THE ADVANCE OF BEES UNDER DOMESTICATION. 16 1 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE ADVANCE OF BEE LIFE UNDER DOMES- 

 TICATION. 



The strides bee-keeping has made of late years have been very- 

 great both in Europe and America, more so in the latter than in 

 the former, and the financial result of the enterprise by modern 

 methods has been more surprising than that of almost any other 

 industry that was brought prominently to the fore at or about 

 the same time, and that has marched side by side with it for the 

 same period. The State of California leads in the proportion of 

 honey, and the largest bee-farmers in the world are met with in 

 the southern part of that State. 



The amount of capital invested in the industry in South- 

 ern California is stated to be £90,000 exclusive of land. The 

 people engaged in the work pay for labour annually £14,000, 

 and circulate no less than £15,000 every year amongst the manu- 

 facturers of bee-keepers' supplies. The making of these must 

 supply the means of living to a large number of families. In 

 the same State there are nearly 5,000 bee-keepers, each one 

 averaging 150 colonies, or 750,000 colonies in the Southern 

 State alone. From this State 5,000 tons of extracted honey 

 and a proportionate amount of comb honey was sold in 1896. 

 The price for honey in America is much less than here. In 

 California extracted honey is sold at £16 per ton, and comb 

 honey at double that price. Therefore, the bee industry of the 

 Southern State referred to must have put into circulation not 

 far short of £200,000 that, prior to the inauguration of the bar- 

 frame method of bee-keeping, was permitted to go to waste. 

 Arizona and other places in the States rival the Californias in 

 honey production. These figures were obtained from an article 

 recently published in the Los Angeles Journal. 



According to the last annual statistical number of the 

 Californian Fruit-grower there are in the United States 110 

 apiarian societies, eight journals devoted exclusively to the bee 

 and honey industry, and fifteen steam factories for the manu- 

 facture of hives and apiarian implements. There are 300,000 



