BEE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



The San Diego World treats this subject as follows: 



About five years since, J. S. Harbison, the leading apiarist of the 

 State, made a trip through the southern counties in search of bee pas- 

 ture. He found such good promise that soon after his return he re- 

 moved a small apiary, in the ownership of which he had associated a 

 Mr. Clark with himself, to San Diego. These were the first bees in that 

 county. The success with which this small venture was attended has 

 since induced Mr. Harbison to gather up all his bees from all other lo- 

 calities and transfer them to the same county. Mr. Harbison has now 

 in that county two thousand hives of bees, which have produced one 

 hundred and fifty thousand pounds, or seventy-five tons of surplus 

 honey of a very excellent quality. Of this he has already shipped per 

 railroad sixty tons to the Eastern States, mostly to Chicago and New 

 York. Mr. Harbison has received some returns from the sales made, 

 and he thinks from these he is warranted in expecting an average of 

 twenty cents per pound for all. At this rate his sales of honey this year 

 will equal the nice little sum of thirty thousand dollars. 



This pli.ces Mr. Harbison the foremost bee man in the world, so far as 

 money making from the business is concerned, and he undoubtedly occu- 

 pies the same position as to the knowledge of the business, there not 

 being in the world his equal in this respect. The labor in and about all 

 of his apiaries is now done by apprentices, who are availing themselves 

 of the opportunity to learn the business, while their labor pays their 

 personal expenses. Eight young men are thus engaged, and some of 

 them have become so expert as to be entrusted with the entire manage- 

 ment of some of his apiaries. Other parties, since they have learned the 

 success attending the bee business in San Diego County, have also re- 

 moved a large number there, and good judges estimate the product of 

 the apiaries of the county this year at one hundred thousand dollars. 



EXTENT AND NATURE OP BEE PASTURES. 



The bee pastures of the southern counties extend from Santa Barbara 

 to Lower California, occupying a belt of country about eight miles 

 wide — commencing about on an average of ten miles from the coast — 

 approaching nearer or receding further back, according to the topog- 

 raphy of the country. This belt is a very irregular, broken, mountain- 

 ous country, mostly unfit for general agricultural purposes, and on this 



