1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 



shade-board against the westerly side of the hive. I have not 

 lost a colony from the heat for years, notwithstandlnR the 

 mercury frequently goes to 108^ or more in the shade. 



SOME OF THE MANY HONEY-PLANTS. 



In January, February, and part of March my bees visit 

 manzanita and willow, gathering pollen and honey enough to 

 carry on brood-rearing at a lively rate. March furnishes 

 buckhorn and alder, the alder lasting into April, when the 

 wild plum and the spring flowers take up the burden and 

 bring us to the point where a surplus is to be expected. 



In May and June Yerba Santa and ball-sage are the prin- 

 cipal sources, and in July and August white sage and wild 

 buckwheat. I have seen some fruit-bloom and alfalfa avail- 

 able during the season. The buckwheat flow ends the surplus 

 season. 



September, October and November are filled out by the 

 fall flowers, the principal of which is a species of broom, bear- 

 ing a profusion of small yellow blossoms, yielding a fair 

 quantity of a rich golden-yellow honey, upon which the bees 

 fill up their hives for winter, which really only lasts a month. 



Locations vary, but, in my judgment, unless you have 

 about the equivalent of the foregoing, your honey-yield will 

 suffer. I have a water-ditch by the side of the apiary, and in 

 season, I turn a stream out over a bed of sand and gravel for 

 a " watering-trough" for the bees. 



APIAKIAN IMPLEMENTS AND CONVENIENCES. 



I use what is called the Ventura-Standard hive, 10 frames 

 in the lower and 9 in the upper story. The frames measure 

 8xl6X inches inside the wood. Sometimes, when lam crowded, 

 I pile them up three, and even four, stories high. This only 

 occurs when I get behind with my extracting. Usually, I ex- 

 tract from each hive every seven or eight days during the 

 season. 



The extracting-house is made principally of common wire- 

 cloth, with a good shake roof over it, and is furnished inside 

 with extractors, oil-stove, uncapping-can, honey-tanks, etc. 



I ripen ray honey in large tanks from four to six days be- 

 fore I case it up for market. I use new cans and cases, tak- 

 ing care to have everything perfectly clean and neat during 

 the whole operation. I close the cans tightly, and keep them 

 so, and have never had any honey " candy." 



I handle my bees and hives just as little as I possibly can, 

 never taking two steps where one will answer the purpose. I 

 sell my honey as soon as I get it ready for market, and save 

 insurance, warehouse charges and other expenses. 



THE ROAD TO SUCCESS. 



I am convinced that the road to success lies along the line 

 of cheapened production. The field of the specialist is being 

 narrowed year by year, and he can no longer hope to secure 

 the phenomenal yields of the past. You, of this valley, may 

 not find it profitable to engage largely in apiculture, but when 

 your vast underground resources are tapped; when the life- 

 giving streams from the enclircling hills are conducted upon 

 your fields, and Alfalfa — that prince of forage-plants — spreads 

 his mantle of green over the naked breast of Mother Earth ; 

 when around each cottage home there thrives the apple, the 

 peach, the almond — all manner of fruits and flowers — they all 

 grow here — then I hope to see beside each garden-wall a few 

 thriving colonies of bees. 



Since modern science has done so much to simplify the 

 care and management of bees, there is no reason why every 

 family living as you do, in the country, should not keep a few 

 colonies for its own use. With the movable frames now in 

 use, and the knowledge that bees can be subdued by smoke, 

 they may be handled by the most timid. The women and chil- 

 dren can take care of a few colonies at the cost of no more 

 labor and trouble than would be given a flock of hens. 



BEES AND FRUIT AGAIN. 



It has been contended that bees destroy fruit. This is 

 certainly a mistake. Wasps and hornets — which secrete no 

 wax, are furnished with strong, saw-like jaws, for cutting the 

 woody fibre with which they build their comb — can, and do, 

 penetrate the skins of the toughest fruits. On the other hand, 

 the jaws of the bee are adapted chiefly to the manipulation of 

 wax — are not serrated as are those of the hornet, but smooth ; 

 are so feeble that they cannot puncture the skin of the ten- 

 derest grape. This has been proven by repeated experiment. 



