762 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



magnitude the business has obtained. It 

 will be my purpose to rather review the 

 past — the early history of bee-keeping in 

 the modern land of " milk and honey." 



habbison's litebaby wobk. 



There is before me a volume which 

 has been out of print these many years. 

 Its imprint shows that it was published 

 in San Francisco, in 1861, thirty-one 

 years ago. Its author was that prince 

 of bee-keepers — J. S. Harbison — a man 

 who, beyond doubt, has produced more 

 honey in one year than any other single 

 apiarist. Thirty-one years ago — nay, a 

 score of years ago, he had not the repu- 

 tation as a " bee-king " that he has since 

 achieved — he was a simple apiarist on 

 the banks of the sluggish Sacramento, a 

 few miles below the capital. At that 

 time he was, of course, one of the most 

 prominent bee-men in the State — per- 

 haps I should say the largest, for it is 

 doubtful if there were any who owned 

 more colonies than he did at this period. 

 But in those times he did not count his 

 bee-property by the thousands of colo- 

 nies as he did a decade or so later. 



Mr. J. S. Harbison deserves to rank 

 with Mr. Moses Quinby and Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth, as an inventor and dissemi- 

 nator of apicultural literature. Not that 

 his inventions were greater, or his book 

 better, than those of both, but because 

 they deserve a place alongside the others 

 for paving a way to the solution of the 

 " mysteries of bee-keeping." 



"THE BEE-KEEPEBS' DIBECTOBY." 



The book I mention is entitled, " The 

 Bee-Keepers' Directory : or the Theory 

 and Practice of Bee-Culture." The title 

 page further states that the work is 

 based upon 18 years' personal study of 

 the habits and instincts of the bee. It 

 is well printed upon heavy book-paper, 

 contains 440 pages and 80 illustrations, 

 some of them being wood-cuts, and a 

 few lithographs. To my mind, in point 

 of number and excellence, its illustra- 

 tions outrank those I have seen in any 

 contemporary book on apiculture. The 

 books of American authorship of any 

 note antedating it, are those of Miner, 

 Langstroth and Quinby. 



The " Directory " is the first bee-book 

 to give any extended notice of the Ital- 

 ian bee in this country. The chapter 

 on this bee is accompanied with colored, 

 life-like lithographies of a worker, 

 queen and drone. The most interesting 

 part of the chapter is that oti the intro- 

 duction of this bee into California. The 

 correspondence there, as reproduced, 



also throws light upon the first impor- 

 tation of Italian bees into this country. 



A valuable letter, from an historical 

 point of view, is given on page 384. It 

 is in the nature of a communication 

 from Mr. A. J. Biglow, of Sacramento, 

 Calif., to the California Culturist of San 

 Francisco. Mr. Biglow had gone East 

 early in September, 1860, to satisfy 

 himself whether the Italian bee was 

 actually superior to the common bee. 

 He writes from New York under date of 

 the 28th of the month named. He says : 



"lam fully satisfied that they [the 

 Italians] are [better.] I find a greater 

 difference between them and the com- 

 mon kind, in their appearance, than I 

 expected. The Italians are truly beau- 

 tiful to one who is an admirer of the in- 

 dustrious little insect. There are two 

 or three parties who have imported the 

 Italian bee from Europe ; but, as far as 

 I can learn, there are only two queens 

 in this country that are direct from the 

 mountains of Italy, where the black bee 

 is not known ; they are in the hands of 

 Mr. S. B. Parsons, of Flushing, N. Y. I 

 have procured a few queens of him, and 

 shall use every effort in my power to try 

 and get them through safely to Cali- 

 fornia." 



Another letter of perhaps even greater 

 importance is one from Mr. Biglow, after 

 he had returned to his home. It was 

 written on Dec. 29th, and sent to Mr. 

 Harbison in reply to the latter's inquiry 

 about the history of the importation of 

 Italians to America ; also as to Mr. B.'s 

 experience with them. This letter covers 

 over two pages of the "Bee-Keepers' 

 Directory." From it I extract the fol- 

 lowing, which I think will be interesting 

 reading to all bee-keepers : 



"Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and 

 Samuel Wagner, of York, Pa., have 

 made several attempts to import these 

 [Italian] bees, but had been unsuccess- 

 ful until the autumn of 1859, when Mr. 

 Colvin succeeded in getting a few colo- 

 nies through safe ; which, however, did 

 not survive the winter. 



" Next in order of date, is the impor- 

 tation of Mr. P. J. Mahan, of Philadel- 

 phia. 



"In the spring of 1860, Mr. S. B. 

 Parsons, of Flushing, L. I., succeeded 

 in getting a few colonies alive direct 

 from Italy. 



"The last importation was by Messrs. 

 Colvin and Wagner, sometime during 

 the past season [I860]. Two of these 

 importations are from Germany, and one 

 from Italy." 



(Continued next week.) 



