able climate and the introduction of irrigation it is destined to supply the markets of North America with sub-tropical and many tropical fruits.

Beekeepers report excellent results in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties; and as these two counties resemble in climate and vegetation the southwestern counties of California they may be briefly considered here. “In my Forest Apiary,” says Coleman, “in the Monterey National Forest I get on an average 120 pounds of extracted honey and 100 sections of comb honey per colony, year after year, of very fine quality from wild alfalfa, madrona, manzanita, and black sage.” A beekeeper at San Luis Obispo writes that there are about fifteen commercial apiaries in that locality, which contain from 25 to 200 colonies of bees. A crop of honey is obtained every year, and the surplus in a good season ranges from 100 to 200 pounds. The honey plants are willows, Eucalyptus, manzanita, Christmas berry, mountain lilacs, mustard, poison oak, black sage, alfilerilla, wild alfalfa, wild buckwheat, broomweed, tarweed, and black sage.

Bee culture and fruit-growing have reached their highest development in California in the seven southwestern counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Imperial. It is a rugged or mountainous region, where the rolling hills are covered with open groves of oaks and chaparral. On the foothills the characteristic plants are wild buckwheat, black, purple, and white sages, orange, buckthorn, chamise, wild alfalfa, and sage brush. In some instances the hillsides from base to apex are entirely covered with two species of cactus (Opuntia Engelmanii and O. prolifera). The chaparral consists chiefly of manzanita, mountain lilacs (Ceanothus), sage, and mountain mahogany. There are in the open areas many herbaceous plants, a part of which are valuable to the beekeeper. Under irrigation, which is extensively practiced, the valleys are very productive.

The Lima bean is adapted to a costal strip twenty miles in width which is subject to heavy ocean fogs, and is mostly grown without irrigation. More than 50 per cent, of the entire bean crop in this country comes from Ventura, Orange, Santa Barbara, and San Diego counties, Ventura County leading with over 60,000 tons. Only the Lima bean is of value as a honey plant, although the black-eyed bean has been reported to yield an amber-colored honey, but this is rightly questioned by L. L. Andrews. The same authority says that in recent years the great San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County has been planted extensively to bush Lima beans, which under irrigation have proven to be a reliable source of honey, and that many beekeepers find it profitable to move there after the orange flow.

In 1920 there were under cultivation in southern California 149,800 acres of Lima beans, California being credited with 85 per cent, of all the Lima beans grown in the world. Between Los Angeles and the Palms there are several bean ranches which contain from 2000 to 3500 acres in a single block. The vines bloom in July and August, when many beekeepers move their bees to the bean fields.

At Summerland, Santa Barbara County, every available acre was devoted, in 1919, to growing Lima beans, and the entire crop in the county was valued at $800,000. Cool sea fogs and the absence of protracted hot spells are required for the maturing of this plant, as otherwise it is apt to blight; but the heavy fogs retard the flight of the bees. At Santa Barbara there is one apiary which reports 500 colonies of bees, and two report 100 colonies each. The honey is mild-flavored, water-white, and candies quickly into a pastelike solid.

A few years ago the broad expanses of Ventura County were considered only fit for grazing; but with the introduction of irrigation the land has been converted into profitable fruit and truck farms. Owing to competition from the Orient the acreage of beans has been greatly reduced and large tracts have been planted with