The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-10-27
Honey by the Car-load-The Decking
OF California.

Mr.. j. 5. HARRISON, Of San Diego
County, California, arrived in this city
yesterday with ten car loads Of honey,
each car containing 10000 pounds.
This vast aggregation Of bee labor 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.. Harbi-
son made stir in the bee world by sell
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 a single
producer, and the sale led hundreds of
staid farmers 70 embark in what looked
like most profitable field of industry.
The result was not flattering. Short
seasons and limited bee pasturage for
babe profitable bee culture. Old-fash-
Toned hives were then the only kind
known. The modern means Of robbing
bees without killing them had not then
been thought Of.
Having invented hive that enabled
the culturist To obtain successive crops
of honey from the same colony Of bees,
Mr.. HARRISON began 10 look for a re-
gion that would supply the food for the
bees. lie searched for this in the
equable climate of the Pacific coast,
and found II in narrow strip of cOun-
try in the extreme southwestern 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.. HARRISON when he first
visited the country. The country in
land was thought good enough for
sheep pasturing, but no one dreamed
that the soil could be made to produce
grain in paying quantities. Timber was
confined TO the bottoms of running
streams and the canyons, the valleys
and hillsides being covered with a
growth of stunted brushwood from
which sprane luxuriant growth of
white sage, sumac, and other Towering
shrubs, which bloom there nine months
of the year.
Mr.. Harbison's first apiary was start
ed on mountain-side, 20 miles east of
San Diego. He embarked for the West
with 30 hives Of bees, but these were
reduced TO 81 by casualties. From them
he now has six apiaries, and a total of
5000 hives. He employs Is men con-
stantly, and is reaping rich profits from
many thousands of acres that must 9TH
erwise have been barren waste. He
soon had many imitators, and now not
less than three hundred persons are
taking honey along the :" Bee Belt"
The California bee season, Mr.. Harbi-
son says, begins by Feb. l. In March
or April the bees swarm, and the bee
culturist has lively times in saving the
swarms. The science has become so
systematized now that the apiculturist
knows within 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 al the
height of their luxuriance 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 part of August but the little work
ers are able TO find enough 10 live on
without consuming their stores as late
as October. Ii 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 10 work, and retire into a semi
dormant condition. Once every eight
Dr. ten days colony will turn out at
midday and fly around for an hour or
wo in the sunshine, but they never fly
ar from the hive, and are never seen at
work.
The food Of the bees in the bee belt
5 generally the flower of the white
age, plant that closely resembles the
,arden sage. This Is not to be con-
cunded with the sage brush of Nevada
nd Utah, which is of the wormwood
pecies, and has the family bitterness.
NeXt TO the sage in Importance as bee
God is the sumac, shrub that grows
n California without poisonous quality.
n fact, there is no poisonous Towering
liant in the bee range, and the honey
las none of the colicky qualities that
make Eastern grown honey objectiona-
lie. The honey is graded by the Gull
urist according TO the plant from which
Is derived That made from sage
lowers, being clearest and most arc
matte, Is most valuable.
Mr.. HARRISON says that notwithstand-
NJ the great crop that he has brought
this market, he will probably not
ealize more than 81, 900 after deduct
~ expenses and interest on capital.
lie had To dig his bee ranch out of the
wilderness. The roads thereto, over
ocky mountain sides and deep CANYONS,
'ere built at heavy cost. The continu-
US labor of - men is needed in the