86 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTCJKE. 



Jflst. 



bees nj) in the s;iriag. never! Mine would hardly 

 notico nice honey, let alone working on meal. 

 Low Banks, Ontario, Caiunhi. April 15tli, 1875. 



CAL3F©IENIA. 



BEARXOVIG'E:— Somucli has Ijcen written du- 

 the past year or two, laudator}' of this sec^tion 

 lor tlie pursuit of bee-keeping, and so general 



lias become, the anxiety of bee-keepers for fuller in- 

 formation in relation to this Eldorado of hive hopes, 

 with a view to coming liere, I thought a few items of 

 facts otherwise than of bees might be of interest, and 

 perhaps save many a lieart-aolie in tlie future. 



Leaving Kansas, the land of the grasshoppers and 

 drouth; 10 acres of which— pardon me for the digres- 

 sion— is worth this whole County, the trip to San 

 Francisco was over the usual l.iOO iniles of Sage lirush, 

 and grouse wood, alkali, sand and general cic-;Glation 

 characteristic of that portion of our country, until the 

 west side of the Sierra Nevadas was reached where 

 one finds scenes of surpassing loveliness, dotted with 

 thriving villages and a general air of go-ahead, more 

 grateful to the tired emigrant, thaji can.ea&ily be im- 

 agined. 



From Saa Francisco, there is but one means of ac- 

 cess to San Diego Co., and that is by steamer (a mo- 

 nopoly line) down the coast -IdS miles S. E., past Santa 

 iiarbara and Los AngeloS, the best portions of South- 

 ern California, at a cost of §15.03 for cabin or §9.00 for 

 steerage, gold, one arrives at the Bay of San Diego. 

 The eye vests on a istra^glihg town- built near the 

 beach with treeless surroundings and high enough 

 looking mountains for the back groun<l, distant 15 to 

 iO miles. The town is situated about 18 miles from 

 the Mexican boundary in latitude 8P, about as far 

 South as Savannah, Ga., and is expected to be the 

 terminus of the Texas Pacilic Railway. 



Otr the boat, over a long wharf and one enters a 

 town of about 2000 people, which has an air of being 

 deserted. You see no life, no business, no sign' of 

 trade except in wool, at one or two houses which 

 seem to buy all that is oflered at 12 to 17c. Of this 

 great staple great quantities are sold as it constitutes 

 the only product except honey, of a large extent of 

 country. 



Let me premise that vegetation requires vjciter, and 

 that water does not nin around town, but is fouiid 

 only by digging deep wells, from which it is lifted by 

 vfind-mills into large tanks from which it is distribu- 

 ted through hose to the gardens. 



There are many beautilul houses in town surrounded 

 by gardens tillea with the choicest of elegant flowers 

 which bloom the year around, or as long as they pour 

 on water. 



Two steam mills fitted with machinery expressly for 

 cutting bee-hive stuff have been kept at work supply- 

 ing the demand for hives and section boxes. There 

 have been about 12000 hives made, using up over 

 ;W0,000 feet of lumber— reil-wood and pine. 



Last year the honey crop was so exceptionally great 

 that every body here who had money, bought a few 

 colonies of bees, went out to the mountains', 15 to 50 

 miles, and took a ranch or, as men in the West would 

 say, "took up a homestead," or "squatted" on a claim. 

 Some went with their bees, some let them out' on 

 shares, giving one-half the increase and one-half the 

 honey, lui-nishing one-half the new hives and one-half 

 the section or honej'' boxes. 



Let us go out and hunt a location too. 'With a good 

 horse we leave the town anil immediately in its sub- 

 urbs reach a high rolling country over which we 

 '.ravel about 20 miles. This section is not used for 

 bees. It is covered with cactus, grouse wood and low 

 bushes ; the soil being sandy gravel mixed with clay. 

 l^lenty of horned toads, snakes, scorpions, swifts, owls, 

 ground squirrels, gophefs, rabbits and quail abound 

 here. Perhaps once in 5 or 10 miles you will see a 

 tree, or tin elder bush grown to a tree. They have 

 live oak, elder, sycamore and cottonwood only, so far 

 as I have seen. Then we come to the granite i-ange 

 of mountains which runs N. W. and S. E.— high gran- 

 ite ranges which lie in every direction, cut up by can- 

 yons or narrow valleys, and it is in these canyons, 

 surrounded by these bare forbidding mountains, the 

 bees are kept. 



To an J<;astcrn man the whole tri)) is dreary and 

 forbiilding in the extreme. Not a tree, bush, flower 

 nor any thing, but among perfect strangers, he feels 

 a stranger in a strange land. Among these canvons, 

 at from one to three miles apart, you liud thc'bee- 

 ranches-simply 50 to .'500 hives of bees standing close 

 together in the sun, arranged in rows or streets with 

 the incvitcible veiled keeper among them attending to 

 their v/ants. A few rods from the bees stands a small 

 house, perhaps 12 feet square, used to make up the 



hives and store honey in ; a little farther off, the house 

 of the bee-keeper— small as the honey house, not plas- 

 tered and quite open to the weather ; i.ndee;l they say 

 they have no cold weather, and hence do liot want ii 

 tight house. Here the bee-keei^er— usually alone or 

 \vith an assistant— remains for nionths at a time, rare- 

 ly seeing strange faces, attending solely to bees. 



