uous fruits which bloom from March to May. A great variety of garden truck, such as asparagus, celery, and parsnips is grown in the lower part of the Sacramento Valley; and celery and parsnip honey, says E. R. Root, who made a journey up the river in 1919, is stored in five and six story hives. Garden truck honey is a mixture from many plants, and is inferior in quality. A beekeeper at Walnut Grove operates 500 colonies scattered along the Sacramento River in yards of 150 colonies each. Bur clover, alfilerilla, white clover, horehound, and tarweed are of value. George A. Coleman, of the University of California, writes that in Alameda County there are about 50 apiaries which range from 25 to 150 colonies, besides several hundred small yards. The county contains between 8000 and 10.000 colonies of bees. “At Berkeley I have had very good success, both in raising bees and in the production of honey.”

The San Joaquin Valley, especially the northern part, is a much better region for beekeeping than the Sacramento Valley. A company of beekeepers at Stockton reports that it operates 2000 colonies in twenty yards, and during ten years has averaged as high as 240 pounds per colony and as low as 80 pounds. A beekeeper at Dos Palos, Merced County, writes: “I have lived here 20 years and own about 2000 colonies of bees. In 1920 my crop was about sixty tons. I have never had a total failure, as my bees are scattered over a range 45 miles long; but not all of our apiaries give a surplus every year. Alfalfa is our main dependence, and occasionally we move to the orange districts.” A half-century ago Fresno County was an arid plain on which only wheat and barley were grown. If there was sufficient rain, the crop matured; if not, everybody lost; but to-day the crops are watered by 900 miles of canals from the San Joaquin and King rivers. This county is the chief center of raisin-growing in the world; but the bloom of the vines is of very little benefit to the beekeeper. In 1919 the value of the fruit crop of all kinds was $70,000,000.

The county inspector of Fresno County writes that there are more than 200 commercial apiaries in the county, which range from 25 to 200 colonies; but many of them migrate from one section to another. At Selina the honey plants are alfalfa, yellow thistle, blue curls, and jackass clover. The crop is never an entire failure. Both Fresno and Tulare counties contain over 9000 colonies of bees. Tulare County possesses a great variety of climates and soils, and the land ranges in altitude from 268 to 15,000 feet on the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States. The lower foothills of the mountains are covered with beautiful citrus groves, of which there are 45,000 acres in this county. There is also a large acreage of peach and prune trees. Cotton and cantaloupes are extensively planted. Kings is a small level county, which has every acre of its productive soil under cultivation. The crops of most value are wheat and fruits. Kern County is situated at the extreme southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. The acreage of apples, pears, oranges, alfalfa, and cotton is constantly increasing. In the vicinity of Bakersfield it is estimated that there are 5000 colonies of bees. The honey plants are Eucalyptus, willows, fruit bloom, Phacelia, alfilerilla, and alfalfa. In a good year the average surplus is 60 pounds, but the crop never fails wholly. Owing to the careless methods of many small farmers, European foul brood in some seasons destroys half the bees. In 1919 the upper San Joaquin region experienced one of the worst seasons in the history of bee culture in this section; and with the exception of a few acres of orange trees the honey plants failed almost entirely to yield nectar. Northward in the valley alfalfa yielded half a crop.

THE FOOTHILLS

The Coast Range on the western side of the Great Central Valley consists of numerous broken parallel chains of moderate height. The Sierra Nevada on the