44 



AMERICAN BKK JOURNAL.. 



ber of them through with any degree of 

 success. 



For a number of years he conducted 

 a successful apiary on the banks of the 

 Sacramento. In 1869 he opened up 

 several apiaries in Southern California. 

 His ranges were in the sage belt, and 

 consequently he reaped harvests the 

 like of which were never before known 

 in the honey line. The newspapers of 

 the world printed and reprinted accounts 

 of the fabulous yields of his colonies. It 

 was in 1873 that he shipped the first 

 full carload of comb honey out of this 

 State. This was followed, a few years 

 later, by a shipment of ten carloads to 

 New York, the major part, I believe, 

 being under consignment to Europe. He 

 owned apiaries at different points in San 

 Diego county, and his colonies at one 

 time ran as high as 3,500. Sometimes 

 the yield from these bees, as stated, was 

 enormous ; his greatest yield was 60,- 

 000 pounds from 300 colonies. 



Often in locating his apiaries he would 

 buy up tracts of land. As these pieces 

 of property were in different parts of 

 the country, he evidently unknowingly 

 got hold of some fine sites for fruit 

 farms. Some of these he sold off, so I 

 have been informed, at good prices dur- 

 ing the boom times that prevailed in 

 Southern California a few years ago. 

 These sales, with the nice, snug suras 

 realized from his grand yields of honey, 

 have made Mr. Harbison one of the solid 

 men, financially, of his county. He is 

 now a gentleman of leisure ; still, he is 

 not idle by any means, as he is conduct- 

 ing a large grocery business, besides 

 still having 500 colonies of bees and 

 large fruit orchards to look after. 



His home at San Diego is an elegant 

 one — one fitting a gentleman of his taste 

 and wealth. He was married in 1865, 

 and of this union there were three chil- 

 dren — two daughters and a son. The 

 latter died in infancy. 



As a review of Mr. Harbison's excel- 

 lent " Bee-Keepers' Directory," which 

 was published in San Francisco in 1861, 

 as well as references to the hive and 

 honey section which bear his name, as 

 also his smoker and other inventions, 

 were given in the issues of the American 

 Bek Jouknal before referred to, it will 

 not be necessary to again revert to 

 them. It miglit be said that all the bee- 

 keeping public has over heard of this 

 eminent apiarist has been through his 

 " Directory," and as that book has been 

 out of print for a (juarter of a century, 

 it is safe to say that the bee-keeper of 

 the present day has but little knowledge 



of the man. He has appeared but sel- 

 dom in print, that is, in the papers de- 

 voted to bee-culture, and then very 

 briefly. 



By reference to one of the very earli- 

 est volumes of Oleanings in Bee-Culture, 

 one may find his reason for not taking 

 the public into his confidence. I have 

 often felt as he has in this matter. It 

 is generally the man who has made a 

 success in business that is the least 

 likely to give all the details of conduct- 

 ing that business to the outside world. 

 The knowledge these men have acquired 

 is valuable, and it is hardly to be ex- 

 pected that they will give " trade se- 

 crets " away. It is only necessary to 

 look about us to find scores of great 

 manufacturers and artisans who are as 

 " dumb as an oyster " about their occu- 

 pations. I do not desire to say that Mr. 

 Harbison is a selfish man ; on the con- 

 trary, he is not. He did much for the 

 bee-keeping world years ago — far more 

 than he was ever repaid for doing. 



W. A. Pkyal. 



CouTeutiou ]lfotice!i». 



NORTH CAROLINA.— The Carolina Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its sixth semi- 

 annual meeting- on July ao. in Charlotte, N. 

 C„ at the Court House, at 10 o'clock a.m. All 

 persons interested in bee-keeping: are invited. 



Steel Creek, N. C. A. L. Beach, Sec. 



ILLINOIS.— The summer meeting of the 

 Northern Illinois Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will be held at the residence of O. .1. Cum- 

 mings, 2 miles northeast of Rockford, Ills., on 

 Aug. 15th, 1893. A good meeting is antici- 

 pated. Everybody is invited. Come and see 

 Mr. Cumming's methods of handling bees. 



New Milford. Ills. B. Kennedy. Sec. 



INTERNATIONAL.-The North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its •24th 

 annual convention on Oct. 11, 12 and 13, 1893, 

 in Chicago. Ills. Not only is every bee-keeper 

 in America, whether a member of the society 

 or not, iu\ ited to be present, but a special in- 

 vitation is extended to friends of apiculture 

 it every foreign land, Fkank Benton. Sec. 



Washington, D. 0. 



iVIr. Fraiilc II. Ilo-WiirU, of Garden 

 City, Kaus., committed suicide by shooting 

 himself, on June 19th. The cause was a 

 young lady refusing to nmrry him, Mr. 

 Howard was ^S years old, a bee-keeper and 

 queen-dealer at Garden City, and was ad- 

 vertising in the Bee Joi.kn.vi- at the time of 

 his death. Mr. A. S. Parson, of the same 

 place, will continue his l)Hsiness, and see 

 that all just claims are settled. This is the 

 second case of suicide among apiarian peo- 

 ple within a few months. Let us hope that 

 it will be the last. 



