•90 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



da, as the moths eat up the common 



" Will you live in the open air 

 ■there V" 



" I am going to camp around with 

 my bees. I believe I will bring back 

 about $1,000 worth of honey in hives 

 that would otherwise lie idle all the 

 winter and be empty in the spring. 



This migratory bee-keeping has 

 been practiced from the earliest ages. 

 In Egypt it has kept up for thousands 

 of years, as we stated in the last issue 

 of the Bee Journal. Mr. T. F. 

 Bingham, of Michigan, and others 

 'have practiced it ; but nearly all have 

 abandoned it, because it did not pay 

 them. 



Mr. Perrine, of this city, some years 

 ago, lost several thousand dollars in a 

 similar manner. He had a floating 

 apiary, arranged to run up the Missis- 

 sippi river from New Orleans, follow- 

 ing the bloom till he was to reach 

 Minnesota ; but it did not work. Too 

 many bees were lost, and the projector 

 ds wiser now, and $10,000 less rich. 



California Honey Crop. 



The California Qrocer of Jan. 27, 

 1883 is on our desk, with an article 

 " marked," criticising the statement 

 made by Mr. McCaul, that the honey 

 crop of California of last year was only 

 •180,000 pounds and then adds : 



The ©rocer has taken pains to collate 

 the data of last year's honey product 

 tfrom the best available sources. These 

 figures are very nearly, if not abso- 

 lutely, correct ; a statement that will 

 •be guaranteed by the fact that they 

 •were furnished by Messrs. Geo. W. 

 Meade & Co., of this city, who are well 

 known as the principal handlers of 

 'California honey : 



•San Diego county— Comb 300,000 



Extracted.. 315,000 



Los Angeles county— Comb 2-5,000 



" " Extracted.. 170,000 



Ventura county— Comb 5,000 



" Extracted.. 180,000 



Santa Barbara county— Comb . . 6,000 



Extracted.. 30,000 



San Bernardino county— Comb 20,000 



Extracted.. 80,000 



■San Benito county— Comb 10,000 



:Sacramento county— Comb 8,000 



San Joaquin county— Comb — 11,000 

 Scattering (both kinds), say. . .. 10,000 



Total 1,170,000 



Making a handsome allowance for 

 any possible over-estimate, we, there- 

 fore, find that California's honey pro- 

 duct for 1882 will considerably exceed 

 1,000,000 pounds which compares 

 rather favorably for us with the 180,- 

 ■ 000-declaration of our late guest, Mr. 

 McCaul, of New York. 



The Qrocer then proceeds to correct 

 Mr. McCaul's statement concerning 



the honey crop of California for the 

 year 1878, in the following language : 



In his before-mentioned published 

 report he states the California honey 

 crop of 1878 to have been 720,000 

 pounds, when in fact the phenomenal 

 crop of that year, by far tlie greatest 

 ever produced in the State, reached 

 the enormous figures of between 

 2,250,000 and 2,.500,000 pounds. The 

 light crop of last year paid fairly well 

 after all, the average prices obtained 

 being very good ; for extracted, ^% 

 and comb 13 cents per pound. Cali- 

 fornia has been, and we believe will 

 continue to be, the most prominent 

 honey-producing section of the world. 



We are glad to have this statistical 

 information concerning the California 

 honey crop. It will be very useful, 

 and Dr. Miller ■mil no doubt be able 

 to use it to good advantage, in his 

 forthcoming " Statistical Table " of the 

 honey production of America. 



To take these figures and the table 

 we have already published of the 

 " Honey Crop of Illinois," as ofticially 

 reported by the assessors, and compare 

 them with the reports that have been 

 received by him, will give a good cri- 

 terion by which to multiply the whole 

 —and thus give the approximate re- 

 sults of the country at large. 



