282 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



ciency of bees in increasing fruit production of self- 

 sterile varieties. According to the Census of 1910, 

 California was the first honey and wax-producing 

 state in the Union, with a product of 10,264,716 

 pounds of honey and 126,445 pounds of beeswax, 

 thrice as large in honey and more than twice as large 

 in beeswax as Texas, next in rank among the states. 

 There is, however, great variation in the annual 

 product owing to seasonal uncertainty of honey flow 

 of the desert flora> as has been suggested. During the 

 last twenty years there has been variation from one to 

 ten million pounds of product. Fortunately the art 

 of beekeeping has mastered expansive and contractive 

 measures ana policies to meet such variation and 

 largely to maintain the bees in production commen- 

 surate with such quickly alternating extremes. 



THE SILK-WORM 



The pioneer silk-grower of California was L. Pre- 

 vost of San Jose who grew his first brood of worms 

 from eggs obtained in France, in 1854,, having failed 

 to secure a hatch from two importations of eggs from 

 China. Prevost exhibited cocoons and appeared at 

 many public occasions as the apostle of silk culture as 

 an industry for California. He did a considerable 

 business in mulberry trees and silk-worm eggs and 

 before 1867 silk fabrics were manufactured at a small 

 factory in San Jose; silk -worm eggs were profitably 

 shipped to France in quantity, and in 1867 silk exhib- 

 its from California won honors at the Paris Exposi- 



