AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



721 



It Illay toe Honey-Dew.— Mr. 



Robert H. Williams, of Beatrice, Nebr., 

 on Nov. 14, 1892, sent us a sample of 

 honey, and also wrote us the following 

 letter : 



I send you to-day a sample of honey, 

 or what claims to be honey, bought of a 

 grocer in Crab Orchard, Johnson Co., 

 Nebr., for pure honey. Please refer it 

 to some one for analysis, and let me 

 know the result. This honey was sold 

 at retail for $1.20 a gallon, and as soon 

 as I saw it at a neighbor's house, I asked 

 for a sample to send to you. 



Honey seems very scarce here, but my 

 bees have plenty of good stores, and 

 gave a little surplus. 



Accept my congratulations, also, on 

 the recent improvement in the Bee 

 Journal. Robert H. Williams. 



Upon receipt of the sample of honey, 

 we immediately forwarded it to Prof. A. 

 J. Cook, of Agricultural College, Mich., 

 who reports as follows upon it : 



I have had the sample analyzed. Its 

 high direct polarization 5440, and in- 

 direct 4432, would make it quite cer- 

 tain that it was adulterated with both 

 glucose and cane sugar, were it not for 

 the probability that it is honey-dew 

 honey. The sharp taste, the color, and 

 the flavor, make me believe it to be a 

 very nice article of honey-dew honey. 

 Adulterators do not usually put dark- 

 colored " honey " on the market. 



A. J. Cook. 



The Ladles' Home Journal, 



of Philadelphia, Pa., is perhaps the 

 finest monthly home magazine in the 

 world. If ordered before Dec. 20th, 

 1892, we can club it with the Bee 

 Journal — both Journals for one year — 

 for $1.60, to either old or new subscri- 

 bers. If you are a new subscriber to 

 both Journals, you will receive ours the 

 rest of this year free ; and the "Ladies' 

 Home Journal " will begin with the 

 January number. 



New York State has 10,000 

 bee-keepers and 50 supply dealers, says 

 the American Farmer. We wonder 

 where the correspondent got his figures. 



California Bee-Keeping.— A 



correspondent, Mr. Harry Ellington 

 Brooks, writing from Los Angeles, Calif., 

 to the San Francisco Call, dwells at 

 some length upon "Bees and Bee-Keep- 

 ing " in the Golden State. In the fol- 

 lowing day's issue of the same paper, 

 the editor takes occasion to remark as 

 follows, many of his facts and figures 

 being taken from Mr. Brook's article. 

 The editorial referred to says : 



California honey has been familiar to 

 lovers of sweets for more than a quarter 

 of a century, but few perrons are aware 

 of the extension which the industry has 

 attained. Tnree years ago there were 

 in the counties south of Tehachapi 

 45,000 colonies of bees, which produced 

 2,600 tons of honey, worth nearly 

 $250,000. The increase since then is 

 estimated at 50 per cent. An industry 

 which yields $375,000 per annum, 

 without any outlay, is worth prosecuting. 



In ancient times, before the manufac- 

 ture of cane sugar, the production of 

 honey was more important than it is 

 now, and the ancient classics abound in 

 information concerning the bee. In 

 those days bees were regularly moved 

 from regions where the flowers bloomed 

 in the spring to regions where they 

 bloomed in the fall, and the practice is 

 still kept up in parts of Great Britain. 

 Here, in favored localities, flowers of 

 one kind or another bloom all the year 

 round, and the bee-keeper does not need 

 to move his hives. He generally selects 

 a ranch in the foothills of the southern 

 counties, being careful to choose one in 

 which the bees can find water. Our 

 California honey used to be known as 

 white-sage honey, though, in fact, the 

 sage plant is unreliable, and blossoms 

 sparingly. 



The bee of southern California finds 

 nectar in the oak, sycamore, alder, wil- 

 low, manzanita, sumac, yerba santa, 

 buckhorn, wild plum, wild buckwheat, 

 acacia, alfalfa, eucalyptus blossom, and 

 almost all kinds of fruits and flowers. 

 It is really troubled with an embarrass- 

 ment of riches. And though the sweet- 

 est and whitest honey is stored by bees 

 which feed on the white sage, the flavor 

 of the honey produced from the great 

 variety of nectar-yielding plants which 

 abound in six southern counties, is con- 

 sidered in the East more delicate than 

 that of Eastern honey, and the goods 

 command a higher price. 



An expert, starting in with a single 

 colony, and caring for the bees accord- 



