Vol. XXV 1 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 315 



less numbers, defoliating acres of the woodlands and apparent- 

 ly threatening the entire destruction of the hardwood forest; 

 but it speedily disappears again and becomes so rare that its 

 presence is unnoticed. The size of the bee fauna is likewise 

 limited by other factors than the food supply. 



It is desirable to consider a few specific instances where 

 there is unquestionable evidence of a surplus of flower food. 

 In Riverside County, California, the orange bloom secretes 

 nectar so freely that it drips upon the clothing of the pruners, 

 and at the end of a day's cultivating in the groves it is neces- 

 sary to wash the horses and harnesses. Large quantities are 

 lost each year for want of bees to collect it. Hundreds of 

 acres of the sandy coastal plain of Georgia are covered with 

 the bushes of the common gallberry (Ilex glabra}. It re- 

 mains in bloom for about a month, the secretion of nectar is 

 constant and but little affected by the weather; but, according 

 to J. J. Wilder, this sea of flowers is not frequently visited by 

 insects. Immense quantities of fine honey are lost annually 

 because there are no bees to gather it ; furthermore it is not 

 easy to overstock a gallberry region with the domestic bee, 

 and in one instance 362 colonies did nearly as well as 100 

 previously. A conservative estimate by Iowa apiarists of great 

 experience places the possible production of honey in that 

 State for a single year at 60,000,000 pounds. The average 

 moisture content of honey is 17.59 P er cent., while that of nec- 

 tar is not far from 75 per cent., so that the weight of the nec- 

 tar would exceed that of the honey fourfold (Browne, C. A., 

 "Chemical Analysis and Composition of American Honeys," 

 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Chem., Bull, no, p. 45). This esti- 

 mate, of course, does not take into consideration the nectar 

 consumed by anthophi.lous insects other than the honey bee. 

 If a region were already stocked to its fullest capacity with 

 bees, it is clear that it would be impossible to establish a large 

 apiary containing millions of bees, storing twenty or more 

 tons of honey, consuming perhaps twice as much more, and 

 requiring enormous quantities of pollen for brood-rearing. It 

 will be remembered that the honey bee does not usually fly 

 more than two miles from the apiary. 



