The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-30
HIRING PASTURE FOR BEES

3AO lS1A Wv DLllo
A FARM WHERE HONEY IS MADE
BY THE WHOLESALE.
a shrewd Yankee Agents Device
for Getting the American Article
on the Queens Table.
Ibid you ever hear of such a thing as
q man hiring pasture for beess" asked u
gentleman from Cherry Valley, N. Y.
who was waiting at Cobleskill for a
train. The New York Times reporter,
OF whom the question was asked, had
certainly never heard of anything Of the
kind, and so informed his ques;ioner.
II was quite sure you hadn't, and
that's the reason I asked you," said the
gentleman. II always like to put the
question to every stranger in this neigh
borhood I happen to meet, for I ENJOY
h way it puzzles them, and then it
always does me good to tell them about
the man who hires pasture for bees.
You know, of course, that all through
this region hops is the mainstay
OF the people. Almost everybody is en-
gagged in hop raising, and 1 can tell you
that I've seen seasons when they wished
they weren't. But you don't know, 1
Lake 1t, that ut Cherry Valley-histor:c
cherry Valley, the garden spot Of
Scho aarie-we have probably one of the
most extensive bee farms in this or any
other country. California is, Of course,
the greatest ~bec-ranching or honey maxi
ing region in the world, owing to the
excellence of its climate and the endless
variety of its honey-yiclding flowers.
There are no long winter. in California.
with dcarth of flowers, through which
the bees must be fed by artificial means,
and in the mouth of almost every CANYON
there is a bee ranch or apiary. Why,
slr, the beekeeper of the Pacific coast
don't known how we'll he is off. He is
beset by none of the difficulties of his
Eastern brethren. lie grows indolent
and rich from the labor of his evcr-in-
dustrious brown-winged servants. You
see men, women, and children out there
who wi extensive bee ranches, so easily
are they started and kept up. There is
q constant bukzin3 of wings in the can
yons, caused by the endless comings and
go ngs of the bees, and the burden Of
honey they carry collectively is SO great
That the alr Is perpetually filed with
the fragrance of tho fields.
But hold on, I'm coming to it; in
spite of all that, the quality of California
honey doe; not excel, even if it EQUALS,
the honey made right up h,re in Cherry
Valley. That's an admitted fact, and
Capt: Hetherington-oh, yes; the man
who hires pastu.e for his bees: he's the
man-Capt. Hetherington, of Cherry
Valley, whose apiaries turn out over
100, Ou0 pounds of honey every year, and
the hum of whose 2, 500 swarms Of bees
equal to 10, 600, 900 busy little servants
is heard all along Cherry Valley Creek,
from the tme the first blossom opens in
the spring until the last one tumbles to
the frost in the fa L. Two steam saw
mills are kept Lusy five weeks in every
year manufactu ing the lumber for the
boxes in which the honey made by his
bees is stored. Almost $50, 900 panes
of glass, six inches square, are used in
these boxes. Captain Hcthcriugton.
hasn't enough clover, buckwheat, bass
wood tree, &c, of his w to supply his
bees, and so he pays a rent to every
farme in the vicinity for the privilege of
his bees working on their premises. He
won have his bees running loose on his
neighbors any more han lie would have
his COWS, and so he hires pasture for
them, and they go on and pile up so
much honey for him that some years he
gets no less than $50, 900 for it.
"And then there's the way our same
New York State honey worked its way
on to Queen Victoria's table. Did you
ever hear how that was done2 No?
That was n stroke of Yankee genius that
never was beaten. You know, of course,
because everybody knows that, that
there was positively no market in Eng
land for American honey up to 1877.
Oh, yes! They wouldn't have American
honey at oil, the dealers wouldn't, and
the trade papers kept crying it down.
The home article was so much inferior to
ours that those interested in tho former
knew the introduction of ours on the
market would kill the demand for theirs.
A big wholesale grocer house in New
York City was very anxious to get New
York State honey on sale in London, and
they sent an agent over there to sec what
he could do. His name was Hoge, but
after he had worked London on the honey
question for a month or so he made up
his mind his name was Dennis. and he
wa on the point of coming home in dis
gust, when one day the landlord of the
hotel where he was stopping said to him:
"'What you want to do, Hoge,' said
he, is to get some of your honey on the
Queens table. After you've done that
you're made. Everybody'll buy Amcri-
a honey them
"'That's SOL! said Hoge, opening his
eyes. How'll l do that7'
"'nunno,' replied the landlord, and
walked away.
but Hoge was smart, and by the way
the landlord walked OF he knew that the
landlord did know how he could get
American honey on the Queens table if
it was only made worth his while.
You've got to make it worth everybody's
while in England, as of course you know.