The San Francisco call., 1910-06-12
TRIP TO THE OIL WELLS And DISCOVERY OF A BEE TREE

with honey He would reach down
his hand into the heart Of the tree
and bring up big comb dripping
with honey and covered with bees.
asked him If he could hold still long
enough for me to take a picture and
he said he would try. The bees by
this time had got so thick that he
put a cap made Of mosquito bar and
cloth over his head, but he never pro-
tected his hands at all from the angry
bees. ] propped my camera up on
rock and gave It long exposure be-
cause it was dark in the forest and
rather late in the afternoon but as
you see from the picture that is printed
on this page I was quite successful.
You can see the big bucket on the right
hand OF the bee hunter and the large
comb that he holds suspended in his
left hand The ak is sticking in the
front Of the tree and you can see 1t In
the-picture.
We got about so pounds of honey
out of this tree, more than we could
put in the bucket, and some of the honey
had to be left. The bee hunter says
the bees always go away when their
home is attacked and swarm in some
other place.
I told the bee hunter that I had a
little boy and little girl home in
San Francisco and that If he would let
me have small bucket of honey /
would take it home and tell them all
about seeing him cut into the bee trees
and take the honey out, not minding
the hundreds and thousands of bees
that were trying to sting him. lie
said that he would be very glad to
give me some honey, and the next
morning when started away from the
Huasna valley he put small lard
can of honey in the surrey. l told
him l would be sure to tell my babies
all about the trip. You may be sure
did and Earl and Elsie's interest in
the story was so great that when |
told the editor of The Call about IL
he asked me If would write this out
for the benefit of his junior friends.
After the fishermen had returned
from their journey with plenty of
trout and the bee hunter had his bag
filled with honey, and we had all had
swim in the creek, we thought we had
had very nice day.
The next day we went back to
Arroyo again, and from there to
Santa Maria, where we got an auto
mobile and rode out to the new gushers
on the Palmer tract. that had just
come in.
We had a splendid ride in the auto,
and at the end OF 1S miles we came
upon the reservoirs into which the oil
is flowing. Just three days before a
new well on the Palmer tract had
struck oil, and the oil had been forced
out by the gases in such quantities that
it spouted from the ground / took
several pictures of these flowing wells
and one of them you see on this page.
There is lots of money being made
in oil. hope that all the fathers of
my readers have interest in these oil
wells, because there is lots of money
being made in them. The oil wells
OF California are of more Importance
now than it's gold mines.
After we had seen all the flowing
wells that we cared to look at, our
automobile brought us back to Santa
Maria, and that evening we took the
Pullman at a place called Guadalupe.
on the ocean, and after travelling all
night got back early the next morning.
Now, trust that you have been In
terested in my story about the bees
and oil wells, but | don't think it would
be advisable for any of you to try to
get the honey out OF bee tree and
think that because the hunter that was
with me did not care for stngs that
you would not be hurt by. them. AS
matter of fact. bee stings are SO bad
for most people that sometimes they
are stung to death by them.