710 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 5, 1903. 



Mr. Harbison— I remember that. They located them in 

 the city of Sacramento. That is correct. 



That is my experience in the importation of bees into 

 'California. After I got them here I found about nine colo- 

 nies had been imported before mine, but by a man who had 

 no knowledge of the handling- of bees. One man had to 

 have some knowledge. I think his name was Howell, and 

 he was killed by the blowing up of the Steamship Jenny 

 L,ind, in San Francisco Bay, or somewhere in those waters. 

 - 1 think he had brought out three colonies. So that defeated 

 his establishing the business. Those bees were taken to 

 San Jose, a place not so well adapted to bees as the Sacra- 

 aiento Valley, so, while I did not bring the first bees to the 

 State, it was my experience and success in increasing and 

 showing what could be done with them that started the 

 business of bee keeping in California. 



Question — Did you get nice yields of honey right away ? 



Mr. Harbison — My first year was devoted to increase. 



Question — You didn't work for honey ? 



Mr. Harbison — I worked for honey considerably in '58. 

 I invented my hives, and invented section-boxes there in 

 Sacramento in the winter of '57, after I got the bees out. I 

 made the first exhibit of section-box honey at the Califor- 

 nia State Fair held in Marysville, September, 1858. I took 

 the highest premiums that were given. There was a Mr. 

 Appleton, I think, from San Jose, that took a little box of 

 honey there to Marysville and set it out, but I was told by 

 a friend that he went there in the morning before I got 

 around, saw my exhibit, and then went and took his box of 

 honey away, so that it did not appear again. I was threat- 

 ened with competition, but it didn't pan out. 



Mr. Root — What price did you get for honey in those 

 times ? 



Mr. Harbison — I sold those sections at $2.00 a secticfn, 

 two pounds in a section. That was SI. 00 a pound, and it 

 sold readily. I made four observatory hives, and one or 

 two oval hives of the same pattern, which I still use. There 

 at Marysville it attracted a very great deal of attention. 

 Then I think it was the next year there was a large Agri- 

 cultural Hall built in Sacramento, and I exhibited there. I 

 exhibited a full set of observatory hives, showing the 

 queens in all stages of growth, and the conditions of the 

 bee, illustrating them, and my exhibit was placed in the 

 basement, where all agricultural products were placed. I 

 I had a very fine observatory hive, which I have yet, but it 

 has not been used for a great many years, and the mana- 

 gers of the fair came to me and asked my permission to 

 locate that hive according to their ideas. I, of course, 

 granted it. It was a gratification to me, and they took it 

 upstairs. There was a fountain in front of the speaker's 

 stand, and they located it right in front of the fountain. 

 During the evening they had to have a policeman there to 

 keep the way clear so that the visitors could pass and see 

 that hive. It was acknowledged to be the most attractive 

 one item exhibit at that fair. Of course, I was awarded the 

 highest premiums that their rules would allow, and those 

 exhibits, and the success that I met with, started quite a 

 furore in bee-keeping, and, unlike many other booms that 

 have taken place in California, it has kept on. Of course, 

 prices fell, but it has been a continuous growth ever sincfe. 

 It gives me great pleasure to be here and give you a little 

 idea of what we have passed through in fetching about this 

 industry. 



Dr. Miller — Can you tell us how much it cost you to get 

 those 110 colonies you brought from Pennsylvania by the 

 time you set them up here ? 



Mr. Harbison— In the neighborhood of $1800. 



Mr. Root — When was your book published? 



Mr. Harbison — In 1861. I wrote it in Sacramento. It 

 is out of print, and there are very few copies to be had. 

 They are scattered over California, a good many of them. 



By the way, I sent the first case of comb honey that 

 ever went across the continent. I put it in the first car of 

 green fruit that was ever shipped from Sacramento, or from 

 California. That car-load went to Chicago, and that case 

 was the first case of California honey ever sold East. 



Mr. Root — Tell us about your experience in sending 

 car-loads across. 



Mr. Harbison — We didn't send car-loads until we intro- 

 duced beekeeping down in San Diego. I had a friend down 

 there, a Mr. Pardee, a relative, I suppose, of our present 

 Governor. He had made some investigation down there as 

 to the flora of San Diego, and he was satisfied that bees 

 would do well. I had a ifriend, Mr. R. G. Clark, who lives 

 in San Diego, whom many of you know. He was not en- 

 gaged then in any enterprise, and his brother having 

 bought bees, and having made a fine success of it, and hav- 



ing learned from his brother, they conceived the idea of Mr. 

