586 
Bee-Jceeping  Industry  of  America. 
(Aw.  Jour.  Phaim 
1      Nov.,  1884. 
industry  is  carried  on  under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  In  Los 
Angeles  County,  Southern  California,  there  are  two  hundred  apiaries, 
aggregating  12,000  hives,  from  which  it  is  estimated  that  an  average 
of  500,000  lbs.  of  honey  is  taken  annually  j  and  one  large  producer, 
Mr.  J.  S.  Harbison,  sent  through  to  New  York  on  one  occasion  a  con- 
signment of  honey  and  wax  amounting  to  ten  car  loads  of  20,000  lbs. 
each,  or  200,000  pounds  in  all.  Among  individual  yields  vouched 
for  at  Los  Angeles  is  one  where  from  a  single  hive  during  the  season 
566  lbs.  of  honey  was  taken,  some  of  which,  owing  to  its  purity  and 
the  superior  manner  in  which  it  was  got  up  for  market,  reached  50 
cents  per  lb. 
The  square  box  form  of  the  hives  that  has  already  been  alluded  to, 
was  adopted  as  far  back  as  1851,  almost  about  the  same  time  by  the 
American  and  German  bee-keepers,  Langstroth  and  Dzeron  respect- 
ively, to  admit  of  working  their  movable  comb  improvement,  an 
invention  which  has  Jed  the  way  to  all  the  recent  bee-keeping  improve- 
ments. It  is  strange  that  the  complete  revolution  in  bee  management 
effected  by  the  early  discoveries  of  these  two  men  should  only  have 
taken  place  within  the  past  few  years ;  and  it  is  no  less  notable  that  in 
1883  the  Langstroth  hives  are  making  their  way  all  over  America 
with  little  alteration  in  their  design  to  those  first  submitted  by  Mr. 
Langstroth  in  1851.  Instead  of  the  old  straw  hive,  in  which  the 
bees  were  smothered  previous  to  the  honey  being  promiscuously  tum- 
bled out,  all  mixed  up  with  larvae,  wax  and  broken  comb,  the  modern 
hive  is  fitted  with  square  frames,  which  can  be  lifted  out  and  dropped 
in  again  at  will,  just  as  panes  of  glass  are  handled  in  a  glazier's  box. 
These  frames  are  what  the  bees  build  their  comb  upon,  and  set  to 
work  at  filling  with  "  extracted  "  or  "  box  "  honey  respectively,  just  as 
their  owner  may  desire. 
Extracted  honey  is  that  which  is  separated  from  the  comb,  and  box 
honey  the  kind  that  is  sold  in  boxes  holding  a  pound  or  so  of  honey, 
and  in  the  form  that  it  comes  from  the  hive.  For  extracted  honey,  full 
sized  frames  are  used  in  the  hive,  but  for  box  honey  the  frames  are 
subdivided  into  the  boxes  within  which  the  bees  are  to  construct  the 
honey-filled  comb  in  the  shape  intended  for  market.  When  the  full 
frames  are  charged  with  honey,  another  achievement  in  the  new  bee- 
keeping system  is  brought  into  operation,  viz.,  the  honey  extractor. 
This  is  an  ingenious  contrivance,  resembling  in  appearance  the  square 
frame  of  a  street  lamp,  the  sides  of  which  are  fitted  with  honey- 
