528 [Assembly 



to California; tjiat he has studied the bee and his habits for al- 

 most forty years past, and yet does not know the half that is to 

 be known; that there are about one thousand writers on the sub- 

 ject. Mr. Kelsey has transported bees hundreds of miles into 

 the interior of the United States; tried to get them to Florida; 

 lost seven swarms before he learned how to succeed, but did at 

 last succeed. 



The honey bee is supposed to be a nartive of the islands and 

 shores of the Mediterranean sea, from thence spreading over the 

 Continent, from thence to the United States. That is easily done 

 in winter, but in summer their love of libert} is so powerful that 

 they will, if confined, be destroyed by suffocation and by the 

 melting down of their combs. After being introduced in the 

 Atlantic States, they overspread the country until stopped by 

 the great plains on this side of the Rocky mountuins — there they 

 had to stop. Many attempts have been made to take them across 

 the plains to Oregon and California, all of which universally 

 failed because the journey could only be made in summer, and 

 the persons trying the experiment did not understand it. After 

 seven failures I succeeded perfectly in carrying them from 

 New- York to Florida and bringing them from Florida to Ncav- 

 York. There are abundance of bees in Florida from whence 

 they were conveyed, some eighty years ago, to Cuba, and now 

 their honey and wax are worth some millions of dollars. The 

 mildness of climate in Oregon and California will prove admira- 

 ble for the bee. I have the knowledge to enable me to carry 

 swarms there in perfect safety, but I have not the money requi- 

 site. I hope that some benevolent capitalist will soon appear to 

 make this admirable transfer of the industrious little creature 

 so delicious and profitable in his labors. The Institute has before 

 this spoken well of my ability in this respect. I should glory 

 in the happy mission of bees to the magnificent United States of 

 the Pacific ocean. 



Dr. 0. H. Wellington, of 184 Twelfth-street, presented grafts 

 from Boston of the Porter, Revere and Granny Earle apples, which 

 were distributed among the members. 



