1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



731 



Notes of Travel 



THR SI="RIOI'S SITUATION IN THE REGION OF 

 THK BI.IGHri'.D PEAK-ORC FTAKDS. 



Something- over a year ag^o I wrote up 

 the situation reg-arding the pear-blight, 

 and the possible relation of the bees to it. 

 While it was not shown perhaps that the 

 bees were entirely innocent, there were 

 many circumstances that seemed to indi- 

 cate that the spread of the blight was due 

 to conditions beyond the control of any bee- 

 keeper or any living man in the vicinit}-. 

 The most that the bee-keepers were pre- 

 pared to admit was that the bees might 

 help in spreading the virus of the pear- 

 blight, and even the conservative pear-men 

 themselves appeared inclined to the view 

 that their removal would do little more than 

 mitigate the trouble. The more rabid of 

 the fruit-men seemed to be of the opinion 

 that all the bees should be banished from 

 the county, and talked "poison," "law," 

 and "the courts." Such rabid sentiments 

 I am pleased to say did not emanate from 



the extensive pear-growers but from the 

 little small-minded dozen-tree growers. 



There are bee-keepers who have consid- 

 erable holdings in bees; and if they are 

 compelled to move to another locality there 

 will be the expense of moving as well as 

 the more serious problem of finding other 

 good bee localities remote from other bee- 

 keepers. I doubt very much whether any 

 one in the vicinity of the pear-orchards 

 could move his bees to any unoccupied ter- 

 ritory within a radius of two or three hun- 

 dred miles in which he could make a fair 

 living. As I have before explained, the 

 good bee locations are so thoroughly taken 

 up throughout almost the entire State of 

 California — a State that has an area equal 

 to two and half times that of the wliole of 

 New England — that if one has to move out 

 he will have to give up the business and 

 sacrifice hundreds and perhaps thousands 

 of dollars invested in bees, hives, extractors, 

 buildings, and general equipment. This 

 is the situation that confronts some well-to- 

 do bee-men within a few miles of the pear- 

 orchards. So far as I have talked with 

 the bee-men, they are willing to move their 

 bees or quit the business, providing it can 

 be proven that the bee business is of less 

 importance than the growing of pears, and 

 providing it is further proven that the re- 

 moval of the bees under domestication and 

 under the control of man would afYord the 



J. F. Flory. F- K. Brown. Fred M. Hart. 



FIG. 1.— THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE BEE-MEN TO MEET WITH A SIMILAR COMMITTEE 



FROM THE PE.\R-MEN. 



