L'HE BEE-KEEPERS' KEVIEW, 



Some Things California Bee -Keepers Do 



Not Want. — A Bee - Convention is 



One of Them. 



"EAMBLEK." 



Lives there a man with soul so dead 



As never to himself hath said 



" It's kinder lonesome in this shed." 



T^DITOR of 

 \i the Re- 

 view: — I re- 

 ceived your 

 letter some 

 days ago in- 

 quiring in re- 

 lation to the 

 extent and 

 whereto of my 

 rambling. In 

 reply I would 

 say that I am still walking around on the 

 golden sands of California^ And when I 

 say golden, I mean that if there is little or 

 no gold under our feet here in this particular 

 locality, there is an appearance ot an abun- 

 dance of it, for in the disintegrated granite 

 from which this soil is largely composed the 

 little golden appearing scales of iron pyrites 

 are plentiful and if all of these scales were 

 gold we could easily gather our riches by the 

 handful. In my writings now and then for 

 the Review I believe you requested that I 

 should touch upon the needs and necessities 

 of California bee-keeping. I find, however, 

 that the needs and necessities are so few that 

 I have been somewhat nonplussed for ma- 

 terial in that line. Now, some of our writers, 

 instead of keeping silent would have kept 

 right along with their twaddle just the same 

 and with but little benefit to the fraternity. 

 Now the Rambler does not wish to insinuate 

 that his letters do not partake of just as much 

 twaddle as the other fellow's, but this time, 

 twaddle or no twaddle in our little apicul- 

 tural duck pond, I will look at the needs 

 and necessities of California bee-keeping in 

 a reverse order, or, in other words, what we 

 do not need. 



No bee-keeper that has not been in Califor- 

 n a can realize the amount of trouble and 

 anxiety that is taken away from the business 

 by the absence of the wintering problem. 

 The entire absence of this problem as known 

 in the frigid Northern States reduces the 

 pursuit here to such a simple nature that 

 people with no knowledge of bees whatever 

 and who have never read a book or a journal 



upon the subject take up bee-keeping and 

 make a success of it ; even women and boys 

 come up smiling witli their tons of honey. 

 It is natural then to suppose that an industry 

 into which people can enter so easily and 

 which engages the attention of so many 

 hundreds would feel the need of several asso- 

 ciations. It seems, however, that the ma- 

 chinery of organization is something they do 

 not want, for in all our vast State with its 

 great resources for honey there are but two 

 small local organizations and one State Asso- 

 ciation, the latter having only about sixty 

 members when it should have six hundred. 

 The State Association was evolved from the 

 So. Cal. Association and the evolution was of 

 such a volcanic nature that a local paper 

 called the condition highly bumf uzzling, and 

 there is some of this condition manifesting 

 itself up to the present time. 



The reasons why bee-keepers here do not 

 want an association are various. In the first 

 place there are very few enthusiasts in the 

 business ; of course these are members. 

 There is also but little sentiment, and but 

 few that care to spend five or ten dollars to 

 go to the convention in order to talk and 

 shake hands. The material results are what 

 they are looking for. After a convention 

 has been held the invariable que.-tion from 

 our neighbors who do not attend is : "Well, 

 did you do anything down there of benefit to 

 bee-keepers ?" The essays and discussions 

 are looked upon as of but little account, but 

 an addition of a cent or a fraction thereof to 

 the price of honey, or the obtaining of sup- 

 plies at a lower figure would be the benefit 

 these persons are looking after. Even in the 

 convention there are those who wish to con- 

 duct it as a buying and selling institution, 

 forgetting that such an organization would 

 have to be organized upon a different plan. 



Another reason why many Californians do 

 not want an association is that the sociability 

 of the occasion goes against their nature. 

 Spending much of their time in a lone cabin 

 on the plain or on the mountain they become 

 averse to society and are not given to much 

 talk ; and they are entirely out of their ele- 

 ment in a convention. 



In fact, the attitude of the most of our 

 bee-keepers toward an association is much 

 like the attitude of the producers of another 

 great staple in our country. The papers 

 have been telling us lately that " Hay is 

 king ;" or, in other words, that the hay crop 



