SEM /- TROFIC CA LIFORNIA. 
m 
Apia*#. 
MODERN BEE-KEEPING. 
It is estimated that three hundred thou¬ 
sand persons are engaged in keeping bees 
in the United Suite!.. The value of the 
honey produced annuall_v i* upwards of ten 
millions of dollars. The great majority of 
bee-keepers are farmers having two Or 
three colonies in hollow gums ami rough 
boxes propped up on clam-shells These 
connected with apiculture, ami contain the 
proceedings of the various conventions held 
by progressive bee-keepers throughout the 
country. These facts are mentioned and 
these sources of information are indicated 
in order to show that bee-keeping not only 
furnishes opportunities for industrial enter¬ 
prise, but also food for reflection. To many 
if become* an occupation of absorbing 
interest, nav, of enrhu*ia*m. 
We shall resist our inclination to moral¬ 
ize on the advantage derived from enthu¬ 
siasm produced hy the contemplation of 
nature, or in fact by anything that rouses 
men from apathy, and will invite all those 
desirous of learning, to pay an imaginary 
visit to our apiary as described in the fol¬ 
lowing paragraphs: 
To those who are timid or nervous and 
have a lurking notion that bee* are filled 
with wrath ami poison in about equal pro¬ 
portion, »e will lend a pair of rubber gloves 
and a veil like one of those in the accom¬ 
panying picture. 
Fig. 1.— hick 
old fashioned hives they have inherited 
from their predecessors along with the 
notion that the bee is a useful little crea¬ 
ture which costs nothing and hoard* itself, 
but is excelled in amiability by nearly all 
th<- rest of creation. When tlir- time for 
“robbing" oomps, a few still adhere to the 
barbarous practice of aulfocating their old 
sivarms with the vapor of burning brim- 
atone hi ordci to obtain the stores; hot 
most of them wait until after dark, smoke 
their lines with burning rags, and remove 
tliu tops of tlio hives. Then limy cut o- 
break out tlio honoy-comh with cheese-knife 
nr poker, mid transfer it, mixed with bee- 
bread, larva', uinl dead bee*, into buckets 
or tubs. In this condition it is taken tn the 
country store, where they gut from six to 
ten cents a pound. 
It ie the object of the present sprie* of 
papers to describe tin- met buds by which 
w obtain honey that sell, at twenty live 
cents a pound, and by which the amount of 
honey per hive has been greatly increased. 
Millions of dollars would be added u, tlm 
annual production if thes.i method* worn 
generally understood and adopted. They 
arc not mere theory, but are carried out in 
practioe by. a fow thousand intelligent men 
who will ihwnoelves *' apiarists " uod make 
TiWr «l» feme 
ol ilium keep several hundrod, and u fow Over 
. Ihewenl oeloni,,. Si* „ 
ttevulod to their hiterc»t» are published m 
tins country, the mdat importaat of which 
are the A^.u oon Jlrr Journal at Chicago, 
Vlviiongi in JktQxdtur, at Medina, Ohio. 
ml the Ji„ -K, 
Mm, 
in Net 
York City. The first has just been changed 
to a weekly, the other two appear monthly. 
I bean papers are full of topic* u{ interest 
Fig. MKK-U1VB. 
The veil on the left ia made uf black 
ta.lotni 1 , pr«Ud»ir, ,.r 
Will, two edge* sowed together,and a niece 
ruM.cr coni »t lh.top, ,0 th.l i, mij u 
slippou over a slid-brimmed bat Tin. 
t, 'l,™ ™j I. nilli.f tuck.,I l„ tl.u 
n.ll.r, ,. lime, „ Imll..,, 
Ih shttt Ntnn^.. Tl„ ri.il n,i tl.o ,io|,t i, 
m«J„ on tho Miiir |.lon, only tl,»t , .“j uI 
wire cloth, rune Inchris wide, and shunt l»o 
d a half lent long, is inserted. Those 
10 bar,- used wire cloth much, say that it 
bad for tlni eye*. We prefer a firm black 
material having a hexagonal mesh. 
■'gurnets should prepare themselves in 
this way until they have found out by their 
experience that hoes are quite tract*, 
when proparly managed. 
They will find that they will not bo 
attacked under ordinary circumstance* mi¬ 
les* they strike at a bee, make sudden, 
jerky motions, or jar a hive. 
Before starting out, we provide ourselves 
th a very useful instrument called a 
smoker, a description of which ia sub¬ 
joined. 
A atnoker consists essentially of a little 
hollows communicating with a tin cylinder, 
surmounted by n conical piece with n hole 
in the apex. The top is taken oil and the 
cylinder filled with dry rotten wood, peat, 
rags, ft is then lighted and the 
top replaced. The bellows supplies the 
necessary draught, and we arc rcuily to 
pour forth volumes of smoko at a moment’s 
notice. When the smoker is pul down tit 
an upright position n drop-valve in tlm 
piece connecting hullnwa find cylinder 
remains open and prevents the lire from 
going out. 
Thus armed we nre ready to go into tint 
apiary. The first thing that strikes tlio 
visitor is that the hives aru down on the 
ground, that they are all painted white, 
and that they are all of exactly the sumo 
size. A level picco of ground wan chosen, 
cleared, drained, and covered with n layer 
of saw-dust to keen down the weeds. Then 
it was laid out so that the hives should stand 
'ix feet apart from center to center with 
their entrances all facing the East. Four 
Indf-bricks were put under each hive, and 
the space underneath wn* filled with saw¬ 
dust. For all these points sufficient reasons 
will be given later. At present wo tire 
anxious to make the acquaintance of the 
bees as soon as possible. 
As wc approach more closely we perceive 
that the apiary is composed of hives like the 
lower one of Fig, i, 
If we had a trellis and a grapevine on the 
#°uth *hlc of every hive, as represented in 
the figure, they would alfur.J a grateful 
shade in the heat of the day, but ours have 
not been planted yet. 
l-ct. us sit down beside one of these hives 
and watch the bees as they stream in .and 
out. Listen to llieir contented hum. No 
tier- how much larger and plumper they are 
when they arrive than when tl.-y leave. 11 
i* because they come in from the fields 
with their honeybngH distended. Some 
are carrying in on their legs little whitish, 
yellow, greenish, and orange pellets of 
pollen which they gather in the form uf 
, st Irrun tho interior of flowers, roll up 
into doughy pullut*, and Blow away in a 
sort ul pouch nr Inuket no their two hind- 
,MO,t . Nuw and then a larger Ime 
enrne# darting in with a comparatively Imsa 
voice that is apt (<■ frighten a beginner 
'".Hi In- leun.B that these are drone*, nml 
flint they could nut sting even if they 
would, for the simple reason that limy are 
hot provided hy nature with any aggressive 
weapon, 
A* our ryes become accustomed to their 
rapid motions, we 0 „ n distinguish the young 
hens with their yellow Luzon thorax anil 
abdomen from the Veterans returning from 
Um field with ragged wings and bodies 
worn smooth with much service. Some- 
