122 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



A CALIFORNIA PIONEER 



Vpril 



The Interesting Career of J. S. Harbison, the First Commercial Honey 



Producer on the Pacific Coast 



IN the days of forty-nine and the 

 early fifties, California was the 

 goal of many adventurous spir- 

 its. The discovery of gold was the 

 cause of great excitement on the 

 coast, and hundreds of men made the 

 long journey from the east. Some 

 went by way of Cape Horn, while 

 others crossed the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama on foot. The writer has always 

 found particular interest in the 

 events of those stirring times, since a 

 maternal grandfather was one of the 

 number who early went to the golden 

 west in search of the fortune which 

 had so long eluded him. Having 

 heard as a child so many wonderful 

 tales of hardship and adventure, of 

 sudden riches and sudden death, of 

 beans at one dollar per pound and 

 flour at fifty dollars a sack, of In- 

 dians eating grasshoppers and white 

 men eaten by grizzly bears, the 

 scenes of these events held a particu- 

 lar fascination for me. 



While Harbison did not take the 

 first bees to California, he was the 

 first man to develop beekeeping as 

 a commercial venture, and the first 

 to take any considerable number of 

 bees. It was a serious unertaking to 

 transport bees to California in those' 

 days. There were no railroads, and 

 it was necessary to keep the bees 

 confined for a long period of time. 

 It seems surprising that it was pos- 

 sible to take full colonies of bees 

 for such a long journey and get them 

 through alive. 



The total distance traveled was 

 nearly six thousand miles. It must 

 be remembered that there were no 

 railroads crossing the continent in 

 those days. The bees were shipped 

 by sea from the Atlantic coast to the 

 Isthmus of Panama, freighted across 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT 



the isthmus, and then came another 

 long voyage to San Francisco and 

 then up the Sacramento river. Mr. 

 Harbison estimated the journej at 

 5,900 miles. Before going to 

 fornia, Harbison had created some- 

 thing of a stir by selling the great 

 total of a 1 1 'ii of honey, the product 

 of his apiary at New Castle. Pa. At 

 that time beekeeping was in its in- 

 fancy and 2,000 pounds of honey was 

 regarded as an enormous crop Ac- 

 cording to reports, this achievement 

 led many farmers in the east to em- 

 bark in the business of honey pro- 

 duction with more or less disas- 

 trous results. This was before the 

 days of movable frame hives and 

 beekeeping was more or less of an 

 uncertain proposition. Between the 

 disappointment of winter losses 

 among his bees and the lure of the 

 gold excitement in the west, Harbi- 

 son decided to investigate the possi- 

 bilities of California, and reached 

 that State in 1854. The first shipment 

 of bees, according to "Rambler,' who 

 gave an extended account of our sub- 

 ject in Gleanings, was made to Cali- 

 fornia in 1853, with only one colony 

 arriving alive. 



In 1857 Mr. Harbison returned to 

 the east and prepared 67 colonies 

 from his own apiary in Pennsylvania, 

 for the long journey to the Pacific 

 Coast. The fact that he only lost 

 five colonies on the journey bears 

 evidence of his skill as a practical 

 beekeeper. Another remarkable 



fact we learn that on his arrival, not- 

 withstanding that bees were worth 

 $100 a colony, he united his weak 

 colonies so as to make all colonics 

 strong enough. This was undoubt- 

 edly good beekeeping, but in the face 

 of such high prices the temptation 



ii 



would be strong to sell the weak 

 colonies, or at least to keep them in 

 llie hope of building them up. After 

 the one successful trip, he went again 

 and brought larger shipments. Of his 

 various importations, he sold 240 

 colonies at $100 per colony. Others 

 were encouraged by his success to 

 embark in the same kind of enter- 

 prise, and in the fall of 1858, more 

 than a thousand colonies were 

 shipped, but in the hands of less 

 skillful men, the venture was not suc- 

 cessful, and less than 200 reached 

 their destination alive. 



While on his trip east, Harbison 

 learned of Langstroth's invention of 

 the movable frame. While he did not 

 approve of the hive entirely, he was 

 doubtless influenced to make some 

 changes in his practice as a result of 

 it, and made what came to be known 

 as the Harbison hive. This hive 

 came into general use in California, 

 but is now seldom found. 



To him, also, belongs the credit of 

 inventing the section for comb honey. 

 According to his own statement, he 

 conceived the idea and made the 

 first section during the last week of 

 December, 1857, at Sutterviile, Sacra- 

 mento County, California. The sec- 

 tions used by Harbison held two 

 pounds of comb honey, and in the 

 fall of 1858 he exhibited 500 pounds 

 of section honey at the State Pair, 

 held at Maryville. The section was 

 afterward modified to hold only one 

 pound, but came into almost uni- 

 versal use for many years. 



The Sacramento Valley did not 

 long hold attraction for Harbison, 

 and in 1869 he went to San Diego 

 county, where in partnership with K. 

 G. Clark, he embarked upon the busi- 

 ness of honey production on a big 

 scale. The mild climate of San Diego 

 county is very favorable to the bees 

 and in seasons when nectar secre- 

 tion is at its best, phenomenal re- 

 sults are secured. During the re- 

 cent short course several of the bee- 

 keepers told the writer of their ex- 

 periences with making increase. 

 Miss I. Asbec in one season in- 

 creased from 5 colonies to 67 by nat- 

 ural swarming. The bees began 

 swarming in February This was 

 about 17 years ago. In ) 9 1 4 Mr. T. 



If Evans increased from 5 colonies to 

 90 by making artificial increase, and, 

 in addition, secured a ton of honey. 



It is not surprising thai an e • pet I 

 beekeeper like Harbison, under such 

 favorable conditions, should produce 

 honey on such a scale as to attract 



I i mi I I he u hole country. 



Mr. G. M- I law by. of La Mesa, who 



was a friend of Harbison's for many 



mi n med the writer that thei e 



swarms in one day, at one of 



the apiaries in El Cajon mountain. 



Mr. R. (i. ('lark was in charge. With 



M Ii , ccessive swarming, the surplus 



