433 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 16, 1876. 



mentioned prizes. Silver-Grey Dorking Cup : T. C. Barnell, 

 Esq., 10s. 6d. ; Hon. Mrs. Colvile, 10s. 6d. ; Countess'of Dart- 

 mouth, £1 Is.; "W. H. Denison,Esq.,10s. 6d.; Miss Pasley, 10s.; 

 Rev. H. A. Peel, IQs. 6d. ; Major Plummer, 5s. ; W. Roe, Esq., 

 inn., os.; James "talker, Esq., 10s. 6d. = £i 13s. 6d. Arch- 

 angel Prizes: R. Barclay, Esq., 5s.; J. N. Bowes, Esq., 5s.; 

 T. C. Burnell, Esq., 5s.; W. H. Denison, Esq., 5s. ; R. Wilkin- 

 son, E6q., 5s. = £1 5s. The rest of the sums required I gladly 

 mate up. — 0. E. Ckesstyell. 



LAEGE APIABY. 



Mh. J. S. Habbison of San Diego county, Cal., arrived in this 

 city yesterday with ten carloads of honey, each carload contain- 

 ing 20,000 lbs. This vast aggregation of bee labour was taken 

 from Mr. Harbison's six apiaries on the sides of the coast range 

 of mountains as near to the Mexican line as they well can be, 

 and yet claim the protection of the Stars and Stripes. Twenty- 

 five years ago Mr. Harbison made a Btir in the world by selling 

 at one time 2000 lbs. of honey, the product of his apiary near 

 New Castle, Pa. So much honey had never before been raised 

 by a single producer, and the sale led hundreds of staid farmers 

 to embark in what looked like a most profitable field of industry. 

 The result was not flatteriDg. Short seasons and limited bee 

 pasturage forbade profitable bee-culture. Old-fashioned hives 

 were then the only kind known. The modern means of robbing 

 bees without killing them had not been thought of. 



Having invented a hive that enabled the culturist to obtain 

 successive crops of honey from the same colony of bees, Mr. 

 Harbison began to look for a region that would supply food for 

 the bees. He searched for this in the equable climate of the 

 Pacific coast, and found it in a strip of country in the extreme 

 south-western corner of the United States, now known as the 

 bee belt of California. Sheep-raising was the only industry of 

 the natives found by Mr. Harbison when he first visited the 

 country. The country inland was thought good enough for 

 sheep-pasturing, but no one dreamed that the soil conld be made 

 to produce grain in paying quantities. Timber was confined to 

 the bottoms of running streams and to the canons, the valleys 

 and hillsides being covered with a growth of stunted brushwood, 

 from which sprang a luxuriant growth of white sage, sumach, 

 and other flowering shrubs, which bloom there nine months of 

 the year. 



Mr. Harbison's first apiary was started on a mountain side 

 twenty miles east of SanDiego. He embarked for the west with 

 seventy hives of bees, but these were reduced to sixty-two by 

 casualties. From them he now has six apiaries and a total of 

 three thousand hives. He employs fifteen men constantly, and 

 is reaping rich profits from many thousands of acres that must 

 otherwise have been a barren waste. He soon had many imi- 

 tators, and now not less than three hundred persons are taking 

 honey along the " Bee Belt." 



The California bee season, Mr. Harbison Eays, begins by 

 February 1st. In March or April the bees swarm, and the bee- 

 culturist has lively times in saving the swarms. The science 

 has become so systematised now that the apiculturist knows 

 within a day or two when a given hive may be expected to 

 swarm, and as the young bees always settle somewhere near 

 the parent hive at least once before selecting their new quarters, 

 a swarm is seldom lost. The flowers are at the height of 

 their luxuriance in May and June, and the taking of honey 

 is begun usually about May 20:h, and the bees are kept at 

 work as long as the flowera last. They cease to bloom in 

 sufficient quantity to more than subsist the bees in the early 

 part of August; but the little workers are able to find enough to 

 live on without consuming their stores as late as October. It 

 will thus be seen that the harvest time is never longer than 

 three months, and is often much less. After October begins, 

 although the air is still mild and spring-like, the bees cease to 

 work, and retire into a semi-dormant condition. Once every 

 eight or ten days a colony will turn out at mid-day and fly 

 around an hour or two in the sunshine, but they never fly far 

 from the hive, and are never seen at work. 



The food of the bees in the bee belt is geierally the flower of 

 tho white sage, a plant that closely resembles the garden sage. 

 This is not to be confounded with the sage bush of Nevada and 

 Utah, which is of the wormwood species, and has the family 

 bitterness. Next to the Eage in importance as bee food is the 

 sumach, a shrub that grows in California without poisonous 

 quality. In fact, there is no poisonous flowering plant in the 

 bee range, and the honey has none of the collicky qualities that 

 make eastern-grown honey objectionable. The honey is graded 

 by the culturist according to the plant from which it is derived. 

 That from sage flowers, being clearest and most aromatic, is 

 most valuable." 



Mr. Harbison says that notwithstanding the great crop that he 

 has brought into this market, he will probably not realise more 

 than $1000 after deducting expenses and interest on capital. 

