Sept. 15, 1904 



THfc AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



629 



ment to the busy little workers. They probably voted the 

 young- city an uncivilized place; a "dismal excuse" for 

 man, or beast, or insect, to inhabit. Those bees, if they 

 reasoned at all, as well as many a homesick man, yearned 

 to take the first steamer for the East. But never a bee took 

 the steamer homeward. They remained " to grow up with 

 the country ", and, like many of the sturdy argonauts, they 

 rejoice in now being reckoned among the great history- 

 makers of the world. 



A half century has made San Francisco one of the im- 

 portant commercial cities of the universe. And California 

 — well, where is there its equal in everything that the heart 

 of man yearns for ? 



In the early history of the bee in San Francisco, there 

 were no large parks, no vast stretches of truck-gardens as 

 there are now, that produce vegetables that n.re shipped to 

 the cities of the East by the train-load, to say nothing of 

 feeding the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the 

 city. Since then the native flora has been augmented by 

 countless kinds of nectar-yielding flowers that make the 

 bees of to-day in the City of St. Francis well contended. It 

 has been stated by some, who have had insufficient infor- 

 mation upon the subject, that bees will not thrive in this 

 city. Such is not the fact. 



There are a number of small apiaries in the city. From 

 the owners of those I have talked with, I learn that bees do 

 well, and sufficient honey is gathered during the winter to 

 keep the colonies well supplied with stores. The view 

 accompanying this is that of a trim little apiary I photo- 

 graphed on a beautiful day in mid-February. It is in what 

 is known as the Mission District of the city — a portion of 

 the metropolis that is noted for its mild climate. And there 

 are apiaries out by Golden Gate Park, where the climate is 

 not so mild, and the little workers roll in the honey there, 

 too. 



The apiary shown is that of Mr. Philip Prior, the prin- 

 cipal of one of the public schools of the city. This gentle- 

 man is as ardent a worker among the industrious insects as 

 he is a faithful and successful instructor of the rising gen- 

 eration. He tells me that he has averaged as high as 51 

 pounds of comb honey per colony. This is a pretty big 

 yield, considering that his place is in the neighborhood of 

 five or six miles of the Pacific Ocean. He never loses any 

 colonies during winter. The bees are kept on an ordinary 

 city lot in the rear of his home, which is on one of the prin- 

 cipal streets of the city. Owing to the insects having to fly 

 high to clear the residences, they have not been known to 

 molest horses or pedestrians on the street. Bees were form- 

 erly kept on the same block by John McCormick some years 

 since, and I learn that he made quite a success of his little 

 apiary. 



In connection with what I have stated above, of the 

 bees in the apiary herewith pictured, I will relate that these 

 bees got a great writing up in the city papers, and just be- 

 cause in following the dictates of Nature, they took advan- 

 tage of the beautiful and warm day, and swarmed. In 

 their simplicity they flew over the barn on the adjoining 

 lot in the rear, and circled around in the play-ground (a very 

 natural thing for them to do) of the Hawthorne School, over 

 which presides my friend and client, Mrs. Mann. Perhaps 

 these bees thought because they were the property of a 

 pedagogue, they were cutting the proper caper by seeking 

 the sacred precincts of a school-yard for an alighting-place 

 fbr their owner to come and hive them. 



But it proved unholy ground for them. The children 

 did not think it fun to see a bee at school ; neither did the 

 principal or the other teachers, though they are all learned 

 and estimable ladies, as it is my good fortune to count sev- 

 eral of them among my acquaintances. 



