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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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WESTERN NOTES 



CONSTANCE ROOT BOYDEN 

 (Stancy Puerden) 



orders are 



to go on 



writing 

 about the Gold- 

 en West. There, 

 if the editorial 

 staff should see 

 that they might 

 say, '''What 

 does she mean? 

 we never gave her any such orders." Quite 

 true, gentlemen, and you may save your- 

 selves the trouble of indicating your pref- 

 erences excepting by forwarding subscribers ' 

 comments, for the readers are the ones I 

 always try to please. And judging from 

 what the nice westerners tell my nearest 

 man relatives I have been successful as far 

 as they are concerned, even if I am a very 

 new Californian. And eastern readers also 

 seem to approve, some because they like to 

 read another's impressions of what they 

 have seen, and enjoyed, and others because 

 they are interested in what they hope to 

 enjoy in the future. 



If these articles have been confined to 

 Los Angeles County exclusively it has not 

 been from choice, for I love the whole great 

 West and hope to see much of it before 

 my time comes to "go west." But I have 

 been afflicted with a frightfully busy hus- 

 band the past few months, so busy that he 

 has not eA^en had time to take little motor 

 trips among the beekeepers of this region, 

 trips on which he has promised to take his 

 wife. If "Hope deferred maketh the heart 

 sick" it is a wonder I haven't a chronic 

 case of heart trouble. 



DURING these May days in southern Cal- 

 ifornia I have been wondering if the 

 tourists who come here only for the win- 

 ter months do not miss the most exquisite 

 weeks of the year. Owing to the great 

 amount of rain during the past winter no 

 doubt the flowers are much finer than usual, 

 but for weeks back nature has seemed al- 

 most wickedly extravagant. Certainly she 

 is extravagant in roses. The grounds of fine 

 estates, the homes of those in moderate cir- 

 cumstances and the tiny yards of the small- 

 est bungalows are abloom with such roses 

 as we see only at a florist's in the East. Per- 

 golas are heavy with them, miles of wire 

 fences along orange groves are draped with 

 them, garages are hidden by them; there 

 are hedges of roses, borders of roses, and 

 the air along the boulevards is sweet with 

 the combined fragrance of roses and orange 

 blossoms. It seems almost a pity that na- 

 ture should put forth so much effort to pro- 

 duce beauty that is so fleeting, for the most 

 perfect rosebud lasts such a short time. 

 There is a pergola roof over the south half 

 of the porch of this Pasndena house, where 

 we are living temporarily, and often the 

 fallen rose petals are so thick that one can- 

 not see much of the porch floor, nnd if every 

 petnl i'! swept off. within 20 minutes there 

 is nnother rose petal onrpct. In the East 



1 



TU 



July, 1922 



we used to save 

 rose petals for 

 rose jars and 

 rose beads. In 

 our new home 

 next year I 

 think we shall 

 start a rose pet- 

 al compost heap 

 and feed it back 

 to the rose bushes. 



And nature is almost equally extravagant 

 with other flowers, wistaria, pansies, fra- 

 grant stocks, snapdragons, blue larkspurs, 

 stately foxgloves, irises of all varieties, bril- 

 liant Transvaal daisies and so many inter- 

 esting flowers that are new to me. And on 

 the mountains and in the canyons are gor- 

 geous and wonderful wild flowers, but lack- 

 ing a nice botanist like Mr. Parks, who 

 helped me in Texas last year, I cannot name 

 many of them yet. 



IN a state where flowers are so plentiful it 

 is not surprising that honey is abundant, 

 is it? But, honestly, it is amazing to see 

 the extent to which honey is sold along the 

 boulevards. It is a wonder to me that city 

 groceries and provision stores can prosper 

 when I see the number of booths and stores 

 out in the country in every direction in 

 which one can buy fruits, vegetables and 

 honey, always honey. Some of these stores 

 keep a general stock of groceries; some of 

 them advertise home-baked foods and mar- 

 malades; some display rabbits and poultry; 

 many of them sell ice cream cones, Eskimo 

 pies, cold and hot drinks; but all of them, 

 large and small, display honey. We stopped 

 at one open-front store on the Foothill bou- 

 levard to buy oranges, and noticing the dis- 

 play of honey, the men of our party fell 

 into conversation with the proprietor and 

 found that he was a beekeeper with some 

 500 colonies of bees back in a canyon. 



But in many cases the honey sold at these 

 boulevard country stores is bottled by some 

 firm in the city, and the proprietor of the 

 store may not recognize a honeybee when 

 he sees one. This just goes to prove that 

 honey is becoming fashionable, which is a 

 great thing for the beekeeping industry. At 

 one of these wayside stores east of here, on 

 the Valley boulevard I think, honey orange 

 marmalade is featured. Some day I must 

 buy a jar and find out whether it is as 

 good as the Stancy Puerden variety. 



The finest macaroons I ever tasted arc 

 the Honey Cocoanut macaroons which we 

 have frequently bought in various stores in 

 Pasadena, and were delighted to find them 

 in the corner grocery near our future home 

 in Alhambra. They are not too moist or 

 sticky, as one might suppose they would be, 

 but are exceptionally fine flavored, tender 

 and vet with a "chewy" consistency. By 

 carefully hiding them we have kept them 

 in good condition for a week or two. They 

 nro nontly put up in wiived paper bngs hold- 

 in<r n dozen each and soil for 15o. 



