Poppleton argued that such a hive was never top-heavy and could not be blown over by heavy wind, and that there were no heavy filled supers to be lifted.

Migratory Graham of California at one time had 3,000 colonies of bees.

Migratory Graham of California at one time had 3,000 colonies of bees.

He found the river an ideal place for him, as by means of a gasoline launch he was able to move his bees from place to place in search of pasture. Up and down the river there is a variety of plants which come into bloom at different times. When conditions were unfavorable in one locality, he sought pasture elsewhere. At times he had bees in locations a hundred miles or more apart.

Poppleton thus was the first successful eastern migratory beekeeper who became well known to the readers of the bee magazines. He continued his operations in Florida for many years and harvested some large crops of honey from palmetto and other southern plants. With no permanent locations at any time, he could load an apiary on his boat and move it to a new site.

A few years later W. J. Stahmann, of Wisconsin, was advised that a change of climate would be necessary for his wife, who was in poor health. He was a successful beekeeper and had no intention of abandoning his bees. He, accordingly, bought a cabin boat and a large barge and took both his family and his bees to the river. The first summer was spent on the St. Croix River with a fortunate location selected for the bees. A crop of 45,000 pounds of honey was harvested, and Mrs. Stahmann began to improve in health. After the crop was sold, he started down the Mississippi. When the mouth of the White River was reached, they moved up that stream in search of another suitable location. The following summer was spent on the White River, with a smaller crop harvested which was of poor quality. Expenses were high, and the venture was losing money. When it became apparent that the river venture could not succeed, it was abandoned and Stahmann moved to Clint,

Texas, where he became very successful as a honey producer and large-scale farmer.

J. S. Harbison, of California, was probably the first to call attention to the possibility of successful migrations by means of the railroad. In 1876, when the crop was exhausted in the home location, he loaded his bees on the cars and moved them sixty miles into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains where the manzanita and buckeye were in bloom. Later he moved again to Truckee for later blooms, returning to his home location for the winter.

Later, another Californian was to become famous because of his frequent movement of bees in carlots. He became known as Migratory Graham, and boasted that he had kept bees in thirty-two California counties and five valleys in Nevada. According to his own statement in 1918, he had shipped 161 cars of bees.

A typical season with him was to start the bees in the almond belt of Butte or Colusa Counties. From there he would move to orange in Tulare County and then back to the Sacramento or San Joachim Valley to the seed belt. From there he would go north to alfalfa and south again for jackass clover.

Graham had more ups and downs than usually fall to the lot of the man who aspires to do things on a big scale. At one time he had 3,000 colonies of bees and the best equipment on the Pacific Coast, and produced a crop of 120 tons in one season. Bee disease resulted in serious complications for him, and he was frequently in difficulties because of the disease laws.

The high cost of preparation, the long haul by freight and loading and unloading, and moving to apiary sites with horses and wagons resulted in too much expense to make migratory beekeeping by rail a practical method. The auto changed all this. It was the automobile which made migratory beekeeping really practical. With the perfection of this machine it became possible to load an outfit, move it a long distance, and set it down in the new location within a few hours. Migratory beekeeping became common practice, especially in California, where large areas are devoted to the production of some special crop.

Many western beemen follow Graham's example and move three or more times in a season. Harvesting of two or more crops from the same outfit in widely separated localities is the usual and expected procedure in many places.