WINTERING BEES. 141 



sible. The simple work of gathering nectar then is indirectly of tremendous 

 economic importance to the farmer and horticulturist, and so to our whole 

 country. 



Again, this nectar, when acted upon by the digestive juices of the bee, is con- 

 verted into honey, a food long valued for its superior excellence, which, with- 

 out bees, would be wholly lost; worse than lost, as we see from the fact stated 

 above. 



Bees, from their exceeding number and peculiar fitness for the work, are 

 greatly superior to any and all other insects in the accomplishment of this fer- 

 tilization of plants, while only the honey bees are aljundant early in the season, 

 and they alone save this valuable food element to minister to man's good. 



To show the activity of bees and their wondrous accomplishments, we have 

 only to present well-known facts. I find, by actual observation, that single 

 flowers are sometimes visited by bees fifty times a day, and I have seen bees 

 visit over twenty flowers a minute. 



Mr. L. C. Root, of Mohawk, New York, (see American Apiculturist, Vol. III., 

 p. 197), extracted 4,103 pounds of honey on July 2S, 1885, collected from 

 basswood, which had all been gathered by forty colonies of bees in just seven 

 days. This is ovar 100 pounds per colony, and the daily stores of each colony 

 exceeded fourteen pounds During the same time we secured, here at the col- 

 lege, nearly half as much beautiful comb honey from single colonies. 



I know of a farmer in this State, — a good farmer, Avith a farm of over 100 

 acres which he tills excellently well — who has kept bees six or seven years, and 

 who, for the last three years, has had from sixty to eighty colonies ; the cash 

 receijDts from these bees, during each of the last three years, exceeded those of 

 the entire balance of his farm. During all these years this gentleman has never 

 lost a colony of bees, till last winter, when one or two died of starvation. The 

 same experience would be true of any farmer in almost any Michigan neighbor- 

 hood, who would put the same thought, study, and energy into the business. 



WINTER LOSSES. 



The one great drawback in this industry is the danger of loss which comes 

 ■with each of our severe winters, which are unpleasantly frequent of late. Last 

 winter was one of the most severe. Judging from the experience of the last 

 twenty years, tiiese terribly cold winters may be expected about once in three 

 years. If we may judge from the past, we may also safely assert that during 

 these most trying winters there will be a loss of from fifty to one hundred per 

 cent of the colonies of bees in all the northern States. Such a loss as this, 

 unless it can be prevented with ease and certainty, is too serious an obstacle in 

 the way of success to be cheerfully endured, even by those in the most attract- 

 ive and remunerative of employments and it is greatly to the praise of apicul- 

 ture that, burdened with this loss, it has made such constant and rapid prog- 

 ress. 



AEE SUCH LOSSES NECESSARY? 



The fact that so many apiarists, like the one referred to above, meet with 

 no loss, makes it clear that, with full knowledge, followed by equal care and 

 pains, this loss may be wholly prevented. Many of our best bee-keepers have 

 no more fear of losing their bees than of losing their cattle and horses. We, 

 at the college, have met no such loss for years. 



