Not less
than 18,000 colonies perished in these two counties alone, while in the
adjacent counties the death-rate was hardly less.
[Illustration: WILD BUCKWHEAT.--A BEE RANCH IN THE WILDERNESS.]
Even the colonies nearest to the mountains suffered this year, for the
smaller vegetation on the foot-hills was affected by the drought almost
as severely as that of the valleys and plains, and even the hardy,
deep-rooted chaparral, the surest dependence of the bees, bloomed
sparingly, while much of it was beyond reach. Every swarm could have
been saved, however, by promptly supplying them with food when their own
stores began to fail, and before they became enfeebled and discouraged;
or by cutting roads back into the mountains, and taking them into the
heart of the flowery chaparral. The Santa Lucia, San Rafael, San
Gabriel, San Jacinto, and San Bernardino ranges are almost untouched as
yet save by the wild bees. Some idea of their resources, and of the
advantages and disadvantages they offer to bee-keepers, may be formed
from an excursion that I made into the San Gabriel Range about the
beginning of August of "the dry year." This range, containing most of
the characteristic features of the other ranges just mentioned,
overlooks the Los Angeles vineyards and orange groves from the north,
and is more rigidly inaccessible in the ordinary meaning of the word
than any other that I ever attempted to penetrate.
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