There are few bee-keepers,
however, who own half as many as this, or who give their undivided
attention to the business. Orange culture, at present, is heavily
overshadowing every other business.
A good many of the so-called bee-ranches of Los Angeles and San Diego
counties are still of the rudest pioneer kind imaginable. A man
unsuccessful in everything else hears the interesting story of the
profits and comforts of bee-keeping, and concludes to try it; he buys a
few colonies, or gets them, from some overstocked ranch on shares, takes
them back to the foot of some canon, where the pasturage is fresh,
squats on the land, with, or without, the permission of the owner, sets
up his hives, makes a box-cabin for himself, scarcely bigger than a
bee-hive, and awaits his fortune.
Bees suffer sadly from famine during the dry years which occasionally
occur in the southern and middle portions of the State. If the rainfall
amounts only to three or four inches, instead of from twelve to twenty,
as in ordinary seasons, then sheep and cattle die in thousands, and so
do these small, winged cattle, unless they are carefully fed, or removed
to other pastures.
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