Realizing the difficulties under 

 which Mr. McCaul labored, we can at- 

 tach no blame to him for his incorrect 

 figures. He could give only such as 

 were reported to him. If his informa- 

 tion was only partial (and we do not 

 see how it could be otherwise), his re- 

 port must be necessarily incomplete, 

 and, therefore, erroneous. The Grocer 

 impugns his motive and deals out in- 

 vectives, but would it not be better to 

 take a charitable view of the matter ? 

 All will be thankful for the correction, 

 and cheerfully give our sister State due 

 credit for all that it can show it is 

 entitled to. 



Two years ago we endeavored to 

 obtain correct statistics of the honey 

 crop of California (as well as other 

 States) and were unable to give more 

 than a partial statement, for the rea- 

 son that those interested did not re- 

 spond to our call. We published what 

 we did obtain, and then one of her 

 champions roundly abused us for be- 

 littling its crop, and "applied the 

 lash" to us in a most unmerciful 

 manner ! 



To show that California needs a re- 

 form in this matter, we notice on the 

 same page of the Grocer, as the article 

 above referred to, the following edito- 

 rial, which fully sustains all that we 

 claim. It is headed " A Reform in 

 Grain Statistics ; " but the reform 



should evidently go far enough to in- 

 clude " honey " and other industries. 

 The editor of the Grocer says : 



In the matter of collecting and sup- 

 plying to the public oflicially-corrected 

 statistics of her agricultural, commer- 

 cial and manufacturing interests, Cali- 

 ifornia is certainly not a progressive 

 State. Such statistics, and especially 

 those referring to agricultural indus- 

 tries, are of great importance to the 

 business community. Our grain in- 

 terests, already large, are destined ere 

 many years have passed to become a 

 strong feature in the annual product 

 of the country, and it would be well 

 if we inaugurated, in the now compar- 

 ative infancy of the industry, some 

 system by which reliable data could 

 be furnished to the public as to the 

 results of each harvest during the pe- 

 riod of its tlirashing. Such a system 

 has been adopted in almost all, if not 

 all, of the great grain-bearing States 

 to the east of us, and has proven of 

 immense value to tlie manifold inter- 

 ests that are devoted to the culture 

 and sale of, and manufacture from, 

 the cereals. What would be the best 

 system we do not pretend to say, but 

 would suggest the adoption of some 

 such plan as the one now in force in 

 Michigan, which is based upon regular 

 reports, sent to the Secretary of State, 

 from every thrashing machine at work 

 in the State. Let some properly-con- 

 stituted authority at the beginning of 

 each season supply to every thrashing 

 machine in the State, blank forms, 

 upon which must be noted daily the 

 number of sacks thrashed by each ma- 

 chine; and let those forms be returned 

 to the statistical oflicer, or bureau, at 

 stated intervals, daily or weekly, as 

 may be thought best. By this means 

 an accurate knowledge can be had of 

 all grain thrashed in the State, to the 

 great benefit of merchants and the 

 public at large ; and our annual sta- 

 tistics, which are too often of a highly 

 speculative character, can be correctly 

 built upon a basis of satisfactory in- 

 formation. To the Legislature now 

 in session we recommend this sugges- 

 tion as one worthy their careful con- 

 sideration. 



Bee-Keeping in North Carolina. 



There is some stir now in the high- 

 lands of North Carolina about bee- 

 keeping, and the Blue Ridge Enter- 

 prise, of Jan. 25, 1883, remarks as fol- 

 lows, on the subject : 



If there is any special industry 

 which this mountain region is partic- 

 ularly adapted to, it is that of bee- 

 keeping. Tons of lioney ought to be 

 gathered and shipped from these 

 mountains every season, while at 

 present there is not one pound sent 

 out, nor one-fourth of the supply 

 gathered which home-demand re- 

 quires. But in order to make bee- 

 keeping profitable, or even worth pur- 

 suing, the old gum and box liive must 

 be abandoned, and the modern frame 

 hive and improved implements now 

 necessary to successful apiculture, 



