1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



333 



the regulation fg tip to 2 inches. Then when 

 the hives were opened, such a mess of broken 

 honey and an uproar, especially if it was to- 

 ward the close of the season, and the bees 

 were beginning to nose around to see what 

 they could find! But of this I shall have 

 something to say more specifically later on. 

 To give one something of an idea of the 

 amount of honey produced in California in 

 a good year, perhaps a few figures may be 

 interesting. 



SOME POSSIBLE RESULTS IN HONEY PRO- 

 DUCTION IN CALIFORNIA. 



Up to 1901 the seasons had been very dis- 

 couraging for several years. Then there 

 was a fairly good flow. When the season 

 is favorable, San Diego Co. will average 

 somewhere about 80 carloads of honey; Los 

 Angeles Co. somewhere about 60; Riverside, 

 75. Taking the counties of Orange, Los 

 Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego togeth- 

 er, the enormous aggregate of 500 carloads 

 could possibly be produced in a good sea- 

 son; and it is estimated that this amount 

 was actually harvested in 1896. Some of 

 the old resident bee-keepers of California 

 say these figures are too large, even for a 

 good year. On the other hand, there are 

 apiaries yielding little lots of honey, pro- 

 duced all through the mountain canyons, 

 that never gets out into the general markets, 

 and therefore is not counted. 



Some time in the early 60's, I am told, 

 Mr. Harbison, who at one time was thought 

 to be the most extensive bee-keeper in the 

 world, and who possibl}' has made a record 

 that will never be equaled, owned and oper- 

 ated as many as 6000 colonies; and his aver- 

 age for the entire number, I understand, 

 was something like 60 lbs. per colony, ex- 

 tracted hone}^ It is reported that a man 

 by the name of Easl_v, who had come from 

 the East, starting with 500 colonies, increas 

 ed them to 1200 in one season, and took iSo 

 tons of honey. This was near Santa Mo- 

 nica. 



THE DISCOURAGING FEATURES OF CALIFOR- 

 NIA BK,E-KKEPING. 



But lest some of my readers may get the 

 impression that there is nothing but gold 

 and honey in California, I think I had bet- 

 ter tell something of the other side. Ex- 

 perience has shown, I believe, that there 

 are only one or two good years out of five. 

 In the two or three off years, many thou- 

 sands of colonies starve to death; and it is 

 only the regular stayers who manage to 

 hold over, waiting for the good year that is 

 bound to come if they can hold out long 

 enough. In Los Angeles Co. alone there 

 were, in 1897, something like 40,000 colonies. 

 At the beginning of 1901, after a period of 

 four bad seasons, it was estimated there 

 were only about 12,000 — the remainder, 

 something like 28,000, having probably died 

 off from the continued drouth and the con- 

 sequent lack of forage. 



Several bee-keepers who had come from 

 the East to California told me that, al- 

 though they produced enormous crops of 



honey some seasons, they believed that their 

 general average per colony was no larger 

 in California than in the East, and this, 

 coupled with the almost prohibitive freight 

 rates to the markets, makes California bee- 

 keeping no bonanza. 



These off years are due entirely to lack 

 of rainfall. Some parts of California re- 

 quire more inches of rain than others. 

 Several bee-keepers told me that, if they 

 could get 10 inches for the southern coun- 

 ties, they would get at least a light crop, 

 and in some portions a good crop would be 

 secured. In other portions, from 14 to 20 

 inches seem to be required, a good deal de- 

 pending on the soil and the lay of the land. 

 Down deep in the canyons, where many an 

 apiar}' is located, and where the sun strikes 

 not more than five or six hours during the 

 day, a small number of inches of water 

 would probably do ; whereas in the open 

 valleys more might be required. 



A FEW REPRESENTATIVE CALIFORNIA API- 

 AKIRS. 



Having now generalized on the conditions 

 and peculiarities of bee-keeping in South- 

 ern California, let us take a look at some 

 of the men and some of the apiaries just as 

 I found them with mj' little kodak. 



B. S. K. BENNETT. 



After having visited with Mr. Frank Mc- 

 Nay, as spoken of in our last issue, I 

 sought out Mr. Bennett, the editor of the 

 Pacific Bee Journal, and later on I arrang- 

 ed for a drive out among the bee-keepers in 

 the immediate vicinity of Los Angeles. A 



