42 INTRODUCTION TO CALIFORNIA. 



Acting from this belief, I at once with a knife un- 

 capped a portion of the honey in each remaining 

 hive ; this was repeated twice a week for the two 

 following ones, and as the honey became scarce, feed 

 was given to the most destitute. The result was 

 that no more hives were deserted. 



There was no indication of disease of any kind 

 existing in any of them. Hence there is no doubt 

 of the above being a cause of bees deserting their 

 hives. 



The stock was still further reduced by sale, so that 

 thirty-four hives of bees remained on the 1st of 

 April. These were increased to one hundred and 

 twenty, most of which were sold in the summer and 

 fall of that year. 



Again, on the steamer of September the 20th, 

 1858, I returned East, for the purpose of transport- 

 ing another stock, which had been prepared for that 

 purpose during the previous summer. On the 6th 

 of December, in company with my brother, W. C. 

 Harbison, I sailed from New York with one hund- 

 red and fourteen colonies, and arrived at Sacra- 

 mento January 1st, 1859, with one hundred and 

 three living. Of this importation, sixty-eight were 

 from Centralia, Illinois ; the remaining forty-six were 

 from Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. 



Owing to the lateness of the season of shipping, 

 and unfavorable weather during the first three weeks 

 after our arrival, we were only able to save sixty-two 

 out of the whole number ; these, together with six 



