416 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



2. — Henry Baldensperger (a son of the writer) climbing along the old wall to see the lees. 



over thirty years agO; from Kamleh to Jaffa, 

 to the orange-groves, was carried out by 

 women who carried the heavy hives ten miles 

 on their heads. Each woman w^as paid 10 

 cents for the work. Later on, camels were 

 hired, and two joackages of four hives were 

 carried by each animal, amounfing to 500 or 

 600 lbs. in weight. As a camel goes slowly 

 (about 2^/2 miles an hour) they were paid 

 between 45 and 85 cts. per night, as it was 

 not only dangerous for man and beast to 

 travel by day, but also bad for the bees,they 

 being in danger of being smothered. Some 

 adventures were related in Gleanings 

 away back in the '80's. 



When the summer was over, the bees were 

 carried back to the plains in the same way 

 tliey were taken up to Judea; and the honey 

 in tins holding about 50 pounds was also 

 loaded on camelback. Hives of the old sys- 

 tem rendered 5 to 6 lbs. of honey ; but the 

 new hives often gave over 100 pounds each, 

 so not only many were scared by the enor- 

 mous amounts of honey wliich were ex- 

 tracted, recalling the well-desei-ved title of 

 a " land flowing with milk and honey," but 

 officials laid liigher taxes on hives, and bee- 

 keeping was on the point of becoming para- 

 lyzed ; and, moreover, the honey market was 

 as yet very unsettled. Small quantities 

 could still be sold at the old price of 85 cts. 

 a bottle, but thousands of pounds found no 

 buyers. All innovations are difficult to 

 ii;!i-o<';;(e ; h;;! n;oie so in n primitive coin- 



try where the I'etvograde masses looked on 

 the quantities produced with great mistrust. 

 Thus for months and months the best honey 

 imaginable lay there, and prospects were 

 dreary — no hope for getting any thing in 

 return for the work and expense laid out. 

 With great patience and much sacrifice a 

 market was opened, when some of us re- 

 solved not to continue the struggle, and 

 decided to leave the country. 



The orange blossom in Jaffa and the 

 l^rickly pear gave the first harvest in April 

 and May. Then the bees left for the moun- 

 tains. Fig. 4. 



In those happy days for the keeping of 

 bees no kind of bee-disease was known to 

 us, and this greatly simplified the work, 

 provided the queens laid and were in good 

 condition. Wax-moths attacked very vig- 

 orously the empty comb ; but sulphur f lunes 

 during the hot months protected the pre- 

 cious combs. Hornets may be said to have 

 been the great pest from August to the first 

 rains, October and November, when the 

 rains drowned them in their underground 

 nests. If the rains were too late the damage 

 was great. 



For many of the above reasons, and some 

 additional ones, I moved to France, where 

 a part of the Oriental plagues have disap- 

 peared ; but civilization has also its plagne. 

 Here are iio hornets nor slow camels tramp- 

 ing 2V2 miles an hour — no hadjiis wislung 

 to kneel down and pray when work was 



