June, igog. 



American Hee Journal 



more than I should otherwise. Then 

 I removed the shingle. The result of all 

 this work, which was done in about a 

 minute, was that that swarm did not 

 get busy in the air that day; it just 

 clustered on the front of the hive for 

 an hour or so, and then resumed the 

 even tenor of its way. Just imagine 

 the time I would have had if that swarm 

 commenced to alight among the bees 

 of the colony I was manipulating ! No 

 patent ; help yourself. Never mind the 

 thanks. 



What I have so imperfectly narrated 

 above is but a fraction of the work I had 

 to do this one hot day in April. Sever- 

 al days later — the last day of the month 

 — was another hot day, but I had only 

 one swarm to deal with. 



Here I will state that I have been for- 

 tunate during my long course of bee- 

 keeping to keep down swarming to a 

 minimum — some years getting none 

 whatever. Early in the season I make 

 what divisions I care to have, and man- 

 age so as to have these new colonies as 

 strong as any in the apiary by the ad- 

 vent of the main honey-flow, which 

 is about the time swarming is usually 

 expected. This year I found that some 

 of these new colonies I prepared got 

 so strong that some of them cast swarms 

 as soon as some of the colonies that had 

 not been divided. 



As a contrast to the summery weather 

 we have been having, I can not help but 

 make note of the other extreme that 

 is prevailing at this writing, in the East 

 and Middle West, for I notice that the 

 papers are full of accounts of blizzards, 

 snow storms, and killing frosts that have 

 prevailed there, while we were wearing 

 summer clothing. But as comparisons 

 are said to be odious, I forbear to make 

 further remarks on this subject. 



Benton's Bee-Bill Beaten. 



The bill framed by Mr. Ralph Ben- 

 ton, of the University of California, for 

 the purposes set forth by him in the 

 April number of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, died "a-borning" in the hands of the 

 committee of the branch of the Legis- 

 lature in which it was introduced. This 

 is something of a disappointment to that 

 energetic young gentleman. He spent 

 much time, energy and money in getting 

 the proposed bill in shape, and getting 

 it before various meetings of California 

 bee-keepers for their approval. In this 

 way he received much valuable informa- 

 tion and many timely suggestions as to 

 what our bee-keepers need most in bee- 

 disease legislation. I am afraid that the 

 fact that the proposed bill seemed to 

 savor of being another of those Univer- 

 sity measures that are every once in a 

 while sprung on the people, helped kill 

 it. It would be well, I think, to get at 

 the proposed plan in another way. Have 

 a good bee-disease law drafted and 

 adopted. The matter of placing cer- 

 tain powers in connection therewith 

 could be made a part of another pro- 

 vision to be framed, or as an amend- 

 ment to some bill now in force, whereby 

 the entomological department of the Uni- 

 versity of California, or say, the Ex- 

 periment Station of said University, 

 would be constituted the pathologist 



of the bee-disease inspectors, with in- 

 creased pay for such additional work, 

 if need be. 



As the matter stands I am sorry that 

 the bill was not adopted, for as I have 

 heretofore stated, I should like to see 

 how it would work. 



Here I will state in answer to Mr. 

 Benton's article in the April issue of 

 this paper, that when I saw the bill, it 

 was much different from the way it was 

 sent to Sacramento : that my remarks 

 were aimed at the bill as I saw it, and 

 I still believe that mj' remarks were time- 

 ly and to the point, and I am sure Mr. 

 Benton will agree with me. But the 

 matter is dead now, so let it rest in 

 peace. 



Monterey County Bee-Keeping. 



A good many have been inquiring 

 about Monterey county as a profitable 

 place to locate an apiary. Personally I 

 know little of the county, but I have 

 heard much of its wonderful resources. 

 The coast-line of the county is partly 

 on the Pacific ocean and partly on Mon- 

 terey bay; thus it has a cool but not 



Tliis is what Mr. Townscnd modest- 

 ly says of his bee-keeping : 



I am a native of Australia. I came to this 

 country 12 years ago, intending simply to 

 have a trip through America and return to 

 Australia, but on seeing a large apiary in 

 Santa Barbara county, I got so taken with 

 the business that I decided to learn it and 

 start for myself. I worked with some of the 

 largest bee-men in Santa Barbara, Ventura, 

 and Kings counties, to learn the practical 

 work and different methods, and 4 years after 

 coming to the country, I bought 200 colo- 

 nies of bees, and located in the Santa Ynez 

 Mountains, back of Santa Barbara. The 3 

 seasons I was there were very bad, each dryer 

 than the preceding one, and I produced no 

 honey at all. So I got discouraged of ever 

 doing much there. I then moved up into 

 Santa Cruz county, back from the Coast. 

 I stayed there 2 seasons, but the bees did 

 poorly, as the fogs and cold weather pre- 

 vented them from doing much work in the 

 spring when there was abundance of bloom 

 on everything — sage, buckeye, manzanita, ma- 

 drone, holly, cascara, and several other blooms 

 — and by the time the weather did get warm 

 enough, everything was through blooming. 



Three years ago, I came down here, after 

 looking over the northern part of the State, 

 even as far up as Klamath. I came here 

 with 150 colonies of bees, produced 10 tons 

 of honey that year, and increased to 200 colo- 

 nies. The next season I produced 25 tons 

 and increased to 300 colonies. In 1908 I 

 produced 5 tons, and did not increase at all. 

 1 think one can produce some honey every 



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Apiary of Vernon Townsknd. Soledad, Cal. 



cold climate on the west, and in the in- 

 terior it is very hot during the sum- 

 mer and early fall. At the bee-institute 

 in the quaint little city of Monterey at the 

 close of last year, I had the pleasure of 

 meeting a number of the progressive 

 apiarists of that county. In a letter I 

 had from Mr. Vernon Townsend, the 

 tall "eucalyptus" of Soledad, that gen- 

 tleman gives such a faithful outline of 

 his beginnings in bee-culture and his re- 

 markable success since he pitched his 

 tent and "planted" his bees in Mon- 

 terey county, that I reproduce the ma- 

 jor portion of it here for the benefit of 

 the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. I might state that a fairly faith- 

 ful representation of the athletic figure 

 of Mr. Townsend may be seen in the 

 February number of this paper; a view 

 of his apiary is shown here. 



year in this section, and I think in the very 

 worst of yc-ars the bees would make a living, 

 although wf would never make as much as 

 they do down South in the very best of 

 seasons. Still I think one would average bet- 

 ter taking one year with another here. 



There is really a better bee-country back 

 from King City, and over towards Coalinga, 

 but there are several men in the business 

 there. Here I have no one to conflict with, 

 and eventually hope to have a long string 

 of apiaries. There are larger patches of sage 

 in that country above King City, and more 

 bees could be managed in one yard. They 

 also get more rain there. But when it is a 

 dry season they have no fogs to help them 

 out, as no fog ever gets up as far as that. 

 Here we get fogs all through the spring, 

 as late as July, which drift up at night and 

 clean down the valley toward Salinas, about 

 daylight in the morning. These fogs freshen 

 up the bloom most wonderfully. 



I am really only just beginning in the bee- 

 business. I have had much bad luck as the 

 above shows, but as I am only 34 years old, 

 I think I am good for a few years yet, and 

 am just as enthusiastic as I ever was. 



Vernon Townsend. 



