The herald., 1894-12-25
BEES AND HONEY.

nus msue name OF W0bitn OF Iem0s OF
who aims at little something for hil
old age outside OF the almshouse OF
dependence on his relatives. when hs
asks himself seriously. ."What shall
do?"
And again he asks himself the ques'
tion and there 10 no answer. He canno,
dig; to bog he is ashamed. Younger
men, aggressive and irrepressible. are
crowding him to the wall.
He 10 perhaps 80 years OF age. He
has toilsd for 35 of these years; raised
q family perhaps; 10 spoken OF ~ an old
FOSSIL" and finds that the world takes
no interest in any man whose poasibil-
titles are no longer Q field for specula-
tion. and, above all, that the story oil
Belisarius is Q cold. everyday truth.
A man Of 30 is not an old man, In pol
itics, in literature, in science. in art, or
even in the conduct OF war. But he Is
an old man to be in the employ Of 9th.
ers, and II there 10 q cry more bitter
than another in the heart Of an honest
man at night 10, "Save me from de-
psndepcs ia my old age"
Now down In Southern California,
the land OF booms and new enterprises.
there 10 young but thriving industry
which requires but little capital and NO
physical toll. 1t 10 precisely suited to
the taste OF man who wants to live rs
much SO possible in the open air and
practice hia powere OF observation and
ref ection.
A bee ranch has host OF attractions.
1t is Q legitimate, honest enterprise and
Yields o regular return for the invest-
ment of very little money.
1t is perhaps an unfortunate circum.
stance that the localities in which bee
keeping can be extensively and profi.a-
bly, pursued are limited, bat there is
room enough for hundreds Of bee
ranches yet IL . man will take the
trouble to choose q site carefully.
Bees have been always quoted 40 an
example Of industry, sud the bee keeper
will not succeed il be is idle and oars-
less. He will not have to earn his liv-
ing by the sweat OF his brow, physically
speaking, but he will have to give the
same amount Of care and mental con.
centration that he would have to do to
succeed in any other kind OF buninsss.
Bee keeping has been reduced almost
to science, and the man who conducts
his business on the line of the old
"skeps" and leaves his bees to shift for
themselves will find himself out Of
pocket at the end of the frat year. and
bankrupt in the aecond.
The modern frame.hive is an object
lesson in itself. 1t shows how study de-
voted to one object, pays in bees ss in
every thing else. In the old days, the
man whose bees were about to swarm
passed anxious nights waiting for the
event, and q very anxious day with O
door key and an extemporizsd gong, q
thick veil over his head, gauntlets over
his wrists, and may be 80 OF 40 bees
stinging him at once, when the swarm
ing took place. Then, too. the smoking
out OF the bses to get the honey meant
too often the death of the industrious
little colony.
In Southern California today the bee.
keeper makes 90 light of transferring q
swarm as of changing his attire. and as
for smoking or killing tho bees he does
not dream Of 1t. Neither does he de-
stroy the combs. They are withdrawn
an agitRtor which removes the honey,
and the combs are replaced.
Round about Ell Csjon, east OF San
Diego, there are several thriving bee
ranches. These ranches are located ON
spots specially adspted to bee culture.
The essencial conditions are: Q) The
proximity of water or moist lowland, for
beee are the thirstiest OF insects and
Thousands perish on the great piAins.
(2) There must bs proiusion OF sam.
mer flowers cultivated for tho bees when
the dry season sets in. i3) The bsss
nust be avtifeially fed from May till
July. az There must be q natural suf-
foiency OF certain flowers and trees,
notably the manzanits, cottonw wood.
sweet alyssum, wild sage. wild buck
wheat, wild mustard, alfilsris and 90
ON. The gay tinted flowers - rule are
honeyless, as gay plumsged birds are
songless.
Il will give come idea Of the increase
of bee-keeping as . commercial enter
prise ii the figures recently obtained for
the treasury department are considered.
California, be it said, resembles Greece,
tho land OF the bee in classic times.
There are at present about $4,000 hives
in the state and the yield is from 400 to
1000 tons. The cost OF bee ranch of
400 hives has been thus estimated:
Hives $500, boxes for honey $165, wages
and board OF one man for eighteen
months $3.50, hauling $195, packing
cases $l65, sundriss $45, total $4,000.
From this investment the receipts are
$4950 for honey, $3.50 from strained
honey and wax, and $4,000 from new
swarms. leaving Q profit of $500 for the
year.
The growth of the industry 10 best
seen from comparison of three differ.
ent years widely separated. In 1873
there were $4,000 hives, worth $4,000;
in 1879 there were 1900 hives, worth
Sill, AIS; in 1856 there were 99,325
hives, worth Sis, ,120.
The great bee counties are Los Ange-
les and San Diego, which raise more
than all the others put together. Out
of a total of $4,000 hives assessed for
1889, 1880 were in Los Angeles county.
The amount OF honey received at San
Francisco in 1880 alone was 1,14S,800
pounds. In 1884 the figure rose to 2,197,.
O50, and in 1889 it was still over q
million pounds.
The beekeeper has one great advantage
over the average farmer or rsncher. No
man ever became successful larmer by
reading books en- agriculture. He has to
win success by hard toll in the felds,
and years OF self denial and triumphs
over "the stubborn glebs" as we'll as
battles with mortgages, bad years and
short crops. But bee keeping is @
single problem on which excellent books
have been written and the thoughtful
observant temperament which comes
on man with middle age is rather fav-
orable than otherwise to success in the
work.