1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



851 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



I,et every thing be done decently and in order. — 

 I. Cor. U:40. 



Not only were the bee-keepers in that car 

 to California a lot of law-abidinj,'- and or- 

 derl}' people, but the 200 or more members 

 of our Association who met in convetition 

 at Los Ang^eles, it seemed to me, were 

 a remarkablj' fine, intelliji^ent, and bright 

 set of peovile — people who evidently feared 

 God, loved righteousness, and hated iniqui- 

 ty. It reallj' does one good to be in com- 

 pany with such a lot of go-ahead and enter- 

 prising people. 



The convention started out with great in- 

 terest, and much promise of being one of 

 the best ever held. President Hiitchinson, 

 with the assistance of Secretary York, kept 

 every thing going according to the language 

 of our text. California gave us a royal wel- 

 come, and the responses from the different 

 parts of our nation were bright, and for the 

 most part to the point. 



I shall not attempt to give much of a re- 

 port of the convention, from the fact that 

 Bro. York employed a stenographer, and 

 will give the proceedings in full in due 

 time through ihe American Bee Journal. I 

 hope everj' reader of Gleanings will take 

 the Aiiiericati Bee Journal at least long 

 enough to get this report, if he is not al- 

 read.v a permanent subscriber. 



In taking up the part assigned me, "Rem- 

 iniscences of Forty Years," I touched on 

 the introduction of bee culture in Califor- 

 nia; and it was a happy surprise to see J. 

 S. Harbison one of the foremost in the au- 

 dience — that is, he sat near the speaker, 

 very likely because, like myself, he is a lit- 

 tle hard of hearing in his old age. As I 

 finished I made a request that Bro. Harbi- 

 son tell us something about the introduction 

 of bees into California. If I am correct, 

 this is almost the first time, if not the very 

 first, that Mr. Harbison has attended a 

 bee-keepers' convention; and I am quite 

 sure it is the first time he has given a full 

 historj- of his remarkable venture. At first 

 he seemed inclined to make only a few 

 brief remarks; but in response to my re- 

 peated questioning he gave a very full and 

 clear account of it. When he was quite a 

 young man residing in Penns3'lvania he got 

 a notion in his head, so his neighbors said, 

 that bees would pay well in California. 

 He wrote there to find out about it, and was 

 told there was nothing there for bees to live 

 on; that if he brought them he would have 

 to plant crops to grow honey before he could 

 make them succeed. He could not give it 

 up, however, and in due time he had two 

 carloads of bees fixed to the best of his 

 knowledge and skill for their long trip.- 

 Kight and left he received nothing but 

 criticisms and sneers. Just one man, if I 

 remember, gave him a little encouragement 



by telling him to be of good cheer, for he 

 believed that a great future was before him. 

 He succeeded so well that only about a doz- 

 en colonies perished on the way, and then 

 came his great triumph. It was during the 

 gold excitement and high prices that his 

 bees were landed; and they went off so fast 

 at Sl( a colony that many were disappoint- 

 ed, and commenced bidding to the first pur- 

 chasers. In this way a few colonies were 

 sold at over $:00 each. In a little time Mr. 

 Harbison shipped samples of his mountain- 

 sage honej'in 2-lb. sections to the principal 

 cities of the United States. It was a novel- 

 ty; and, it being war time, when things 

 were high, his whole crop was sold at 25 

 cts. per lb. wholesale. 



Side by side with Bro. Harbison, on the 

 front seat, was J. G Corey, of cold- blast- 

 smoker fame. Bro. Corey got the bee fever; 

 but he lived away off over the mountains, 

 and the only way to get bees over there was 

 to carry them on foot. He succeeded in pur- 

 chasing a weak colony. As he was al- 

 ready something of a bee-keeper he made a 

 light hive to contain this nucleus, and 

 strapped it across his shoulders. This 

 hive he carried successfully more than 100 

 miles over the mountains. Part of the trip 

 he had to make on snowshoes; but he got 

 them through alive, built them up, divided, 

 and sold his increase for something like $40 

 or $50 a colony. Some of our older readers 

 know how California astonished the world, 

 not only with the quality oi\.\\\% water-white 

 sage honey that would not candy in the 

 coldest weather, but by the quantity. Cal- 

 ifornia, however, has had to learn, like 

 Florida and many other promising points, 

 that bee culture is uncertain. There has 

 been a series of years in the past decade 

 when the crops have not only been poor, 

 but the quality of a large part of the prod- 

 uct has been inferior. The old veterans, 

 however, who have stuck right to the busi- 

 ness, holding fast to their chosen occupa- 

 tion, have generally come out pretty well. 



Our good friend L. E. Mercer has, dur- 

 ing the past season, taken 100,000 lbs. of 

 honey, some of it, at least, and has now 

 something over 1000 colonies. Of course, he 

 had less than that number to start with in 

 the spring. Friend Mercer has, from a 

 part of the produce of his hives, just pur- 

 chased a beautiful new automobile, and it 

 was my pleasure to ride with him all over 

 the beautiful city of Los Angeles in his 

 auto. Our good friends Brodbeck, Mcln- 

 tyre, Mendleson, and several others, have 

 likewise had very fair crops; but in many 

 places the crop has been more or less a 

 failure. 



Of course. Prof. Cook was with us; and 

 I am sure it was a rare treat to all present 

 to hear the matter of co-operation discussed 

 in the happy vein that only Prof. Cook can 

 command in presenting any subject. He 

 said that in their neighborhood they had a 

 "co-operative cow." They divided the 

 milk; and when she broke into the gardens 

 of any of the four there was not any hard 



