THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



65 



The History of Beekeeping in California 



By J. E, PLEASANTS, Orange, California 

 Read at N. 15. K. A. Convention, St. Louis, Mo. 1914 



The history of beekeeping in Cali- 

 fornia is the history of beekeeping on 

 the Pacific Coast, the first bees west 

 of the Rockies being brought to Cal- 

 ifornia. 



Beekeeping, as well as other indus- 

 tries, was introduced into the west 

 by men of courage and enthusiasm. 

 The distance from the older settled 

 centers was great; travel was slow, 

 accomplished by primitive methods 

 and fraught with difficulties. 



We are indebted to that intrepid 

 enthusiast, John S. Harbison, for the 

 beginning of our industry. From 

 Mr. Harbison's own account we get 

 the following data of the pioneer 

 apiary of California. John Harbison 

 came to California in 1854, and for 

 two years he studied the flora of the 

 state, while engaged in the nursery 

 business. At the end of this time, he 

 sold out his nursery and returned to 

 his old home in Lawrence County, 

 Pennsylvania, with the intention of 

 bringing out bees. 



Mr. Harbison had learned the care 

 of bees from his father in boyhood, 

 so was well equipped for his under- 

 taking. He tells of the care with 

 which he prepared his shipment, 

 which was to make the long journey 

 by water from New York to San 

 Francisco via the Isthmus. The lum- 

 ber for his hives he had sawed three- 

 eighths of an inch thick, to save 

 weight, as the freight from Newcas- 

 tle, Pennsylvania, to San Francisco 

 was something like one dollar per 

 pound. The hives, of course, were 

 small, so he added a chamber about 

 3 X 8 X 13, well ventilated with screen, 

 as a place for the bees to get off the 

 combs and carry out the dead. He 

 started with one hundred and six- 

 teen colonies, and lost only six on the 

 journey. Being a man of pleasing ad- 

 dress, Mr. Harbison made friends with 

 all with whom he came in contact, 

 and was accorded all possible assist- 

 ance by the ship's officers. His first 

 apiary was located in the Sacramento 

 Valley. He readily sold all which he 

 was willing to dispose of at one hun- 

 dred dollars per colony, and mentions 

 colonies being re-sold at two hundred 

 dollars. The cost of bringing the 



one hundred and ten colonies from 

 Pennsylvania to California was about 

 eighteen hundred dollars. 



Mr. Harbison made the first ship- 

 ment of honey that went east from 

 California. This was sent with the 

 first carload of green fruit that was 

 shipped to Chicago. In 1869 Mr. Har- 

 bison moved his bees to San Diego 

 County, in the extreme southern part 

 of the state, where he continued in 

 the business until the time of his 

 death, something over a year ago. At 

 one time he kept 3,750 colonies, di- 

 vided into twelve apiaries. He sent 

 the first carload of honey to go east 

 from his San Diego apiaries. This 

 honey was sold in Chicago at twenty- 

 seven cents per pound. 



Mr. Harbison was always a pro- 

 ducer of comb honey. He invented 

 a hive which was used in California 

 until the introduction of the Langs- 

 troth hive here. Being a comb honey 

 producer, his hive was designed rath- 

 er more for that purpose. It con- 

 tained two pound sections. He was 

 at one time one of the largest comb 

 honey producers in the world, and 

 took many prizes for his exhibits at 

 the Centennial and later Expositions. 

 Even a short time before his death, 

 he outlined a plan for a model apiary 

 to be placed on the San Diego Expo- 

 sition Grounds in 1915. This, I un- 

 derstand, is to be carried out. He 

 was the author of a book on beekeep- 

 ing, and a man whose interest in his 

 chosen pursuit never flagged. In fact, 

 John Harbison was to the Pacific 

 Coast what Father Langstroth was 

 to the Nation. 



Among other pioneer beekeepers of 

 Southern California were Major Sher- 

 man, O. W. Childs, John R. Rowland, 

 and the late John G. Corey. An in- 

 teresting story of Mr. Corey, which 

 well illustrates his determination to 

 overcome difficulties, is told in "Glean- 

 ings," August, 1912. It tells of his 

 early days in California as a mail 

 carrier in the mountains. On one 

 of his trips he bought a small hive 

 of bees — probably a nucleus. This 

 he cai'ried on his shoulders over a 

 hundred miles — part of the way on 

 snow-shoes. 



