488 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



swers per contra., that the use of 

 foundation would not accomplish 

 that result. I tind I cannot prevent 

 my bees from rearing some drones ; 

 they will take a worker comb and 

 lengthen out the cells, or they will 

 cut the worker cells down to the bases 

 and build drone cells in their place, 

 they will have some drones ; undoubt- 

 edly the use of foundation prevents a 

 very large number of drones, but that 

 it will entirely prevent their being 

 reared, I am not willing to admit. 



I have one colony of bees that are 

 very peculiar ; they are the most 

 vicious of hybrids, and last year I 

 tliought I would Italianize them. I 

 made two attempts, and each time 

 with great care, but they killed the 

 queen both times, until it became so 

 late in the autumn that I decided to 

 wait till this season. Last May I 

 tried again, and they killed the queen, 

 and I, not to be outdone, tried an- 

 other. I saw her go in at the entrance 

 and the bees feed her and lick off the 

 honey I had rolled her in, and I found 

 the next day that no cells were started 

 so I supposed, of course, all was right; 

 but yesterday I found she had been 

 killed as usual, and a small black 

 queen reigned in her stead. I shall 

 try again and again till I succeed. I 

 have tried several methods such as 

 letting tlie bees gnaw her out of the 

 cage, shaking off the bees in a box 

 and letting her run in with them, and 

 other ways wliicli I have used with 

 success in other cases, but they seem 

 to have made up their minds to have 

 their own way. 1 think in the last 

 case they actually accejited the queen 

 at lirst and tlien killed her afterward; 

 they are a curious lot. 



Brookline, Mass., July 21, 1882. 



From the Century for June, 18S2. 



The Bee-Pastiiies of California. 



JOHN 3IUIR. 



When California was wild, it was 

 one sweet bee-garden throughout its 

 entire length, north and south, and 

 all the way across from the snowy 

 Sierra to the Ocean. 



Wherever a bee might fly within 

 the bounds of this virgin wilderness — 

 through the redwood forests, along 

 the banks of the rivers, along the 

 bluffs and headlands fronting the 

 sea, over valley and plain, park and 

 grove, and deep leafy glen, or far up 

 the piney slopes of the mountains — 

 throughout every belt and section of 

 the climate, bee flowers bloomed in 

 lavish abundance. Here they grew 

 more or less apai-t in special slieets of 

 no great size, there in broad, flowing 

 folds hundreds of miles in length, 

 zones of polleny forests, zones of 

 flowery chaparral, stream-tangles of 

 rubus and wild rose, sheets of golden 

 compositte, beds of violets, beds of 

 mint, beds of bryanthus and clover, 

 and so on, certain species blooming 

 somewhere around all the year. 



But of late years plow and sheep 

 have made sad havoc in these glorious 

 pastures, destroying tens of thous- 

 ands of the flowery acres like lire, and 

 banishing many species of the best 



honey plants to rocky cliffs and fence 

 corners, while, on the other hand, 

 culture thus far has given no ade- 

 quate compensation, at least of kind 

 —acres of alfalfa, for miles of the 

 richest wild pasture, ornamental roses 

 and honeysuckles around cottage 

 doors for cascades of wild roses in 

 the dells, and small, square orchards 

 and orange groves for mountain belts 

 of chaparral. 



Only ten years ago, the Great Cen- 

 tral Plain of California, during the 

 months of March, April and May, 

 was one smooth, continuous bed of 

 honey bloom, so marvelously rich 

 that, in walking from one end of it to 

 the other, a distance of more than 400 

 miles, your feet would press more 

 than a hundred flowers at every step. 

 Mints, gilias, memophilas, castilleias. 

 and innumerable composite were so 

 crowded together that, had ninety- 

 nine in every hundred been taken 

 away, the plain would still have 

 seemed extravagantly flowery to any 

 but Californians. The radiant, honey- 

 fullcorollas,touchingandover-lai)ping. 

 and rising above one another, glowed 

 in the living light like a sunset sky — 

 one glorious blaze of puriile and gold. 

 Down through the midst flowed many 

 a river, the Sacramento from the 

 north, the San Joaquin from the 

 south, with noble trioutaries sweep- 

 ing in at right angles from the moun- 

 tains, dividing the plain into sections 

 fringed with trees. 



