OVERSTOCKING. 425 



culture, can probably support the greatest number of bees 

 to the square mile, and yet in some seasons the bees starve 

 there in great numbers owing to the drouth. 



We have no official statistics of the honey crops of the 

 United States, but the following extract from the American 

 Bee-Journal (1886), will give an idea of the immensity of 

 our honey resources, considering the comparatively small 

 areas of this country now occupied by Apiarists. 



' ' The California Grocer says that the crop of 1885 was 

 about 1,250,000 pounds. The foreign export from San Fran- 

 cisco during the year was approximately 8,800 cases. The ship- 

 ments East by rail were 360,000 pounds from San Francisco, 

 and 910,000 pounds from Los Angeles, including both comb and 

 extracted. We notice that another California paper estimates 

 the crop of 1885 at 2,000,000 pounds, and the crop of the 

 United States for 1885 was put down at 26,000,000 pounds. We 

 do not think these figures are quite large enough, though it 

 was an exceedingly poor crop." 



But former years have given still better results. Through 

 the courtesy of Mr. N. W. McLain, of the U. S. Apicultural 

 Station, we have received the following statistics from "The 

 Resources of California, 1881": 



The honey shipped from Ventura County, California, dur- 

 ing 1880 amounted to 1,050,000 lbs. The Pacific Coast Steam- 

 ship Company of San Diego shipped 1,191,800 pounds of 

 honey from that county in the same year. 



The crop of the five lower counties in California that year, 

 was estimated by several parties at over three million pounds. 



According to a report of S. D. Stone, Clerk of the Mer- 

 chants' Exchange of San Francisco, the actual amount of 

 honey shipped to that city from different parts of California 

 in the sixteen months ending ^lay 1, 1881, was 4,340,400 

 pounds, equal to two hundred and seventeen carloads. 



One hundred tons of honey, in one lot, were shipped during 

 the same year, from Los Angeles to Europe on the French 