 Clark going down there with his bees. We took 110 colo- 

 nies and landed them in San Diego, Nov. 28, 1869. Those 

 were the first bees landed in San Diego. 



Question — When did you get Italians? 



Mr. Harbison — In San Diego ; I think from Mr. Quinby. 

 Then I got others In '65. We landed those bees dovfn there 

 in San Diego in '69, and Mr. Clark and I were in partner- 

 ship four years there, and in that time established four api- 

 aries, and when our time expired he took two and I took 

 two. He ran his two apiaries for the first season afterward, 

 which was the year 1874, which was the best season we ever 

 had. Then he sold out, and took the money, wKich was 

 quite a considerable sum that he made during that time, 

 and planted the first vineyard and eucalyptus grove ever 

 planted in this valley, and to which is due the first raisins 

 ever raised in San Diego County, a fact which, I think, may 

 have been lost sight of. Others may have been credited 

 with being the pioneer, but he is the pioneer raisin-grower 

 in San Diego County. 



Question — What is the greatest number of colonies you 

 ever kept in one place ? 



Mr. Harbison — 600 colonies. 



Question — How much did they yield ? 



Mr. Harbison — They yielded an average of over ISO 

 pounds of comb honey per colony, in 1864. That was the 

 Honey Springs Apiary, near Lyons' Peak, in San Diego 

 County. I had some apiaries there that had 400 or 500 colo- 

 nies. I think I had as many as 500 colonies in this Sweet 

 Water Apiary that I still own there, which is the last of 

 my apiaries. I think the greatest number I had at any one 

 time was about 3750 colonies, divided around in 12 apiaries. 



Question — What was the largest crop in any one year? 



Mr. Harbison — I can not give you the amount of the 

 product, but it was considerably over 100,000 pounds. 



Question — What was honey worth at that time? 



Mr. Harbison — The first car-load was sold to C. O. Per- 

 rine, of Chicago, for 27 cents a pound, delivered in Chicago. 

 I reserved, however, a few cases, perhaps 20, and placed in 

 the hands of Graff & Co., to be sold as an experiment, and 

 I think they realized 28 cents for me. The freight-rate, I 

 think, was about 3 cents a pound gross on the car-load. 



Question — That was extracted honey or comb ? 



Mr. Harbison — That was 2-pound sections. I have al- 

 ways produced 2-pound sections, and when I have ceased to 

 do that, I shall have ceased to produce any honey. I have 

 one apiary left which I want to sell. If I am spared to the 

 28th of September, I shall have passed the 77th landmark of 

 my age, so it is time I had my apiary sold and somebody 

 else was running it. It is for sale. 



Question — In what year did you send those first cases 

 of honey with the car-load of fruit to Chicago ? 



Mr. Harbison — It must have been exhibited at Marys- 

 ville in '58, and Sacramento in '59. It was the first year 

 after the railroad was completed. I think it must have been 

 in '61 or '62, somewhere along there; anyhow, the first sea- 

 son after the railroad was opened overland. This car-load 

 of honey that was shipped from San Diego — it must have 

 been in '71 or '72 that we sold it to Perrine. 



When we took the bees to San Diego, I had a little of 

 the same experience in the way of comments that I had 

 when I made my early shipments to California ; that is, 

 there was nothing for the bees to feed on in San Diego, 

 hence it was a foolish enterprise to take bees there 1 But 

 when we began to take our honey there, and going on board 

 the steamer, they began to inquire how much we were get- 

 ting a pound for it ; they changed their minds, and were 

 desirous of going into the business. 



Now, to go back to the question that is affecting you 

 all, I want to give you a little bit of history of the introduc- 

 tion of foul brood into California, and my experience with 

 that. 



In 1858, a man named Wheaton came to my place and 

 visited me a number of times under pretense of buying 

 bees, but, as I suspected at the time, and as was afterwards 

 proved, simply to get the secrets of my success in the hand- 

 ling of bees. However, late in the fall of '58, he arrived at 

 Sacramento with quite a large number of bees, somewhere 

 from 80 to 100 colonies. I inquired where he got them. He 

 said he got them from Quinby— out of Mr. Quinby's winter 

 quarters. 



He placed them within three-quarters of a mile of my 

 apiary, a great many of them in bad condition. I did not 

 know anything of foul brood then, for we did not have any 

 in western Pennsylvania, and I supposed that foul brood 

 was really chilled brood. He complained that my bees were 

 robbing his. I went to make an examination, and remem- 



