-snake. May be you 

 heard about it when you were a child. 

 This queer but dangerous reptile makes its 

 peculiar track bj* elevating a part of its 

 body in the form of a corkscrew, for its 

 trail in the sand looks exactly as if a large 

 corkscrew were turned along in the bottom 

 of the sandy furrow. There is a series of 

 letter S's, one after the other, a regular 

 distance apart. I had a great curiosity to 

 see oneof these "side-winder" rattlesnakes, 

 but my curiosity was not gratified. 



When we got near the city of Phoenix 

 there were, occasionally, little towns, or 

 perhaps a store and postoffice, and a well, 

 as a matter of course, to furnish water for 

 man and beast. These stations were liter- 

 al oases in the desert. At one of them I 



noticed some beautiful pigeons. They had 

 a tropical look, and were different from 

 any thing I had ever seen before. The 

 landlord explained that they were brought 

 there by a relative from some foreign land. 

 After dinner, while we were sitting in the 

 shade of the porch, one of these beautiful 

 birds came up near me, rolled over on its 

 back, clasped its hands, I was going to 

 say, but they were really dainty little feet, 

 gasped once or twice, and in just a moment 

 was still in death. Our host explained 

 that he had just been poisoning some ant.>5 

 with strychnine. The bird was fond of 

 ants, and, as he supposed, picked up some 

 of the poisoned ones. We can not be too 

 careful about using poisons. This reminds 

 me that the editor of one of our great agri- 

 cultural weeklies recently advised a sub 

 scriber to poison his neighbor's bees be- 

 cause they annoyed him. I was surprised 

 to find an editor who either did not know 

 or did not care whether he was recommend- 

 ing the breaking of a clear and distinct 

 law of the land. 



The question has often come up in these 

 desert countries as to whether one can grow 

 crops successfully, and pump the water 

 needed from a well with a steam-engine. 

 My brother and I visited a ranch near Tem- 

 pe, where a section of land was growing 

 alfalfa very successfully by pumping the 

 water. I think they had to raise it with 

 the engine some forty or fifty feet. Of 

 course, the expense is a little more than 

 getting water from the irrigating-canals. 

 But in almost every locality that depends 

 on irrigation, there are times when water 

 is wanted most and one can not have it. 

 This man was independent. I do not re- 

 member the power of his engine; but the 

 engineer told us that, by working a little 

 over hours occasionally, the whole section 

 can be given all the water needed. An acre 

 well set to alfalfa is considered in that lo 

 cality to be worth $100. Some farms are 

 sold for more than that. Alfalfa-growing 

 is so much of a business in the Salt River 

 Valley that it is no uncommon thing to find 

 people pulling up their fruit-trees in order 

 to grow alfalfa. The alfalfa is much less 

 labor to harvest and sell, and a good many 

 think they get about as much money one 

 year with another as they do from their 

 fruit- farms. Fruit-growing is making some 

 progress around Tempe, Maricopa Co., but 

 not as much as many thought it would at 

 one time. The Rev. Mr. Close, who lives 

 at Tempe, showed me an object-lesson by 

 way of high-pressure gardening that is 

 worth considering. Less than ten years 

 ago his wife planted some date seeds just 

 for the fun of it. They came up promptly, 

 grew, and with very little care tliey are now 

 producing great bunches of most luscious 

 fruit. If I am correct, one or more of these 

 date palms are already giving crops of 100 

 lbs. of fruit that sold for 25 cents per lb. 

 Twenty- five dollars for the crop on a single 

 palm tree scarcely higher than your head! 

 The experiment station, a few miles distant 



