■£HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



87 



gree of spiritual and mental \\qot following 

 the pers-istent use of honey as a diet. " 



It is evident that the writer did not con- 

 sider that the queen and drones, who, when 

 the proper time comes, seem to be " troubled 

 by the grosser instincts of human animals, " 

 derive their sustenance from the same 

 etherial source as is the case with the work- 

 ers. It seems to be well-nigh impossible for 

 one not a professional bee-keeper to write 

 about bees without making more or less 

 "breaks." Perhaps it ought not to be ex- 

 pected. 



The author does not attempt to give any 

 great amount of information regarding bees 

 and bee-keeping — simply to hold up a mirror 

 in which we may catch a glimpse of the 

 picturesque side of bee-keeping in Southern 

 California. In this she has been eminently 

 successful. I should judge that she visited 

 the apiary of Mr. .J. F. Mclntyre, as she 

 mentions the Sespe which is the name of 

 his post office, and says that the extractor is 

 run by a water motor furnished with water 

 through a pipe that extends to a reservoir 

 high up on the " bench, " which is the case 

 with the Mclntyre extractor. There is also 

 an illustration of the AVilkins-apiary, a 

 picture of which was given years ago in 

 Gleanings. I believe Mr. Mclntyre now has 

 charge of this apiary. 



You know it is the fashion now-a-days to 

 have a little "dialect" in a story, and it 

 looks as though our genial friend the " Ram- 

 bler" had been made the victim this time. 

 Witness the following ; — 



" The next day after visiting the Sespe 

 apiary my landlady in the modest country 

 inn where I was stopping introduced to me 

 a mild, stoop-shouldered man in worn coat 

 and overalls. 



'I was telling Mr. Martin you wanted to 

 know all about California bees. He's the 

 oldest bee-hunter in Ventura, and is going 

 to Lake Glen this afternoon, and will be 

 glad o' your company. ' 



This was unexpected good fortune, and I 

 thanked them both warmly. Mr. Martin 

 took a chair, and carefully placing his hat 

 on the floor beside him, pulled ont a coarse 

 cotton handkerchief and wiped his sun- 

 browned face and neck. His kind blue 

 eyes had the manly straightforwardness of 

 one not ashamed of his thoughts, and when 

 he spoke it was directly to the purpose : 



' You're more'n welcome to the ride, 

 ma'am, though you won't see so many bees 

 up to the Glen as on the Sespe ranch. But 

 you'll find the place sightly ; jes the kind 

 women folks like — a lot o' posies an' ferns, 

 an' trees bigger'n the valley oaks, with a 

 lake in the middle pretty enough to make 



po'try 'bout. The folks there is friends o' 

 mine, an' would make you to home over- 

 night, an' next mornin' you could ride 

 horseback 'cross the mountains to " Happy 

 Camp. " That's Richardson's place. He 

 keeps two three hundred stands there, and 

 the same 'mount on Las Fosas. 'i'here ain't 

 no better bee pasture anywhere than you'll 

 see in them Taj)o an' Siini mountains. It's 

 a reg'lar Canaan : not ezzactly ' flowin ' with 

 milk, 'fur most the cows is beef critturs, but 

 the ' brooks o' honey ' is there all the same. ' " 



A very graphic description is given of the 

 ride over the steep and rough mountain 

 road, and of the way in which " Rambler, " 

 if it were he, beguiled the w.iy by his " dia- 

 lect. " 



Perhaps I cannot close more appropriately 

 than by quoting the following : — 



" A man should have a good deal of the 

 hermit in him to get the best there is in Arca- 

 dian bee-ranching. He must think himself 

 good company, and his bees better than 

 neighbors, for the isolation of his territory 

 precludes all social advantages. In the long 

 festival of honey-gathering the apiarist is 

 rarely met with in the settlements, for a 

 true lover of bees accounts it a hardship to 

 miss the swarming of a single one of his 

 hives. If he has wife and children willing 

 to share hi" exile, no man is more envied of 

 the gods. The most careless eye mistakes 

 not the seal of his divine prerogative. The 

 primitive shanty standing on the outskirts of 

 the apiarv bourgeons with lean-to and 

 porch, and takes on a respectable coat of 

 whitewash. Fruit trees grow up like magic, 

 roses and geraniums riot about the door, 

 and you henr the homely clatter of barn- 

 yard fowls. " 



Let us be thankful that the leading mag- 

 azines of this country are beginning to give 

 their readers articles on bee-keeping. Good 

 will come of it. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HISTY, 



BID you ever hear two desperate stutterers 

 try to correct each other's pronuncia- 

 tion ? Well, that's the way it works when I 

 try to correct the crazy mathematics of 

 the journals. Between the Review and 

 myself we get in more craziness in place of 

 what we cast out. In the last View, where 

 it speaks about Baldensperger's census, read 

 m7S instead of il7S for the number of eggs 

 the queen lays on the average each day of 

 the year. You will note that the number is 

 twice given, once incorrectly, and once cor- 

 rectly. 