 He had to dig his bee ranch out of the wilderness. The roads 

 thereto over rocky mountaia Bides and deep canons, were built 



at heavy cost. The continuous labour of fifteen men is needed 

 in the care of propagation and harvesting. The hives, boxes for 

 shipment, and household supplies have all to be transported from 

 San Diego, forty miles from his most remote apiary. It costs 

 about four cents, gold, to freight a pound of honey by water to San 

 Francisco and by rail to New York. Taking into consideration 

 the commissions and currency values realised here, there is no 

 great margin left for profit. — (A'ew York Sun.) 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Fattening Tubkeys (Anxious). — If yon mean to have fat and weight at 

 Christmas you mast begin to think about your Turkeys. If you mean them 

 to be very fat they should he up at least a month, and now they should be 

 very well fed, although not shut up. You must choose a house in which they 

 can roost. They do not care so mush about being very high, but they must 

 roost somewhere. The empty bay of a barn will make a place if no other is 

 available ; perches are easily improvised. The birds should feed from a 

 trough, and, unlike other poultry when fattening, they may always have food 

 by them, hut that must not be abused. They must be fed frequently, bat 

 with fresh food. The trough is not to be filled in the morning for the day. 

 The meaning of always having food by them is that whenever the trough is 

 empty a little food should be put in. No poultry will fatten on sour or stale 

 food. The food should be barleymeal or ground oats slaked with milk, with 

 onion tops chopped fine and mixed with it. Many successful feeders add a 

 little bean or pea-meal with the food. They should not have too much room. 

 They should be supplied with gravel and fresh-cut sods of grass. Their food, 

 should be made into a thick liquid, not a stiff paste. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camdsn Square, London, 



Lit. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Ling. 0° 3' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



Date. 



9 i.M. 



In the Day. 





4 





A&a 





a . 



CT3 



"o-* 



Shade Tem- 



Radiation 



1876. 



3 t.^ c 



ter. 



St 





perature. 



Temper 

 In 



ature. 1 ~; 













On 







Dry. 



Wet. 



Qo 



n 



Mas. 



Min. 



sun. 



grasa 





Inches. 



deg. 



deg. 





deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



In. 



We. S 



30.075 



S6 2 



34.7 



N. 



43 3 



43.8 



23.3 



80.5 



24.8 



— 



Th. 9 



29.970 



31.4 



33.5 



N. 



42.4 



410 



32.5 



75.6 



29 6 



— 





SO. 128 



3i.2 



33 3 



N. 



41.2 



37.3 



30.3 



43.') 



27.1 



— 



Sat. 11 





34 8 



34.0 



S.E. 



40.2 



4\7 



27.6 



67.0 



24.1 0.446 





29.283 



38.2 



38.2 



N.E. 



38.6 



41.2 



33.2 



44 2 



29 5 ! 0.455 



Mo. 13 



29.481 



42.9 



42.9 



W. 



41.6 



46.5 



39.2 



50.2 



33.1 ' 0.178 



Tu. 14 



29.567 



48.3 



48.2 



N.W. 



43.7 



61.4 

 45.0 



42.6 



81.0 



43.0 0.267 



Means. 



29.794 



33 4 



37 S 





41.6 



33.5 



63.8 



30.9 



1.246 



REMARKS. 

 8th.— "White frost in morning; fine dayj two very slight showers, and a low 



temperature. 

 9th. — Rather dull morning ; a fine day, but colder than the one preceding. 

 10th.— Fine all day, but still getting colder. 



11th.— Fine day, but very cold ; solar halo at 3 p.m. ; wind high at 8 f.3I. 

 12th.— Rain from soon after midnight on 11th to 9 A.M. on l*2th, then fine for 



a short time, then frequent (and at times heavy) showers. 

 13th.— Very damp, dark, and thick in the morning ; dull and showery all day, 



and warmer. 

 14th. — Foggy morning, but clearing off soon after 9 a.m. : the remainder of the 

 day fine; very warm at night, 9 p.m. temperature 58°. 

 The average temperature of the week about 5" below that of the previous 

 one, the first five days having been cold and frosty. — G. J. Stmons. 



COYENT GARDEN MARKET.— No van bsr 15. 

 Labge quantities of American Apples are still arriving. Pears continue 

 to reach us from Jerseyjin sufficient quantities to meat the demand 



FRUIT. 



s. d. s. d. ' 



1 6 to 5 







Apples i sieve 



Apricots dozen 



Cnestnut3 busbel O 



Currants 1 sieve 



Black £ do. 



Figs dozen 



Filberts lb. 6 1 



Cobs lb. 10 r 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse.. .. lb. 1 6 6 



Lemons ^100 12 18 



Melius eacu 2 5 



Nectarines dozen 



Oranges **• 10J 



Peaches dozen 



Pears, kitchen.... dozen 



dessert dozen 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plutas i seive 



Quinces bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries lb. 



Walnut* bushel 



ditto %*10Q 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes dozen 4 Ot 



Asparagus ^ 10J 



French bundle 



Beans. Kidney ^lb. S 



Beet, Red dozen 1 6 



Broccoli bundle 9 



Brussels Sprouts..* sieve 3 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 4 



Capsicums ^ 1 G 1 6 



Cauliflower d^zen S 



Celery bundle 1 6 



Coleworts.. do?, buncbes 2 



Cucumbers each 2 



Endive dozen 1 



Fennel bunch 3 



Garlic lb. 6 



Herbs .' bunch S 



Horseradish bundle 4 



Lettuce dozen C 



Leeks bunch 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress punnet 



6 \ Onions bushel 



i pickling quart 



G Parsley.... doz. bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



3 Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes., doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



■ Salsafy bundle 



9 Scorzonera bundle 



U I Seakale basket 



I Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes i sieve 



Turnips bunch 



I Vegetable Marrows 



d. s. 

 otoo 



16 

 



u 



3 a 



9 



6 



u 















8 O 



2 & 



d. s. 

 4 toO 

 1 



