158 



SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. 



[Chap. II. 



because several varieties now exist upon the continent, and certainly those 

 in Central America ajipear to 1)C iiativu?, so far as it is possible to trace tlieir 

 history. It is possible that the early iunuigrants, not finding bees in tlic 

 districts first occupied by them, either in New England or Virginia, did 

 import tliem, though this siqiposition appears doubtful when m-c considei 

 the length of voyages in that age of ocean navigation. And it is still furtlit-r 

 against the tlieory of importation, to know that as early as 16-iS — forty years 

 only after Captain John Smith's advent — George Pelton, of Virginia, was in 

 possession of a good stock of honcy-bcos ; and they were noticed by Beverly 

 as a common thing among the Virginia planters previous to 1720. 



In 1755, beeswax was an article of export from Savannah, Georgia. It is 

 impossible to state the quantity, because it is combined with myrtle-berry 

 wax, and both are set down at 909 lbs. Five years later the quantity of both 

 is given at 3,910 lbs., and in 1770 at 4,058 lbs. 



In 17G7, the export tables show 35 barrels of beeswax, sent from the port 

 of Pliiladelphia ; and only four years later tlie quantity is given as 29,261 lbs. 



Tlie history of Cuba credits Florida witli bees imported from there in 176-1. 



Tlie above facts prove that if there were no honey-bees in this part of the 

 continent when our forefathers came to it, their importations were very suc- 

 cessful, and the original stock was widely disseminated, and multiplied with 

 great rapidity, for the census of 1850 gives the annual product of honey and 

 wax at 1-1,853,790 lbs ; and that at a time when the bee-moth epidemic had 

 greatly lessened the stock in the country, and consequently the production 

 was not as great as it had been. 



It is a fact, too, that the immigrants of the Northwestern Territory found 

 wild bees scattered all through the forests of what is now Ohio, Indiana, and 

 Illinois. 



As an ofiset to this, it is a fact that the first American settlers of California 

 found no honey-bees in that State, notwithstanding the fact of its early occu- 

 pancy by the Spanish ; and the first bees ever seen in that State have been 

 carried there from New York, by sea, since 1850, and already the stock of 

 bees has multiplied to an extent which would populate the State to as great or 

 greater extent than the Atlantic States have been with both wild and domes- 

 tie stocks, in a far less time than has elapsed since the landing at Jamestown 

 or Plymouth rock, of those who maj' have introduced the bee from Europe. 



Bee-culture in California has already assumed such an importance that 

 associations of apiarists have been formed there, and the exhibition of bees is 

 quite a feature at the State fair. Bees have become so numerous in the 

 neighborhood of Sacramento, that they have been charged with extensive 

 depredations upon the vineyards, by sucking the sweets out of the ripe 

 grapes. Mr. Harbison, a largo bee-keeper, who went from Pennsylvania 

 with a large shipment of them, two or three years ago, however, denies the 

 charge of bees injuring the fruit, and asserts tliat he has proved by actual 

 experiment that they will only attack the grapes after the skin has burst by 

 the pressure of the interior growth. Still, there are many persons m-Iio are 



