March, 1920 



GliEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



153 



sorts of cacti, and by many strange plants 

 and shrubs I could not name. Now I have 

 always disliked a potted cactus. It is gro- 

 tcsipie and out of place in the East, but in 

 its desert environment it is fitting and even 

 beautiful. 



I am such a mountain lover that I have 

 often wondered wiiy nature could not have 

 spared a few supertluous western mountain 

 ranges for us in Ohio. But without the daz- 

 zling Arizona sunshine and atmosphere I 

 am not sure her mountains would have any 

 beauty. And tliat dry western air has such 

 a trick of annihilating distance and bring- 

 ing out the details of distant objects with 

 startling distinctness. 



One of the interesting features of the 

 Arizona semi-desert country is its contra- 

 dictions. How I did wish for a guide who 

 could tell me why in one locality we saw 

 acres of plain covered with shallow water 

 when just a little farther on was a 

 dry river, and in every region where there 

 were settlers were irrigation ditches. Some 

 of the passengers suggested the water was 

 a mirage, which I would have liked to be- 

 lieve, but in some places the water came 

 clear up to the tracks and it looked just as 

 real and wet as in Ohio. 



The porter said there had been a recent 

 heavy rain which had flooded the tracks, 

 and yet oftener and oftener thru the day, as 

 we approached the desert proper, there were 

 those dry rivers, arroyos I believe they are 

 called, and most of them looked as dry in 

 the channel as the Sahara desert ought to 

 look. 



Another odd thing was to see so many 

 cattle. They must be contented with a 

 menu quite different from that of their 

 eastern cousins. I saw one enterprising steer 

 nipping experimentally at a kind of a cac- 

 tus. In Arizona it appears to be the fashion 

 for cattle to wear their horns, and those 

 horns looked like most efficient weapons, too. 



Toward evening we ran into a rougher 

 country, turning and twisting among the 

 foothills; numerous new and interesting 

 \arieties of cacti appeared, and presently 

 we saw the tall, branching variety, some 

 specimens being as thick thru as a good- 

 sized tree trunk. 



TWO prosperous-looking elderly couples 

 occupied the section just in front of 

 ours and the one opposite. All day long 

 tlioy played bridge with more or less good- 

 natured wrangling, growing less good-natur- 

 ed as the day wore on. At intervals the 

 men went back for a smoke, when their 

 wives produced embroidery and embroidered 

 assiduously, apparently never raising their 

 eyes to the windows to that gorgeous pano- 

 rama of mountain and plain. But just at 

 sunset, when the mountains in the east were 

 reflecting glowing shades of copper, crimson, 

 and rose, the card-playing, embroidering 

 ladies awakened to the fact that there w^as 

 some scenery outside, and they were voluble 

 about it for some five minutes. 



One blase young gentleman of thirteen, in 

 his conversation with our boy, mentioned 

 the fact that he had crossed the Atlantic 

 six times, altho he had never before crossed 

 our own country. Indeed, he was only travel- 

 ing thru it on his way to Honolulu, and he 

 continually deplored the slowness of the 

 train. 



I have always expected that some time in 

 the future the nicest traveling companion 

 I know would take me abroad. But the old- 

 er I grow and the more I see of our own 

 country, the less I care about leaving it. 

 Why should we be so anxious to wander thru 

 European art galleries when no human can 

 put on canvas the beauty which the Great 

 Artist has so generously created in our own 

 country? Man has never equaled nature 

 yet, and while nature has been lavish 

 enough with beauty in all parts of the globe 

 I don 't believe there is any other country 

 which can equal ours in variety, magnifi- 

 cence, and grandeur of scenery. There are 

 hundreds of fascinating places I must see 

 in our United States before I care to cross 

 the ocean. 



To return to the Arizona sunset, when 

 the sudden southern night dimmed the 

 glowing tints of the mountains on one hori- 

 zon and darkened the gold sky against 

 which the black mountains were outlined 

 in sharp relief on the opposite horizon we 

 went to bed to awaken amid the flow- 

 ers, fruit ranches, and orange groves of 

 southern California. Isn 't it a pity trains 

 rush one thru so much interesting country in 

 the dark? 



IT is quite the fashion now to deplore the 

 poor service in Pullmans and grumble at 

 the meals on the diner. Maybe we hap- 

 pened on an unusually favorable time to 

 travel. At any rate, when my sister, who is 

 spending the winter in Los Angeles, met us 

 at the train she said, "I never before saw 

 a woman look so fresh and rested after a 

 railroad trip across the country. How did 

 you do it?" I didn't do a thing but enjoy 

 myself every minute of the day and sleep 

 well at night in spite of being pigeon-holed 

 in a sleeping-car berth. Maybe one reason 

 our party slept well is because we seized 

 every opportunity for a bit of fresh air and 

 exercise by jumping off at station stops. 



We found the meals in the diner good and 

 reasonable in price, and it is gratifying to 

 find individual honey on dining-car menus 

 practically the country over. 



BELOW I am giving a few recipes pre- 

 pared before leaving home. Try the 

 honey eggnog when you have that faint 

 "all gone" feeling. The peach ice cream 

 made with honey is also especially fine. 



HONKV EGGNOG. 

 1 egg 1 teaspoon cocoa 



1 teaspoon honey ?4 fup milk 



Few grains salt 



Break the egg in a glass, beat slightly 

 with a fork, add the cocoa, honey, salt and 

 {Continued on page 181.) 



