Auff. 3, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



483 



and mountains along- the tributaries of the Sacramento had 

 not vet sent down " mountains " of debris to fill the grand 

 Sacramento, so that it was continuously overflowing its 

 banks with every heavy rainfall or sudden thaw of snow in 

 the Sierras. I have not seen it so stated, but I think it 

 was the mines that ruined the bee-business along the Sacra- 

 mento. For years it did not pay to produce honey there. 

 True, there was much honey produced, but it was from 

 weeds that gave the darkest and rankest sort of nectar. It 

 was often unsalable ; only bakers could use it. I presume 

 the slickens from the mines was responsible for the growth 

 of these vile weeds. The good forage had been destroyed 

 for the most part. 



The bee-keeper was not the only one to suffer from the 

 hydraulic mining industry. Hundreds and hundreds of 

 acres of beautiful orchards along the Sacramento, Feather, 

 American and other streams were ruined by the overflows 

 caused by the washings from the mines. The rivers were 

 filled with earth rock, and other debris, consequently 

 when there was a freshet the water broke over the river 

 banks and carried vast quantities of sand, rocks, dead trees 

 and other debris into the once fruitful orchards. They were 

 ruined, as it was impossible to remove the sand and debris, 

 and nothing would grow in the sand. (Years later this 

 sand underwent decomposition, and is now able to support 

 vegetation.) 



Then grain and vegetable fields suffered almost as 

 badly as the orchards ; the difference in most cases being 

 that where the farmer lost one crop the horticulturist lost 

 all his crops, or until such time as he got anew orchard into 

 bearing condition. Often, about the time a new orchard 

 was about to yield the owner a return, another flood would 

 again destroy the labor of years. So, in time, the federal 

 government legislated against the running of slickens into 

 the rivers and streams of the State. If the miner wanted 

 to mine with water he must impound the debris. I think 

 this legislation has been in operation over ten years. It 

 lias revived the horticultural interests along the streams 

 that were once blighted. 



Thus, to a large extent, honey-yielding flowers again 

 sprang up. Then large fields of alfalfa are raised along 

 these streams. I presume nianj' of them are growing on 

 land washt down from the mines, some or all of which con- 

 tain particles of the finest kind of gold-dust. With gold 

 at its roots the alfalfa along these streams is now giving 

 the bee-keepers golden drops of honey, which in turn bring 

 him g-olden nuggets. 



It was during the past week that I had occasion to learn 

 about the extent to which the business along the Sacra- 

 mento has been revived. I saw much of the honey piled up 

 in one of the San Francisco commissions. A few days later 

 it was all sold. It lookt very nice. It was alfalfa honey. 

 I am told that while the honey from the San Joaquin valley 

 alfalfa is water-white in color, that of the Sacramento val- 

 ley is of a ver_v light amber color. I cannot account for 

 this in any other way than that the latter is mixt with some 

 nectar gathered from sources besides alfalfa. The climate 

 of the two valleys is identical, both being- very hot in late 

 spring and summer. It is these two valleys that are giving 

 the State its big crop of honey this year. I say "big," for 

 if it were not for these two sources we would have no crop 

 to speak of. The yield in the upper end of the San Joaquin 

 I am told is very good. The alfalfa fields are yielding well. 

 It is destined to be the honey center of California. The 

 yield, I think, this year for the whole State will warrant 

 the bee-keeper g-etting a good price for his product. 



My crop is less than a quarter crop this j-ear. Knowing 

 how to handle honey I manag-ed to get seven cents per 

 pound, less commission. This time last year I was offered 

 three cents for my honey. I would not sell. I told the 

 dealers I would get five before the year was over. In No- 

 vember I sold for 5'2 cents. That was something like busi- 

 ness. Of course, if I had held on until now I could have 

 obtained a cent and a half more. But I do not believe in 

 holding a product too long. I believe in letting a crop go 

 when you are offered a reasonable price. Give the other 

 fellow a chance to make something. The past spring hay 

 went up to S18 per ton, owing to the dry outlook of the sea- 

 son. I have friends who were offered this price for barns 

 full of hay. They said no ; just wait and we will g-et 830, 

 as it is going- to be a dry year. A week later the rains came 

 and hay took a tumble. This season's crop is a good one, 

 new hay already sel'ing for from S8 to $10. 



My advice to .^ny one, unless he can afford it is, don't 

 speculate ; you -.lay get burned if you do. Leave it to the 

 Leiters and th.'^t class. Even they may die poor by specu- 

 lating too long. 



