Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-10-26
Honey by the Car.IoadxTRe Bee.king
ofsCalifornfa. -
I've New Tork San Of the 14th has
the fd}loWinp.

CainVi nae'
II New noft So" q thS 18th dhas
Mr.. =. S. HARRISON, Of San Diego
County, California, arrived in this city
yesterday with ten a loads of honey,
each car containing. 10000. pounds.
This vast aggregation of bee1abor was
takentrom Mr.. Harbison's six apiaries
on the sides of the coast range OF
mo6ntains, as near to the Mexican line
as they well q be and yet claim the
protection OF tue Stars and stripes.
Twenty-Five years ago Mr. Harbi-
| son made a Stir in the bee world bylsell-
ing at one time 1900 pounds of honey,
the product of his apiary, near New
| Castle, Pennsylvania. So much honey
had never before been raised by q single
producer, and the sale led hundreds, OF
staid farmers to embark in what looked
tlike a most profitable field OF industry.
The result was not fattering. Short
seasonsand limited bee pasturage for
babe profitable bee culture. Old-fash-
ioned hives were then the only kind
k4oWn.s The modern means Of Fobbing
bees without killing, them had not then
Fbeen thought of. W. ao
| q Having invented u hive that enabled
tbs. culturist to obtain successive crops
of honey from the same colony of bees,
Mr.. HARRISON began to look for a re-
gion that would supply the food for the
bees. He searched, for this in. the
| equable climate. of the Pacific coast,
and found it in a narrow strip of eoun-
try in the extreme southwestern corner
nf tho Limited Sfokocss nprr Hnnyun cd tho
bee belt Of California. Sheep-raising
was the only industry. Of the natives
found by Mr.. HARRISON when he first
visited the, country. The country in
land was thought good enough for
sheep pasturing, but no one dreamed
that the soihcould be made to produce
grain in paying quantities. Timber was
confined to the bottoms of running
streams and the canyons, the valleys
and dhillsides being covered with a
growth of stunted brushwood from
which sprang ~a@luxuriant growth of
white sage, sumae, iandother Towering
shrubs, WHICH bloom there nine months
Of the year.sa'1'S ""-3'-'3s@
tIMreFIarbison's first apiary was start
ed on a mountain-side, 20 miles eastaof
San Diego. He embarked for the West
with 20 hives of bees but these were
reduced TO 81 by~acasualties. From them
he now has six apiaries, and a total of
5000 hives. He employs Is men con-
hstantly, andis reaping richprofits from
many thousands of acres that must 9TH
erWise have been a barren waste. He
O had many initators, and now not
less than three hundred zpersons are
taking honey along the !" Bee Belt" ~
The California bee season, Mr.. Harbi-
son says, begins by Feb. 1.aAIh March
or April thegbees swarm, and the bee
culturist has lively times in saving the
swarms. The Science has become so
systematized now that the apieulturist,
knows within adayor two when a given
hive may be expected to swarm, and as
the youngbees always settle somewhere
near the parent hive at least once before,
SELECTING their new quarters, . swarm
is seldom lost. The flowers are at the
height of their luxIrianeel IN May and
June, and the taking Of honey is begun
usually about May 20, and the bees are
kept at work. as long as the flowers last.
They cease to bloom in sufficient guam
tity TO more than subsist the bees in the
early parto of August; but the little work
ers are able to lind enough TO live on
without consuming their stores as late
as October. 1t 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 Il semi
dormant condition. x Once every eight
or ten days a colony will turn out at
midday and fly around for an hour or
two in the sunshine, but they never fy-
far from the hive, and are never seen at
work. .srg s .ru
The food of the bees in the bee belt
is generally the flower of the white
sage, a plant that closely resembles the
garden sage. This is not to be con-
founded with the sage brush of Nevada
and Utah, which is of the NORWOOD
species, and has the family bitterness.
Next to the sage in Importance as bee
food Is the sumac, a shrub that grows
in California without poisonous quality.
In fact, there is no poisonous Towering
plant in the bee range, and the honey
has none of the colieky qualities that
make Eastern grown honey objectiona-
BILE: The honey is graded by the Gull
turist according to the plant from which
it is derived. That made from sage
flowers, being elearest and most arc
matic, is most valuable.
Ma HARRISON saws that notwithstand-
ing the great crop that he has brought
to this market, he will probably not
realize more than $1,000 after deduct
ing expenses and interest on capital.
He had to dig his bee ranch out of the
wilderness. The roads thereto, over
rocky mountain sides and deep canyons,
were built at heavy cost. The continu-
labor of Is men is needed in the
care OF propagation and harvesting.
The hives, boxes for shipment, and
household supplies have all to be trans
ported from San Diego, 40 miles from
his most remote apiary. 1t costs about
four cents, gold, to freight a pound of
honey by water to San Francisco and
by rail TO New York. 2 Taking into con-