80 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



considerable fraction of which 

 was consumed directly, still less 

 ever stored. Yet we find some 

 flowers as curiously and wonder- 

 fully shaped for cross-fertilization 

 through the agency of insects as if 

 the honey-bee had been taken origi- 

 nally for the insect pattern. Bum- 

 ble-bees, " humming-bird-moths," 

 mason bees, and others whose vis- 

 its to the flower are after the same 

 manner as the honey bee's, have 

 played an important part in the 

 fertilization of such species ; and 

 moths and various small insects 

 have assisted in the case of others. 

 The Creator always has means to 

 bring about his ends. 



And what must have been the 

 extent of the deprivation suffered 

 by the grizzly bears during tliese 

 untold ages is to be conjectured 

 also. Probably it was lessened by 

 the bliss of their ignorance. In- 

 stead of the stores of sweets so 

 often revelled in by their smaller, 

 but more favored, eastern neighbors 

 for generations before their enemy, 

 man, performed his one solitary 

 benefaction for them, tiie}' had to 

 put up with the consolation afforded 

 by tiie discover}' of stray bumble- 

 bees' nests now and then, whose 

 aggregate sweetness couhl hardly 

 be more than as a drop on the end 

 of a respectable grizzly's tongue. 



Tlie first bees that were success- 

 fully brought to California cost as 

 high as ^150 per hive. A swarm 

 taken to San Jose is said to have 

 cast six or seven swarms the next 

 spring. The first taken to Los 

 Angeles gave but two swarms. 

 Young swarms then brought from 

 S75 to $100 each. So a start in 

 beekeeping was quite expensive. 

 Italians were introduced not much 

 later ; and given good blood to 

 start witli, they might have been 

 easily kept in their purity for some 

 years. But bees soon began to 

 increase and gain a foothold, so to 

 speak, and it was not many years 



before they abounded among the 

 apiaries of the soutliern counties 

 and also made starts in life for tliem- 

 selves ; and wild bees became so 

 plentiful in trees and rocks every- 

 where, that the California grizzly 

 could survey his uncounted wealth 

 and look with disdain upon any 

 other bear in the world. 



Bees in most of the large apia- 

 ries are hopelessly hybridized. I 

 dare say that most apiai-ists will 

 argue on the side of Heddon in 

 favor of combining the points of 

 different races. Their A'iews are 

 not quite up to his, however ; for, 

 instead of select breeding from 

 regulated crosses, they put diff'er- 

 ent kinds together and leave cross- 

 ing and intercrossing to nature. 

 The main source of yellow blood is 

 the Italian. The other races are 

 but sparingly introduced. From 

 the diff'erent degrees of mixture, it 

 is hard to give any definite report 

 on the merits of hybrids. More- 

 over, it is doubtful if many can 

 furnish any facts and figures of ex- 

 perience with full bred bees of the 

 yellow races to place alongside 

 these results from cross-breds. Mr. 

 Wm. Muth-Ramussen favors a pre- 

 ponderance of Italians with a dash, 

 say one-eighth to one-fourth, of 

 black blood. Some seasons ago I 

 observed the first season's result 

 of triple crossing in the apiaries of 

 Mr. Wilkin. His bees in one api- 

 ary consisted of 700 stocks in all 

 stages of crossing between Italians 

 and black, but with a preponder- 

 ance of the former and a goodly 

 share of pure Italian. Among 

 these he introduced pure Syrian 

 blood with a view solel}' to get a 

 mixture of the three. It being the 

 first season, I could only see how 

 the cross appeared and behaved ; 

 but Mr. Wilkin has since expressed 

 himself as satisfied with it so far as 

 he could observe. 



I have been in correspondence 

 with Mr. Gust. Murhard of Port- 