At such a place, among 4U0hiVes of "nice Italians, I 

 foimd the King of bee-keci)ers— Mr. Harbison— busy 

 with his assistiint arranging for the storing of his- 

 honey. 



Mr.' H. is a quiet gentleman 47 years of age, about 5 

 feet 10 inches, in height, blue eyes and santlv beard, 

 who nov/ has half a ilozen Apiaries of froni ioo to (>()0- 

 colonies earrb, at distances of S to 20 n;s'iles apart. He 

 counted oOOO stands of Italians last spring. The lirst 

 vear ho was here (1&70) he got but 30 lbs. of honey to a. 

 hive, the next 70 in 1S71, 9'J in 1872, 00 in 1S78, and 150 

 in 1871. These ligures from his own lips do not eonvey 

 an idea of great fortunes in a hwrij. 



Last winter the bee-raen bought hive material for 

 about three swarms from each old stock. In Marclk 

 the bees began to swarm, but the 1st of April a hetivy 

 frost^the heaviest known in years in this country- 

 cut off all the flowers, ai^l reduced whole Apiaries to- 

 starvation. Many line new swarms deserted their 

 hives, or starved to death. Swarming was stoi)ped, :w 

 per cent of the young Qvteens were lost in their fertil- 

 i:',ing llight. Swarms came out and went iuto othei' 

 hives, and so a general disap])oiutmeat has resnlted. 

 Of the loss of j'oung (Jaeens in their undue lliglit. 

 Mr. Harbison told me, that from long observation, he 

 believed there were workers which he calls ctven(/erK, 

 which killed them, while outside, or elsje followed 

 them inside the hive to kill theni. 



The flowers did not secrete any honey of conse- 

 quence until two weeks ago, and as the sage was in- 

 jured, no one anticipates half a crop of lionev. The 

 main flow of surplus honey is gathered from May 30th. 

 to July 1st from white sage. There are other plants 

 which ])roducc (piite as much, though not so whiter 

 and nice. 



Nearly every Apiarian now has on hand ruough. 

 empty liives for next year's work. They are not, as a 

 class, very sanguine of great success. Many are dis- 

 appointed cither in anticipated results or so disgusted 

 with the utter loneliness of this life, isolated from all 

 society, far from town or means of procuring the 

 necessfiries of life, that a great many good locations 

 are for .sale very low. Bees can be had this fall at 

 $.'3.00 or less in box hives, full of honey, or in good 

 frame hives at 55.00 each. The time to" come here is 

 from October to Jan. 1st to get ready for the summer''s 

 work. Let no one come expecting to And churches, 

 schools nor society, but to be isolated from mankind 

 while engaged in the business. To sell a farm at the 

 East and come here to raise honey is the height of 

 foil}', and whoever does so will never cease to regret 

 it. It will be far better to come and look at the coun- 

 trj' before bringing families, for all is not gold that 

 glitters. Let no one bring any furniture, and, by all 

 means, bring no bees. The cost even from San Fran- 

 cisco here is more than they are worth. Every thing 

 here is high, probably 20 per cent higher than than in, 

 any of oiu- Western states and all i)ayable in gold. It 

 is costly work getting started. Abo'ut ?2000, gold, is 

 required when one gets here to get to the end of his 

 lirst year's honey season. Horses are low, wagons 

 double Eastern prices. Honey extractors they will 

 not use. They let all bees swarm natiu-ally and never 

 raise Queens to increase. Here comb honey is M'orth 

 16c. for the choicest— in gold. 



The citizens of both town and country are front 

 Northern and Western states— a class of white jieople 

 who are glad to see others come among th<jm ; are 

 hospitabie and kind, readily giving the stranger the 

 right hand of fellowship and all the information in 

 their ])0wer. Lumber is cheap as in the state of Wis- 

 consin, of two kinds, red-wood from the northern 

 part of this state, and pine from Oregon. Fuel iu 

 town is scarce and high. In the country, we can now 

 get this fuel for the cutting and hauling. Very little 

 is required at any season. No Are except to cook with 

 is ever used. The stores and churches do not have 

 auy chimneys, so that of course tliey never have a lire. 



The climate is the great "stock in trade." Never 

 cold, never hot. Since 1 have been here— a month— 

 the mercury has not been above 70°, or below 00^ more 

 than a half dozen times. It gets tiresome at lirst to 

 have such a sameness in the weather, and one longs 

 for a good thunder storm or a blow from some direc- 

 tion. It never rains from April till November and 

 some years but little even during the winter months. 

 Now every thing looks dead and dried up, but during 

 the whole winter the country is in the height of l)eauty. 



Thousands of people from the Ea^t come here iu the 



