THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



787 



American Honey in England.— The 



London Grocers'' Journal of Nov. 17, 

 1882, contains the following on the 

 above siihjecl ; 



Californiii ranks first amons the 

 honey-producing States of the Union. 

 The soft and equable climate, in which 

 wild flowers of every variety are in 

 bloom for seven or eight months in the 

 year, makes her peculiarly the liome 

 of tlie bee. Even before the building 

 of the Pacific railway the production 

 of her apiaries was enormous, and the 

 honey market was glutted. 



On' the opening of the road, Mr. W. 

 M. Hoge began to transport honey 

 from the Pacific to the AH mtic coast, 

 taking it to New York in I'.trrels, sell- 

 ing it to the retailers, and ihus finding 

 a good market. 



It was not until 1878 that the prob- 

 lem of safely bringing honey in the 

 comb from California to England was 

 satisfactorily solved. Tlie infinite care 

 and judgment demanded in the trans- 

 portation of a cargo, and the extreme 

 liability of breakage from the break- 

 ing away of the comb, from its bruis- 

 ing through the sliglitest jolting of 

 the railway vans, were considered in- 

 surmountable difficulties. 



Mr. Hoge, whose name is so well 

 known in connection with honey, both 

 here and in America, and of whom the 

 American Bek Journal once said," 

 " To Mr. iloge, more than to any 

 other man living, is America indebted 

 for developing the great demand for 

 American honey in Europe, as well 

 as greatly enlarging the call for it at 

 home. In saying this we but accord 

 him that credit which is his honest 

 due," overcame these ditticulties, and 

 showed that the transit of honey in 

 the comb could be made as success- 

 fully as a cargo of tea. 



lii 1878, Mr. Hoge successfully 

 landed iu Liverpool 80 tons of comb 

 honey, and, early in 1879, another 

 cargo of 100 tons in London. Since 

 these pioneer Importations the sale of 

 American honey in Europe has been 

 unflagging. 



In the e.xtreme southwestern corner 

 of the United States there is a narrow 

 strip of country known as tlie bee belt 

 of California. The hillsides are cov- 

 ered with a growth of stunted brush- 

 wood, from which springs a luxuriant 

 growth of white sumac and other flow- 

 ering shrubs, which bloom there nine 

 months of the year — our honey season 

 in England does not last that many 

 weeks. There are no less than three 

 hundred apiaries of several hives each 

 along the " Bee Belt." 



The California bee season, Mr. Hoge 

 says, begins by February 1. In March 

 or April the bees swarm, and tlie bee 

 culturist has lively times saving tiis 

 swarms. 



The science has become so system- 

 atized now that the aplculturist knows 

 within a day or two when a given col- 

 ony may be expected to swarm, and as 

 the young bees always settle some- 

 where near the parent hive at least 

 once before selecting their new quar- 

 ters, a swarm is seldom lost. The 

 flowers are at the lieight of their lux- 

 uriance in May and June, and the 

 taking of honey is begun usually about 



May 20, and the bees are kept at work 

 as long as the flowers last. They 

 cease to yield more than a suflficient 

 quantity than to subsist the bees, in 

 tlie early part of August, but the little 

 workers are able to find enough to live 

 on without consuming their stores, as 

 late as October. After October begins, 

 although the air is still mild and 

 spring-like, the bees cease to work 

 and retire into a semi-dormant condi- 

 tion. Once every eight or ten days, a 

 colony will turn out at midday and fly 

 around for an liour or two in the sun- 

 shine, but they never fly far from 

 home, and are never seen at work. 

 The food of the bees in the bee belt is 

 generally the flower of the white sage, 

 a plant that closely resembles the gar- 

 den sage, but must not be confounded 

 with the wormwood species, and has 

 not the family bitterness. Next to the 

 sage in importance as bee food is the 

 sumac. There is no poisonous flower- 

 ing plants in the bee range, and the 

 honey has none of thecolicKy qualities 

 that make the honey from semi-savage 

 countries so objectionable. 



Mr. Hoge, whose headquarters in 

 England are at " The Apiary," in 

 Leconsfield-road, London, represents 

 some of the largest American bee- 

 keepers, and speaks encouragingly of 

 the future prospects of the honey trade 

 in this country. 