I hear that some commission houses in San Francisco — 

 one in particular" — is working hard among the honey-pro- 

 ducers of the State to corner all the honey. This latter 

 house is a Jewish concern, and it hopes to make a big thing 

 in honey. While talking with a representative of a certain 

 house, he said that he was afraid bee-keepers would not 

 send on commission ; that they might sell if the honey had 

 not been secured already. I intimated that it might be a good 

 thing for his house to get in and do some buying, too, as it 

 has been doing a big honey-business the past two years. 

 The gentleman told me last week that he sold more honey 

 the past two months than he sold previousU' in all the years 

 he has been in business, and that's over 20 years. 



While at this commission house yesterdaj' afternoon I 

 saw a lot of S3 cases of as fine looking water-white comb 

 honey as I ever saw, that was produced in the Sacramento 

 valley, and which was then being carted out of the store to 

 the railroad depot. Just think, it was being shipt to Los 

 Angeles 1 If that doesn't appear to be "carrying coals to 

 Newcastle" I am sure I do not know what is. Of course, 

 there was a time, I believe, a quarter of a century or so 

 ago, when this part of the State shipt honey to the lower 

 portion thereof, but that was before it was discovered that 

 the lower counties were a vast bee-garden. Of course, it is 

 the drouth down there that has caused honey to flow south- 

 ward this year. Perhaps next winter the orange-growers 

 in the northern part of the State may be sending their fruit 

 to feed folks of the city of the Angeles. Strange, is it not, 

 that tho a number of the northern counties up along the 

 Sacramento, as well as Sonoma county, send carload after 

 carload of oranges to the Eastern market, we never see any 

 of them in our markets ? They come in before the oranges 

 of the southern portion of the State do, consequently they 

 bring a high price, and the growers take advantage of this 

 fact and send them to market where they will get a high 

 price. 



I am working on an interesting case that I may send 

 an account of later. It was where a bee-keeper up north 

 always sent five cases of honey to a dealer in San Fran- 

 cisco. It was bought as " tule " honej' — a dark honey that 

 is used by the bakers of that city. It was purchast without 

 being sampled, as every dealer knows what the Sacramento 

 and the San Joaquin river " tule " honey is. It was sent 

 around to the party who was to use it, and almost as 

 promptly returned." The " honey " is different from any- 

 thing I ever saw ; it is as dark and thick as New Orleans 

 molasses, and has something of such taste, too. Yet, on 

 careful examination it would pass for a fruit-jelly. I think 

 if it were put in jelly-g-lasses it would easily sell for such. 

 I am inclined to think the bees that gathered it had access 

 to a field where apricots or prunes were being dried, and 

 just gathered the juice from the fruit. The man whose 

 bees gathered the honey writes the commission house that 

 it was positively extracted from the hives. I am going to 

 write the producer to find all I can about the locality, etc. 



The weather is still disagreeable, tho we had a few hot 

 days up to yesterday evening. The indications are that we 

 are going to have earlv rains, and possibly much of them. 

 Alameda Co., Calif.. July 20. 



Making- Increase by a Nucleus Method— The 

 Doolittle-Miller Controversy. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



ON page 418 I find an " Open Letter to Doolittle " by Dr. 

 Miller, near the close of which he says he is about to 

 formulate some questions according to the way he un- 

 derstood " Iowa " to mean when he askt those found on 

 page 198, and he will reply to them, sending them and his 

 answers to the editor, asking the editor to send the same 

 questions to me for my reply, so that the readers of the 

 " Old Reliable " can see how we agree. Well, the questions 

 have arrived, and I am going to say just what I think re- 

 garding them, even tho I cannot read the same thing out of 

 "Iowa's" statement on page 198 that Dr. Miller does. Here 

 are the questions as the Doctor understands them : 



I intend to increase artificially this year, and for each new colony 1 

 intend to start a nucleus bv putting in the new hive a frame of brood and 

 eggs and a frame of honev, closiuff up the two frames at one side of the 

 hive with a division-board, then grivinfj. a sufficient number of bees. I in- 

 tend to get the bees from the colonies with layintr queens, shaking the 

 bees from the combs and giving them directly to the nuclei. 



1. How manv bees will I have to put into a hive ? 



2. -Will a pint do? 



3. "Will these bees rear a queen from the eggs given them .•■ 



4. Do you think a nucleus formed in this way will be all right .' 



5. Would it be safe from robber-bees '.' Iow.4. 



