THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



273 



more distant portions of the state. 

 We will betake ourselves in imagina- 

 tion, therefore, to a section where, 

 even in towns of a thousand or more 

 inhabitants, we may frequently find 

 conversation turning upon weather 

 and markets, experience and meth- 

 ods, with particular reference to the 

 honey crop. Rough, frowning moun- 

 tains fill such a region. At intervals 

 their huge masses have been torn 

 asunder almost to their foundations. 



The chasms thus formed are can- 

 yons, whose narrow floors make tor- 

 tuous passage-ways in from the valleys 

 between the ranges. Their side 

 walls are high and steep, sometimes 

 almost vertical for hundreds of feet. 

 The mountains, looming high above, 

 are dark with sage and chaparral and 

 dotted here and there with taller 

 growth of shrubs and trees. 



It is in such places that Nature has 

 scattered her choicest floral treas- 

 ures ; and at every turn, in obscure 

 nooks and rocky clefts on mountain 

 side, and canyon bottom, grow ex- 

 quisite garlands of varied blossoms. 



And it is in such a place, where 

 the grand is commingled with the 

 beautiful, remote from centres of 

 habitation, that the beekeeper erects 

 his humble hermitage and provides 

 homes for his teeming swarms. The 

 lot he has chosen is by no means 

 free from difficulties ; his life and la- 

 bor have their brighter and darker 

 side, — nay, like the canyon walls that 

 depend on the shifting sun, the 

 same side is alternately light and 

 dark. It is tinted with romance yet 

 shaded with loneliness and hardened 

 with reality. And if his be a prosaic 

 mind, it will be blind to romantic 

 colors and will see only the outlines 

 of the practical and appreciate 

 mainly its advantages and disadvan- 

 tages. Still he labors with a will and 

 makes the most of what he finds 

 around him and proves again that 

 happy homes may be made in lonely 

 places. An unpretentious cottage 

 by the mountain stream, a yard, a 



garden, and small building according 

 to his needs, and he has done with 

 side issues. 



A bee-yard in some level situation 

 thickly populated with bees whose 

 homes are arranged in streets and 

 blocks, an extracting house, — these 

 provided and he has attended to the 

 main necessities of his enterprise. 



Here he may pass the days amid 

 the glories of our California climate 

 stimulated in his labor by the hopes 

 of moderate return. x\nd, as night 

 comes on, his narrow surroundings 

 seem still more contracted, when all 

 are veiled in shadows and the soli- 

 tude is relieved only by the scream- 

 ing of the night bird and the singing 

 of waters near his door. 



Having seen the habitation of the 

 beekeeper and his swarm, it remains 

 to observe him in his practical oper- 

 ations. 



Gonzales, Cal. 



For the American ApicuUnrist. 



HISTORICAL EVENTS. 



C. VV. Daytox. 



How tumultuous was the advent 

 of the reversible frame and sectional 

 hive ! What a strife for the most 

 practical reversing device ! When 

 the device was found it was applied ; 

 but, lo ! where are the reports of 

 its successes? 



Those who were loudest in its 

 praise may be observed to fall and 

 quiedy steal away. There is a time 

 for everything and it is quite certain 

 the reversible frame that came on 

 time will soon depart. The only 

 trouble was that there was too much 

 labor for the money. Probably there 

 were no less than loo different con- 

 trivances used to accomplish rever- 

 sion of brood-combs ; "but the one 

 which seemed the most practical to 



