THE BEE-PASTURES 381 



The greater portion of this immense region, in 

 cluding Owen's Valley, Death Valley, and the Sink 

 of the Mohave, the area of which is nearly one fifth 

 that of the entire State, is usually regarded as a 

 desert, not because of any lack in the soil, but for 

 want of rain, and rivers available for irrigation. 

 Very little of it, however, is desert in the eyes of a 

 bee. 



Looking now over all the available pastures of 

 California, it appears that the business of bee 

 keeping is still in its infancy. Even in the more 

 enterprising of the southern counties, where so vig 

 orous a beginning has been made, less than a tenth 

 of their honey resources have as yet been devel 

 oped ; while in the Great Plain, the Coast Ranges, 

 the Sierra Nevada, and the northern region about 

 Mount Shasta, the business can hardly be said to 

 exist at all. What the limits of its developments 

 in the future may be, with the advantages of 

 cheaper transportation and the invention of better 

 methods in general, it is not easy to guess. Nor, 

 on the other hand, are we able to measure the 

 influence on bee interests likely to follow the de 

 struction of the forests, now rapidly falling before 

 fire and the ax. As to the sheep evil, that can 

 hardly become greater than it is at the present 

 day. In short, notwithstanding the wide-spread 

 deterioration and destruction of every kind already 

 effected, California, with her incomparable climate 

 and flora, is still, as far as I know, the best of all 

 the bee-lands of the world. 