If the skin of the fruit is once broken, however, the bee is 

 not slow to take advantage of the circumstance, and will at 

 once proceed to collect and store the juices, and in the case of 

 grapes, at least, to the detriment of both bees and bee-keeper. 



REQUIREMENTS OF SUCCESS. 



In apiculture, as in all other lines of endeavor, only the 

 careful and practical may hope to succeed. Experience is an 

 important qualification for the successful running of any busi- 

 ness, and apiculture is no exception to the rule, yet men who 

 have not had practice, and cannot get it, are much better 

 equipped for the work, provided they have some knowledge of 

 the bee, its habits and management. This knowledge is not 

 only valuable to the beginner, or those just about entering 

 upon the business, but it is also of great importance to the 

 regular, old-time bee-keeper whose success would have been 

 much greater if he had had a knowledge of apiculture com- 

 mensurate with his opportunities. Theory leads practice to 

 greater results. This knowledge may be obtained from any of 

 the standard books published upon the subject. Of these 

 there are several that can be recommended : The " A B C of 

 Bee-Culture," by A. I. Root; " Langstroth on the Honey-Bee" 

 — universally regarded as the classic ; and the " Bee-Keepers' 

 Guide," by Prof. A. J. Cook, are the best. You make no mis- 

 take in procuring either of these. 



You want also, one or more of the journals devoted to 

 bee-culture. There are several — all good — and it is difficult to 

 choose between them, but if you can take but one, I would ad- 

 vise the American Bee Journal. Then, study the book, and 

 the journal, use your eyes, and your reasoning powers. No 

 man can be an earnest student of the bee and its ways without 

 being made better physically, in morals, and in intellect. 



Do not attempt to keep too many colonies at the first. 

 Start with a few — they will increase with good management 

 quite as fast as you advance in knowledge. Give them good 

 care. Be alive, wide awake, sober, industrious, and you will 

 surely prosper. Lang, Calif. 









MR. EDWIIV BEVINS. 



The subject of this week's biography has kindly written 

 it himself, so we give it in his own words : 



The events of my life are few and hardly worth the telling. 

 I was born Aug. 30, 1831, in Hague, Warren Co., N. Y., 

 where I spent the first 22 years of my life. Farming and 

 lumbering, and growing men and women to people the Miss- 

 issippi Valley were almost the only occupations of the inhabi- 

 tants of this region at that early day. My father was a 

 farmer and lumberman. My memory goes back to the time 

 when bear were killed in our neighbors' cornfields, and deer 

 were chased along the mountain sides by the hounds, and 

 killed by the hunters watching on the shore of the lake. 

 Here, too, I fished and hunted, and drank fire-water and 

 begged tobacco from a lone Indian — Jonathan Paul — "The 

 Last of the Mohegans." 



My mother died when I was a little more than four years 

 old, and soon after I went to live with my grandparents, who 

 resided not far from my father's. My father married again, 

 and soon after sold out and moved to another county, and I 

 saw and knew but little of him and hi? family for many years. 

 In my boyhood I assisted my grandfather what I could on his 

 farm, and attended the district school summers and winters 

 until he died. I learned to read at a very early age, indeed, I 

 have no recollection of the time when I could not read. I 

 read, or rather devoured, every book that I could lay my 

 hands on. As my grandfather was school dristrict librarian 

 most of the time, I had no lack of books to read. But I read 

 indiscriminately, and with no particular end in view, and no 

 one gave me any guidance or direction. Books of history, 

 biography, poetry and fiction gave me the most pleasure, and 

 my dream at this time was of a college education and a liter- 

 ary career — things utterly beyond my means. Once, when in 

 Schenectady, N. Y., I stood outside the walls of Union College, 

 then presided over by Eliphalet Nott, and felt an almost irre- 

 sistible impulse to go in and beg for something to do to pay 

 my way while studying there ; but I did not do it. Again, 

 later, in Williamsport, Pa., I stood at the door of Dickinson 



