216 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1920 



E 



ur 



MY CALIFORNIA 



Stancy Puerden 



PLEASE leave 

 that first per- 

 sonal, posses- 

 sive pronoun 

 just where it is, 

 Mr. Editor. 

 While I cannot 

 claim to be a 

 resident of the 

 Golden State, 



and probably never shall be, yet I love it 

 so much that I know the generous Califor- 

 nians will permit me informally to adopt 

 their State. 



There is another reason for using the pro- 

 noun — my California does not seem to be 

 the place from which some other winter 

 tourists have returned with stories not at 

 all like mine. I know several who were in 

 southern California at the time I was and 

 came away, saying they did not care for it 

 at all. They must have worn dark blue 

 glasses and had indigestion. 



Northern winters have their compensa- 

 tions, one of which is the wonderful con- 

 trast which spring presents to winter. This 

 glorious transformation from a dead and 

 barren earth to luxuriant growth and blos- 

 soming beauty is, of course, missed by all- 

 the-year-around dwellers in warm climates. 

 But our beautiful springs are so disappoint- 

 ingly short. Some years we jump straight 

 out of raw cold weather into a summer heat 

 so great that it is enervating and depressing. 

 And that is precisely why southern Cali- 

 fornia is such a delightful memory to me. 

 Its winter months are not like summer; 

 they are more like our spring, varying from 

 April to May with sometimes a bit of June 

 thrown in for good measure. My ideal year 

 would have three seasons; six months of 

 spring, three months of summer, and three 

 of fall, and California seems to come as near 

 these specifications as any spot on earth. 



OUR first and longest stop was made in 

 Los Angeles, from which we drove and 

 made short side trips in many direc- 

 tions. We stayed at a hotel in the heart of 

 the city, for business reasons, and took all 

 our meals out at restaurants. I shall never 

 forget the tonic effect of that bracing, yet 

 soft air which greeted us each morning 

 when we went out to breakfast. Early in 

 the morning a winter suit with turned-up 

 fur collar was very comfortable. Toward 

 noon the air warmed delightfully, and oc- 

 casionally I longed for a spring suit or coat. 

 Once or twice, in the middle of the day I 

 discarded the winter-suit coat for a scarf 

 and hardly needed that in the sunshine; 

 but in the shade it was apt to be cool, and 

 even the warmest days cooled off so much in 

 the late afternoon "that heavy coats were 

 needed again, especially while driving. 



Eainy days brought what Californians 

 call cold weather, but it did not seem cold 

 to us after the zero weather of snowbound 

 Ohio. It cools off just enough to make va- 

 riety in the climate. Personally, I could 



1 



TU 



never live in a 

 tropical climate, 

 but California 

 has just that 

 hint of the trop- 

 ics which makes 

 it delightful 

 without the 

 enervating ef- 

 fects. 



I defy anyone to talk of California five 

 minutes without mentioning flowers. They 

 are everywhere. You can hardly walk a 

 block in Los Angeles or San Francisco 

 without passing a flower stand where flow- 

 ers are sold at prices ridiculously cheap. 

 You can buy carnations from 15c a dozen 

 up. We have bought the best for 35c at the 

 same time they were selling for about $3.00 

 a dozen in Cleveland. Great bunches of vio- 

 lets or pansies were 15c each. There were 

 snapdragons, stocks, marigolds, yellow aca- 

 cia blossoms, orange-colored poppies, roses, 

 and spring flowering bulbs, such as narcis- 

 sus. Even if one does not buy the flowers 

 the effect of seeing them everywhere on the 

 street corners and in the open-front stores, 

 which are common in Los Angeles, is cheer- 

 ful enough to reform a confirmed pessimist. 

 Almost as fascinating as the flower stores 

 were the markets with their displays of 

 fruits, vegetables, meats, and more flowers. 

 Vegetables of all sorts and even meats seem- 

 ed much more reasonable in price than back 

 in Ohio, and, of course, there was a won- 

 derful variety of green things which could 

 not be obtained at all at this season in the 

 East. 



Out on the country roads in every direc- 

 tion from Los Angeles one passes booths 

 where fruit and flowers, either one or both, 

 were on sale, and often honey was sold at 

 these same booths. I was struck with the 

 fact that oranges and honey sold for just 

 about what they cost in the East. The price 

 of each seems to be standardized. One 

 could also get fascinating glimpses of nurs- 

 eries and flower ranches as we passed them 

 on our drives. 



On the mountains there are also many 

 beautiful wild flowers and blossoming 

 shrubs. I noticed very many geraniums 

 along mountain roads and in the valleys, 

 and a friend told me they started in the 

 first place from bouquets thrown away by 

 tourists. 



o 



^NE of the great advantages of Califor- 

 nia is the rapidity of growth of its 

 trees and shrubs. On account of this, 

 wonderful landscape effects can be obtained 

 in a very short time, and when one builds 

 a new home he does not have to wait long 

 years for his ' ' vine and fig tree. ' ' The date 

 palm seems to do particularly well, and 

 there are many fine streets and boulevards 

 beautified by long rows of them. In many 

 cases flower seeds, such as pansies or ge- 

 raniums, had been sown in the crevices be- 

 tween the trunk and the short stem after 



