732 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



expected relief. If I am not mistaken, the 

 bee-men were in the locality before the 

 pear-men, and they have just as good a 



F. E. BROWN, PRES. OF THE CENTRAL CAL- 

 IFORNIA BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



right to make a living there as their neigh- 

 bors engaged in a different occupation. If 

 the question does come before the courts, 

 there will be some fine points involved. 



I was assured, while on the ground, that 

 the pear-blight is something that comes 

 and goes in spite of the bees. This admis- 

 sion was made by some of the fair-minded 

 pear-men. If that be the case, the terrible 

 blight that has devastated the vicinity of 

 some of the best-bearing trees will disap- 

 pear of its own accord, and in the course 

 of a few 3^ears these conflicting relations be- 

 tween the two industries will be forgotten. 



I am glad to introduce to you to-day some 

 of the representative bee-men around Han- 

 ford. I was not able to see all of them by 

 considerable. Those that I did have a con- 

 ference with constituted a committee ap- 

 pointed by the Central California State Bee- 

 keepers' Association to meet a committee ap- 

 pointed by the fruit-men to devise ways and 

 means whereby the conflicting interests 

 could be harmonized. First I will intro- 

 duce to 3'ou Mr. F. E. Brown, son-in-law 

 of the pioneer bee-keeper J. F. Flory, and 

 President of the Central California Bee- 

 keepers' Association. He has been en- 

 gaged in bee-keeping for many years, and 

 has been identified during that time with 

 various business interests. He is disposed 

 to be fair, and willing to consider any rea- 

 sonable proposition that may be made; and 

 yet he is one of those chaps who will "fight 

 to the last ditch" when he feels that the 



bees have been maligned and condemned in 

 a wholesale way. 



In Fig. 1 I show Mr. F. E. Brown and 

 the part of the committee that was appoint- 

 ed to meet a similar committee from the 

 pear-growers. Mr. J. F. Flory I referred 

 to in our last issue. 



Mr. Fred M. Hart is a bee-keeper who is 

 perhaps as extensively engaged in the 

 business as any one in the vicinity of the 

 pear- orchards. He has a beautiful home 

 and a delightful family, and I had the 

 pleasure of staying over night with him. 



The next morning, after breakfast, I got 

 the family out in the yard and suggested 

 that they group together, rough and ready, 

 that I might get their pictui-e. This they 

 kindly consented to do, from the youngest 

 to the oldest. See cut below. 



The other gentleman shown in the larg- 

 est group. Fig. 1, is one whose name I do 

 not seem to have on my note-book or else I 

 should be glad to introduce him also. 



BEES AND almond-growing; STICKING TO 

 THE BEES. 



Let us now leave Hanford and take a 

 jump northward through the deserts into 

 the region of Newman, Cal., where resides a 

 son of Mr. J. F. Flory, Isaac D. Flory. The 

 senior Flory 's sons were all trained to the 

 bee business. Two of them are quite ex- 

 tensively engaged in the industry, particu- 



F. M. HART AND FAMILY. 



larly Mr. J. H. Flory, of Dos Palos, who 

 has 1200 colonies. I stopped at Newman, 

 as I had had some correspondence with Mr. 

 I. D. Flory, and desired to finish up_ the 



