April, 1917 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



263 



they keep the mother of all the children in- 

 doors working- with never a respite until 

 she grew old and feeble, and then would 

 they kill her? I fly from such horrible 

 tlioughts to my attic which must be cleaned 

 today. I wonder if you are housecleaning. 

 (Jive tlie baby a squeeze from his 



Aunt Mary. 



no^ca: 



The San Joaquin Valley Again 



In the February number, pages 108-110, 

 we read an article on the San Joaquin Val- 

 ley — the enormous waste and the great op- 

 portunity for progressive beekeepers. It is 

 very evident fronr the general character of 

 the statements contained in this article that 

 they were written by what the writer her- 

 self terms a " new comer," or at least bj^ a 

 person who does not understand the actual 

 conditions here. Having had twenty years' 

 experience as a beekeeper in the central 

 part of the San Joaquin Valley, and being 

 for several years Inspector of AjDiaries of 

 Kings County, I believe I am fully qualified 

 to write of actual conditions. 



Articles regarding California often re- 

 mind me of the reporter who interviewed 

 me while in the East selling a carload of 

 honey. I had just given his paper a liberal 



California wax ihat was 



advertisement; and to show their appre- 

 ciation (or, perhaps, to fill up space) he 

 wrote up a news item under this head — 

 " Grets Rich in Bee Business ; Former Local 

 Man has a Thousand Colonies; left here 

 Twenty Years Ago; takes Bees from one 

 Orange Grove to another in California." 

 Sounds very wonderful, doesn't it? As- a 

 matter of fact I have more than a thousand 

 colonies, but lack a great deal of being rich. 

 Honey was selling at that time for 3^4 to 

 31/2 cents in California, and it was to break 

 even with tlie world that I was selling a ear 

 of honey in the East at retail prices. 



What is waste? We are told that it is 

 very noticeable in California where peaches, 

 grapes, and many other things are fed to 

 the hogs. Perhaps if our friend had in- 

 vestigated the prices of grapes at that par- 

 ticular time and place she would have found 

 that they were worth more per pound as 

 hog feed than they could be sold for on the 

 open market; or they might have been a 

 little too ripe to stand the shipment to 

 eastern markets. Climatic conditions some- 

 times have much to do with the way fruit 

 is handled. Last year many tons of grapes 

 were ruined on the drying-trays by rains 

 (grapes dried in the sun are raisins). Much 

 of this fruit was hauled to wineries before 

 it was entirely spoiled; but many men have 

 scruples when it comes 

 to furnishing guajjes 

 for this joui'pose, and 

 perhaps the next best 

 thing financially was 

 to feed them to the 

 hogs. Persons famil- 

 iar with the fresh- 

 fruit situation in Cali- 

 fornia know and un- 

 derstand these things. 

 The same is Irue in 

 other lines. Water-- 

 raelons, pumpkins, 

 piemelons, and squasli 

 all make good stock 

 feed. Horrible, isn't 

 it, to feed great big 

 juicy watermelons to 

 stock. The land in 

 most sections of the 

 vallev will produce 

 from' 50 to 100 tons of 

 pumpkins and squash 

 per acre, and sell as 

 stock food for from 

 $1.00 to $2.00 per ton. 

 .a.,ud. Is this return so bad 