According to the reports in the papers, the Health De- 

 partment of the city was called to remove the bees. It 

 seems, however, that the deputies forgot to bring their im- 

 plements for extracting the business ends of the poor little 

 innocents. At one time it was thought that it would be 

 necessary to call out the fire department, as well as the 

 tough gang that is used in gathering in superfluous dogs, 

 stray cows, and omnivorous William goats. At any rate, 

 the clumsy deputies of the Health Department, who, by the 

 way, have had more experience in chasing the elusive 

 microbe, used a few sulphur candles to subdue the bees, and, 

 as a result, caused the bees to seek a more congenial alight- 

 ing-place. Where that place is. Principal Prior knoweth 

 not, and thus, between those two departments of the city 

 government, the apiary of our worthy friend lost the first 

 swarm of the season, which was worth say, a golden bill. 



Right here I should like to ask why did not the fellow 

 who got up the rhyming lines on the value of swarms start 



in with March and April 7 I have had swarms issue in the 

 latter part of March, though the season usually begins in 

 April hereabout. W. A. Pryal. 



Mr. C. J. Thies, of Pepin Co., Wis., sent us a newspaper 

 clipping recently on the flight of bees, from which we take 

 these paragraphs, as they refer to Mr. Prior's bees : 



Although it is a distance of 2j4 miles from the Prior 

 bee-ranch to (iolden Gate Park, the Prior bees make the 

 trip there, collect loads of honey and get back to the hive in 

 two minutes, making a bullet-like flight at the surprising 

 rate of 150 miles an hour. 



Mr. Prior has demonstrated this by having an observer 

 watching certain bee-favored places in the park and exactly 

 timing the arrival there of bees he purposely sprinkled with 

 flour as they issued from the hive. He has also kept time 

 on the absence of the whitened bees. 



"Your Mother." — We have just received one of the 

 most beautiful home songs that has of late come to this 

 office. It is called " Your Mother", written by J. T. Rider. 

 Price SO cents per copy. Readers of our paper, by sending 

 25 cents in postage stamps to the Theatrical Music Supply 

 Co., 44 West 28th St., New York, N.Y., will receive a copy 

 mailed to them postpaid. 





Some Expert Opinion 



' In the multitude of couusellors there is safety." — Bible. 





Hand-Holes or Cleats on Supers. 



1 4. — Do yvii leant /mnd-holes, or cleatx, on both sides and ends u/ 

 saprrsf I meati pr'tnciptilly extracting-snpers. 



S. T. Pettit (Ont.)— No. 



R. C. AiKiN (Colo.)— I do. 



Rkv. M. Mahin (Ind.)— No. 



N. E. France (Wis.)— Cleats. 



Mrs. J. M. NuLi, (Mo.)— Yes. 



Adrian Getaz (Tenn.)— Yes. 



G. M. Dooi-ITTLK (N. Y.)— Cleats, always. 



Wm. RoHRiG (Ariz.)— Yes, hand-holes preferred. 



E. S. LovESY (Utah)— Hand-holes on sides and ends. 



R. L. Taylor (Mich.)— Yes, good hand-holes— no cleats. 



Prof. A. J. Cook (Calif.)- They are convenient, and so 

 desirable. 



J. M. Hambaugh (Nev.)— Hand-holes are preferable to 

 cleats at the ends. 



O. O. POPPLETON (Fla.)— Cleats all around, but I would 

 prefer hand-holes. 



C. H. DiBBESN (111.)— I prefer hand-holes at the ends of 

 extracting supers only. 



Jas. a. Stone (111.)— Just on the ends, I think, is suffi- 

 cient ; less apt to overbalance. 



C. P. Dadant (111.)— We want them on the sides, though 

 they are perhaps also desirable on the ends. 



P. H. Ei.vvooD (N. Y.)— Either on both sides or both 

 ends, but not necessary on both sides and ends. 



Dr. C. C. Miller (111.)— If I used extracting supers I'd 

 want cleats at the ends, as well as on the hives. 



C. Davenport (Minn.)— Yes, hand-holes on the sides 

 and ends of comb honey supers, extracting-supers and 

 hives. 



E. Whitcomb (Nebr.)— Yes, hand-holes are necessary 

 when the hives have been tiered up. I would prefer the 

 hand-hole to a cleat, for the reason that there is no material 



