THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



211 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF TUE 



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PUBLISHED BY 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



ElUTOIl AND PUOI'UIETOR, 



925 WEST MADISON-STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Weekly, !#3 a year ; Monthly, *»0 cents. 



Vol. XXI. April 8, 1885. No. 14. 



^"From a private source, the Rev. 

 E. H. Bellairs, of Christ Church, Eng- 

 land, has obtained the information 

 from the Principal Statistical Depart- 

 ment of Customs, that the value of 

 honey imported into Great Britain 

 during the month of January, 1885, 

 amounted to £804 in value, or about 

 $4,000. This came principally from 

 America. 



^" A correspondent asks what is 

 the necessary degree of heat in order 

 for bees to work at comb building 

 and brood-rearing in the hive. It 

 should be about 9.5° Fahr. The de- 

 gree of heat in a hive even in winter, 

 is much more than it is generally 

 thought to be. In January, a ther- 

 mometer standing near an apiary, in- 

 dicated 70 below the freezing point, 

 but when the bulb was inserted a 

 little way into the entrance of a 

 hive, it roge 23° above that point. 

 Had it been inserted into the cluster, 

 it would have indicated a much higher 

 figure. 



Honey Crop of Southern California. 



1^ The honey-dew stores which 

 many bee-keepers allowed their bees 

 to retain for winter food, have killed 

 myriads of bees. The Bee Journal 

 gave due warning last August in these 

 words : " If the fall honey crop should 

 be a poor one, the bees may have 

 nothing upon which to subsist during 

 the coming winter, except this secre- 

 tion of the aphidie, misnamed honey- 

 dew, and the result of such a state of 

 affairs may be very detrimental- 

 spreading disease and death all around. 

 We give this word of warning tluis 

 early, so that no one may have an ex- 

 cuse for neglecting the matter until it 

 is too late, and thus entail a severe 

 loss of bees during the next winter." 

 Now, the losers are mourning. 



The following from Mr. J. E. Pleas- 

 ants, of Los Angeles, Cal., was read 

 at the Bee Congress at New Orleans : 



Tlie honey business of Southern 

 (Uilifornia has sprung up within the 

 last 10 or 12 years ; and when we con- 

 sider that the product in a favorable 

 season amounts to 20,000,000 pounds, 

 and that this honey is up to the 

 highest standard of excellence in 

 quality, we have a realization of the 

 importance of the industry, not only 

 to Southern California, but to the 

 world at large. 



The chief season for honey produc- 

 tion lasts during eight months of the 

 year, while there is no part of the year 

 ni wiiich it is not produced, the only 

 cessation of work by the bees being 

 during a comparatively few days of 

 unfavorable weather. The great 

 variety of honey-producing plants, 

 rich in nectar, makes this the natural 

 home of the honey-bee, and the para- 

 dise of the apiarist; while, for any 

 other purpose, much of this region is 

 a barren waste, with no other redeem- 

 ing quality but tts genial sunshine. 

 It is no wonder, therefore, that the 

 full attention of individuals is given 

 up to tills business. If we examine 

 the statistics we shall find that though 

 bee-keeping is in its infancy, the 

 honey product of this section exceeds 

 that of all the country east of the 

 Rocky Mountains combined. No 

 where else is such extensive and sys- 

 tematic attention given to the busi- 

 ness. 



The willows and alflllarilla, which 

 grow in abundance, furnish the ear- 

 liest food for the bees. Then follow 

 the wild sage, the wild alfalfa, wild 

 buckwheat, wild coffee, bearberry 

 and sumac. The sage, alfalfa and 

 sumac are the most abundant in nec- 

 tar, and are plants from which the 

 choicest of our honey is obtained. 



I would estimate that about three- 

 fifths of the product is exported. A 

 large share of it finds a market in 

 Germany, Glasgow, Paris and Liver- 

 pool, far the largest share going to 

 the latter place ; oesides, markets are 

 being opened up in the eastern States 

 of our own country, as well as in 

 China ; and I may add that most of 

 the quantity exported is extracted 

 from the comb. I have no doubt, 

 from the favor with which our honey 

 is received, that it will find an in- 

 creased and ready market in propor- 

 tion to the prospective amount of 

 production. It is appparent that the 

 present price of honey brings it with- 

 in the reach of all, while the pros- 

 pects of lower freight will tend to in- 

 crease the production and profits of 

 the producer. 



To epitomize, the following figures 

 are given in this connection : Esti- 

 mate of the honey business of south- 

 ern California is as follows : Number 

 of bee-keepers, 1,000 ; colonies of bees, 

 100,000; amount of honey to the col- 

 ony, 200 pounds, or in all, 10,000 tons. 

 The wax amounts to .5 pounds to the 

 colony, or makes this product amount 

 to 500,000 pounds ; at the market 

 value of 25 cents per pound, we have 



the snug sum of $125,0(J0 for the wax 

 alone. The quality of this honey and 

 wax eijiuils any in tlie world, not ex- 

 cepting the honey imiduct of the 

 islands of Crete and .Minorca; and the 

 time is not far distant when the gorges 

 and canyons ot Southern California, 

 which abound in the honey-produc- 

 ing plants, will become the homes of 

 a hapjiy and prosperous population 

 engaged in the honey industry. 



i^° Mr. Arthur Todd, of German- 

 town, Pa., requests us to make the 

 following announcement. He says : 



lam Justin the receipt of a letter 

 from Frank Cheshire, Esq., of Lon- 

 don, in which he says : " I should re- 

 gard a little piece of comb containing 

 the remains of larvpe dead of foul 

 brood, as a great acquisition, since it 

 would enable me to determine the 

 identity or otherwise of the bacilli on 

 the two sides of the Atlantic." 



Will you kindly give this piiblicity 

 in the Weekly Bee Journal, so that 

 some one in possession of samples of 

 foul brood may aid in valuable re- 

 searches by mailing as requested V 

 Address, " Mr. Frank Cheshire, Ave- 

 nue House, Acton, London, England." 



In mailing, be kind enough to pack 

 securely in wadding, enclosed In a 

 wooden box, so that the samples will 

 not be useless when they reach Lon- 

 don. Arthur Todd. 



We do not like the idea of sending 

 such through the mails. If it is sent, 

 however, it should be securely packed, 

 and protected, as requested above. 



1^ H. C. Austin, Austin's Springs, 

 Tenn., on March 27, 1885, writes thus 

 concerning the photographs taken at 

 the late bee-keepers' congress : • 



I have just received the photograph 

 of the late bee-keepers congress, but 

 it is not gotten up according to agree- 

 ment. As a member of the commit- 

 tee making the contract, I will say 

 that it was plainly understood that 

 the photographs were to be numbered, 

 mounted, burnished, and mailed be- 

 tween two wooden boards ; yet the 

 bee-keepers are not numbered, it is 

 not mounted, neither is it burnished. 

 I do not want bee-keepers to think 

 that the committee would knowingly 

 get them to pay 75 cents each for 

 work done in that style. 



As nearly all those represented 

 were personally unacquainted with 

 each other, the photograph as it is 

 is of but little use to them. Should 

 not the committee have procured 

 " numbers " for each person to be 

 pinned to their breasts and thus ap- 

 pear on the photographs V Then it 

 would have been an easy matter to 

 have the names, correspondingly num- 

 bered, printed at the bottom. Per- 

 haps this might yet be remedied, and 

 new ones obtained. What does Mr. 

 Winder say to this V 



