AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



795 



whole so elevated that the bees fastened 

 the combs to the top of the hive. He 

 says that the plan worked well. This 

 hive also had a chamber for surplus 

 honey. His success was such that in 

 1853 he obtained and marketed upward 

 of 6,300 pounds of honey, which sold 

 at 18 cents per pound. The next year 

 was a bad one for bees in the East. 

 There was a drouth ; while his neighbors 

 lost from four-fifths to all their colonies, 

 bis loss was but about one-half. 



He wanted no more bee-keeping in 

 the East. The new Eldorado seemed to 

 him, from the meagre reports he had 

 received as to its sunny and flower- 

 bespangled valleys and hillsides, as pre- 

 eminently a bee-paradise, so on Oct. 27, 

 1854, he set out by route for San Fran- 

 cisco, which he reached on the 20th of 

 the following month. After 2% years 

 in the Golden State, he returned to his 

 old home in the East. It was now that 

 he had an opportunity to read the works 

 of Langstroth and Quinby for the first 

 time. He had heard of their inventions 

 previously. He investigated the claims 

 of the Langstroth hive, and did not ap- 

 prove of it after giving it what he calls 

 "a fair trial." 



HARBISON'S APIARIAN INVENTIONS. 



On his return to California in 1857, 

 he invented what he termed the "Cali- 

 fornia bee-hive." It was a movable 

 frame-hive, the frames being set at fixed 

 distances, and held in rigid position. 

 This was patented Jan. 2, 1858. Pre- 

 vious to this — Dec. 25, 1857 — he had 

 brought out his section honey box or 

 frame, which could be used upon any 

 hive. The "Harbison section," as it 

 has since been known the world over, 

 was the forerunner of all the sections 

 now in use. It is used to a great extent 

 in California to this day, but is being 

 superseded by the one-pound section. 

 The Harbison frame section was about 

 6 inches square, and held 2 pounds. His 

 hive, too, came into use everywhere, up 

 and down the State, and even yet one 

 may see bee-yards of hundreds of hives 

 of this old pioneer. 



HONEY-BEES BROUGHT BY MR. SHELTON. 



In Chapter II, he speaks of the intro- 

 duction of the honey-bee into California. 

 A copy of a letter therein printed show* 

 that they were first brought to the State 

 in March, 1853, by a Mr. Shelton. The 

 advent of bees in the " Land of Gold" 

 was brought about under pecular cir- 

 cumstances. The pioneer bees were 

 poor, lone orphans, as it were, and 



though they left New York 12 colonies 

 strong, they were abandoned by their 

 unknown owner at Aspinwall. Mr. 

 Shelton brought them to San Francisco 

 all right, but the sand-hills of that city 

 contained no blooming gardens then as it 

 now does, and the poor famished insects 

 dwindled down to a single colony. They 

 were taken to San Jose (well called the 

 " Garden City " of California), and 52 

 miles from the metropolis. Here they 

 thrived and threw off three swarms the 

 first season. Mr. Shelton, who saved 

 them from doom, was unfortunately 

 killed soon after his arrival by an ex- 

 plosion of a rotten old ferry steamer. In 

 December two of the swarms were sold 

 at auction to settle up his estate, and 

 were bought by Major James W. Patrick, 

 at $105 and $110, respectively. 



In November, 1855, Wm. Buck man- 

 aged to safely land 18 out of 36 colo- 

 nies he brought from New York. Mr. 

 F. G. Appleton, of San Jose, purchased 

 a half-interest in this last importation. 

 In the fall of 1854, however, Mr. A. 

 bought one colony from Major Patrick. 



Messrs. Buck & Appleton now became 

 the big bee-keepers of the State. The 

 former went East again in 1856, and in 

 February following landed 7 out of the 

 42 colonies he started out with. This 

 firm, from their 28 colonies in 1856, 

 increased to 73, and obtained 400 

 pounds in boxes, which they sold at 

 from $1.50 to $2.00 per pound. This 

 was probably the first honey of any im- 

 portance sold in California. 



How changed is the product of the 

 bee in that land since those pioneer 

 days ! The output of the bee-hive is now 

 reckoned by the carload. While the 

 number of pounds increased, the price 

 correspondingly decreased. Honey only 

 realized about 3 cents per pound at one 

 time about ten years ago. What a dif- 

 ference from the figures obtained for the 

 first crop ! 



(Concluded next week.) 



Adulteration of Honey and the 

 Dishonest Bee-Keeper. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY IRA REEVES. 



I have been very much interested in 

 the articles published from time to time 

 on the adulteration of honey, and with 

 the help of Mr. R. P. Blades (my neigh- 

 bor), I think we have unraveled the 

 mystery. 



From time to time our grocers have 