Have Bees a Language? — A clergy- 

 man writes to the British Bee Joiirnal 

 the following incident, as proof that 

 bees have a language : 



On Ascension Day, 18th of May, 

 just as ray church bells began ringing 

 for service I took a walk round my 

 apiary, the sun was shining beautifully 

 and the weather in every way lovely. 

 A hive which about a week before I 

 had fitted with comb foundation, 

 ready for the next swarm, attracted 

 my attention, for tliere were hundreds 

 of bees flying about it and goin^ in 

 and out of it. I concluded, tlieretore, 

 that probably a swarm was coming to 

 it. I watched tlie bees carefully — ten 

 minutes later there was scarcely a bee 

 to be seen near it. I pretty well knew 

 then what was coming. I kept a 

 pretty full lookout all round when all 

 of a sudden a roar of bees was heard 

 in the distance, getting louder and 

 louder ; over the roof of my cottage 

 they came, and straight over the hive 

 where a quarter of an hour before I 

 liad seen several hundred of recon- 

 noiterers. They wheeled high up in the 

 air almost out of sight, and then down 

 they came like a water-spout, covering 

 the whole roof of the hive, legs, alight- 

 ing-board, and a good space of the 

 ground. Now, sir, who can doubt but 

 that the bees forming the reconnoi- 

 teriiig partv left the hive together in 

 order to pilot the others on V There 

 was apparently no reason why they 

 should so sudd.enly have left unless it 

 were because the sun was out the 

 whole -time, and the air beautifully 

 warm. After I came out of church I 

 found the bees working briskly in 

 their new home. I then went in search 

 of the owner, and soon found out they 

 had come from a hive about half a 



mile off, the man failed to keep up 

 with them, and so lost sight of them. 

 Now, sir, here is a proof that bees like 

 comb foundation, and do you not 

 think it a proof that they liave a lan- 

 guage too i 



The Honey Prodnction of To-Day.— 



The Germantown Telegraph gives this 

 description of the honey of to-day, as 

 compared with that of yore : 



Tlie honey culture, in fact, is a sci- 

 ence, and should inspire in those who 

 pursue it a love for it outside of the 

 Iirofit account, and in this case the 

 enjoyment which it imparts must be 

 considered as a part, and a very desir- 

 able part of the returns. 



The improved hives, which have 

 taken the place of the old, cumbrous 

 ones that were so awkward in hand- 

 ling and failed to yield an equal sup- 

 ply of honey when compared to these 

 re-modeled ones,makes the care of bee- 

 keeping much easier and pleasanter. 

 The small sections, each holding one 

 or two pounds of honey, which go with 

 their disposal, make tne article much 

 more salable than formerly, though 

 they require careful handling. The 

 bees have a way of hermetically seal- 

 ing the combs, and if these are kept 

 intact, the contents will remain undi- 

 minished in quantity and unimpaired 

 in quality. If, however, the combs 

 become cracked for want of care in 

 packing, handling and transporting, 

 the sweet store crystallizes and be- 

 comes opaque and unmarketable, 

 though not very materially injured. 

 Altogether, with due care and a proper 

 management of this beautiful and in- 

 teresting branch of domestic industry, 

 the apiary should be found upon a 

 dozen farms where it is now found 

 only upon one. 



Providing Pasturage for Beeii. — The 



Indiana Farmer makes the following 

 very sensible remarks on the subject : 



Planting for honey has ceased to be 

 an experiment, and is sure to be one 

 of the certainties of success in modern 

 bee-culture. Situated as we are we 

 feel very perceptibly the several regu- 

 lar honey drouths, as any lack of the 

 nectar flow in the several regular 

 honey-producing plants. We have 

 not had the time or room for extensive 

 experiments in this line, but have 

 watched closely those made by our 

 friends and neighbors. And we note 

 the fact that the best and most* pro- 

 gressive bee-keepers of America as 

 well as those of the Old World have 

 decided it a success. Sweet clover, 

 (melilot) is probably at the head of all 

 special honey-producing plants for 

 planting, under all conditions and cir- 

 cumstances, and we noticed, even up 

 to middle of November, the bees work- 

 ing, on a few scattered flowers of this 

 plant in protected places. 



Figwort is a decided favorite and 

 has some advantages as it does not 

 die out, but grows from the root year 

 after year. Spider plant i.s another. 

 J. Lammey. Uateham, Ind., says in a 

 letter to us Oct. 1.5 : " The spider plant 

 seed I got of you last spring was a de- 



