37^ The Honey-Makers 



Thomas Jefferson thus informs us : — 



"The bees have generally extended themselves into 

 the country, a little in advance of the white settlers. The 

 Indians therefore call them the white man's fly." 



And Washington Irving adds : - — 



" It is surprising in what countless swarms the bees have 

 overspread the far West within but a moderate number of 

 years. The Indians consider them the harbingers of the 

 white man, as the buffalo is of the red man, and say that 

 in proportion as the bee advances, the Indian and the 

 buffalo retire. We are always accustomed to associate the 

 hum of the bee-hive with the farmhouse and the flower- 

 garden, and to consider those industrious Httle animals as 

 connected with the busy haunts of man ; and I am told 

 that the wild bee is seldom to be met with at any great 

 distance from the frontier. 



" They have been the heralds of civilization, steadily 

 preceding it as it advances from the Atlantic borders ; 

 and some of the ancient settlers of the West pretend to 

 give the very year when the honey-bee first crossed the 

 Mississippi. 



" At present it swarms in myriads in the noble groves 

 and forests that skirt and intersect the prairies, and extend 

 along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers. It seems to me as 

 if these beautiful regions answer literally to the description 

 of the land of promise, — ' a land flowing with milk and 

 honey ; ' for the rich pasturage of the prairies is calculated 

 to sustain herds of cattle as countless as the sands upon the 

 seashore, while flowers with which they are enamelled ren- 

 der them a very paradise for the nectar-seeking bee." 



While the date of the first arrival of the honey-bee in 

 the United States is doubtful, the date of its introduction 

 into California is better known. 



It did not find its way by slow degrees as the line of 



