The Newtown bee., 1904-05-20

open sky, it matters not which, as there is no rain to fear, and at that season the weather is warm. A camp ing outfit follows the shearers, in which their food is cooked and from which the shearers are fed. Running into the pens, each drags out his sheep, and in good deal less time than it takes to tell it, has the sheep between his knees, and the sharp blinking of the shears tells that the shearing has begun.
 Five minutes will suffice for an expert to strpN off a fleece after the first clip is made, and as the excite the bleating of the sheep, the baa in < of the lambs makes discordant med ley of sounds which, if not harmonious to the ear, are at least bordering on the dramatic. The strengthening season is busy one and the shearers make the most of it while 1t lasts. Many thousands are in single fiOcks and the cattle men and sheep men, though each jealous of their rights, seldom have a clash in these later years. To those who are fond of sheep. the shepherds $ life has its many pleas ures, and may be typical of the Psalm ist DavidS life, when boy he tended his fathers f1ocks on the plains of Bethlehem.
 One of the industries of Southern Cal ifOrnia to which, as yet, no allusiOn has been made is bee culture. Cali fOrnia ships to Eastern markets 200 car loads of honey every year, and in unusually favorable seasons the ship mentS have reached as high as 500 car loads. When we turn our attention to one little honey bee slipping the sweets from some beautiful blossom, and re- alize that that little insect is an in- tegral part of that great whole, which, in one busy season can get together in the form of honey, enough to load reason to be amazed. There is no state in the Union so we'll adapted to honey producing as California. The climate is such that it has an all-the- year-rOund advantage as to food supply to which the bees can help themselves at all seasons, and so, as rule, relieve the bee-keeper of the expense and trouble of feeding them during what might be called the off season, when in the nature of things, there are fewer flowers.
 Tenderfoot as I was when I came into California, the first bee ranch l saw in the foot hills thought must be the ranchers' cemetery. In the dis looked like marble headstOneS and to my question:: "Is that cemetery up in the foot hills?" there came the re- ply: "No, that is an apiary." Then it occurred to me, what dunce that l should lose sight, for moment, that l am in the greatest honey-producing state in the Union. The apiarieS on the hill slopes of Southern California, wherever found, are in general outline similar. Long rows of boxes cOlOniZed on some slope among the foot hills, where sage brush and other wild flow CTS grow in profusion, are frequently seen. There may or may not be a lit tie shack of ranch house, in which the apiarist may stop over night in his occasional rounds of visiting his bee colony must be inspected to see that everything is going on in an orderly and profitable manner, and it gives to the one who follows it the fullest Op- portunity of leading an out-of-doors life. The swarming season lasts through April and the early part of May. Then the apiarist is caring for new swarms. By the middle of May nearly every colony has settled to the work of storing honey, and from then to the first of August there is no break in the routine of bee ranch work. l am told that three men can do the the season for gathering honey for marketing is from six to eight weeks, the balance of the year being given up for their own supply. The little ranch house is also the bee keepers honey house. Once a week the bee keeper goes with his wheelbarrow from hive to hive, and taking the cover from the upper box, removes the frames of honey. This is taken to the honey house, the frames hung up, knife re- moves the cell cover, the wax and some honey falls into tub underneath, then the uncapped frames of honey are put into an extractor, a hand crank gives circular motion that causes the the honey has drained out, it is strained into large tanks where it is allowed to stand for few days to ripen, when, after the watery liquid has risen to the top and been skinned off, it is ready for shipment. The frames with theil empty cells are returned to the hives to be again filled with honey and cap
 ped by the bees. l am told that from l5, ,OOO to 30, OOO:pounds of honey will be
 the 10-weeks yield from 200 colonies
 of bees and that 10 pounds week may
 be taken from each colony during the remainder of the season. An apiary
 of 200 colonies of bees in good condi' l tion is worth about 5000. Except in very dry and unfortunate years, the
 bees can always find honey enough fol
 food the entire winter. Sometime.
 the bee man makes the foundation
 for the cell work and places them il
 frames for the bees. It is made witt
 thin layer of beeswax with each sidt
 stamped with the little six-sided eel
 foundation. In April the orange tree
 are in full bloom, and the bees hav'
 opportunity to gather orange honel
 before they are taken back into thu
 foot hills. They will travel long dis
 tances for sip of orange which the.
 scent from afar. An expert apiariS
 here tells me he has followed be-
 seven miles to an orange grove. Bee
 do not injure the orange fruit, bu
 help in fertilization of the flower
 When the orange bloom is over, thu
 winter rains have changed the noun
 tain sides from their summer brown to green,-the sage brush, manZanits
 bush and other shrubs come in bloom
 and the earth itself is carpeted with 1 <Nf rryr1 nd fIvvff