Along each river and tributary 

 there is a strip of bottom-land, coun- 

 tersunk beneath the general level, 

 and wider toward the foot-hills, 

 where magnificent oaks, from three 

 to eight feet in diameter, cast grate- 

 ful masses of shade over the open, 

 prairie-like level. And close along 

 the water's edge there is a hue jungle 

 of tropical luxuriance, composed of 

 white rose and bramble bushes and a 

 great varie'ty of climbing vines, 

 wreathingandiuterlacingthe branches 

 and trunks of willows and alders, and 

 swinging across from summit to sum- 

 mit in heavy festoons. Here the wild 

 bees revel in fresh bloom long after 

 the flowers of the drier plain have 

 withered and gone to seed. And in 

 midsummer when the " blackberries" 

 are ripe, the Indians come from the 

 mountains to feast — men, women and 

 babies in long noisy trains, often- 

 times joined by the farmers of the 

 neighborhood, who gather this wild 

 fruit with commendable appreciation 

 of its superior flavor, while their 

 home orchards are full of ripe peaches, 

 apricots, nectarines and figs, and 

 their vineyards are laden with grapes. 

 But, though these luxuriant bottoms 

 are thus distinct from the smooth, 

 treeless plain, they make no lu-avy 

 dividing lines in general views. The 

 whole appears as one continuous 

 sheet of bloom, bounded only by the 

 mountains. 



My first view of this central garden, 

 the most extensive and best defined 

 of all the bee pastures of the State, 

 was obtained from the summit of the 

 Pacheco pass, about the middle of 

 April, ISiis, wiieii it was rejoicing in 

 all its glory. Along the eastern hori- 

 zon rose the mighty Sierra, white and 



jagged with snowy peaks along the 

 top, dark with forests in the middle 

 region, and purple with grasses and 

 flowers and chai>arral at the base, and 

 blending gracefully in smooth hill 

 undulations into the glowing yellow 

 plain, which, like a cloth of gold, was 

 seen flowing away to north and south 

 as far as the eye could reach ; hazing 

 and vanishing in the distance, dis- 

 tinct as a new map along the foot- 

 hills at my feet — the sunny sky arch- 

 ing over all. 



Descending the eastern slopes of 

 the coast range, through beds of gilias 

 and lupines, and around many a hil- 

 lock and bush-crowned headland. I 

 at length waded out into the midst of 

 the glorious field of gold. All the 

 ground was covered, not with gi'ass 

 and green leaves, but with radiant 

 corollas, about ankle-deep next the 

 foot hills, knee deep or more five or 

 six miles out. Here opsis, corethro- 

 gyne, grindelia, etc., growing in close 

 social congregations of various shades 

 of yellow, blending finely with the 

 purples of clarkia, orthocarpus, and 

 Oenothera, whose delicate petals were 

 drinking the vital sunbeams without 

 giving back any sparkling glow. 



Because so long a period of extreme 

 drought succeeds the rainy season, 

 most of the vegetation is composed of 

 annuals whicli spring up simulta- 

 neously and bloom together at about 

 the same height above the ground^ 

 the general surface being but slightly 

 rutfled by the taller phacelias, pent- 

 stemons, and groups of Salvia cardua- 

 cen, the king of the mints. 



Sauntering in any direction, hun- 

 dreds of these happy suu-planta 

 brushed against my feet at every 

 step, and closed over them as if I 

 were wading in liquid gold. The air 

 was sweet with fragrance, the larks, 

 sung their blessed songs, rising on 

 the wing as I advanced, then sinking^ 

 out of sight in the polleny sod, while 

 myriads of wild bees stirred the lower 

 air with their monotonous hum — 

 monotonous, yet forever fresh and 

 sweet as every-day sunshine. Hares 

 and spermophiles showed themselves 

 in considerable numbers, and small 

 bands of antelope were almost con- 

 stantly in sight, gazing curiously 

 from some slight elevation, and then 

 bounding swiftly with unrivaled 

 grace of motion. 'Set I could dis- 

 cover no crushed flowers to mark 

 their track, nor, indeed, any de- 

 structive action of any wild foot or 

 tooth whatever. 



The great yellow days circled by 

 uncounted, while I drifted toward 

 the north, observing, the countless 

 forms of life thronging about me — 

 lying down almost anywhere on the 

 approach of night. And wtiat glorious 

 botanical beds I had ! Oftentimes 

 on awakening I would find several 

 new species leaning over me and look- 

 ing me full in the face, so that my 

 studies would begin before rising. 



About the first of May I turned 

 eastward, crossing the San Joaquiu 

 between the mouths of the Tuolumne 

 and Merced, and by the time I had 

 reached the Sierra foot-hills, most of 

 the vegetation had gone to seed and 

 become as dry as hay. 



