No - 6 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



697 



fuse honey -yielders in parts of our State where it has not yet been 

 cut down and destroyed by lumbermen. 



If the prospective specialist lias found a place like I have de- 

 scribed, he need have no fear of the results, providing, however, he 

 does his part well. But it should be remembered, however, that in 

 a large apiary it requires a considerable area of a certain honey 

 plant to produce surplus honey in paying quantities. In this connec- 

 tion we might examine the character of the soil. I do not wish to be 

 regarded as out of the ordinary, but by close observation I have 

 found that the character of the soil has nearly as much influence on 

 the flow of honey as the state of the weather, notwithstanding the 

 frequent assertion by good authority that climatic conditions control 

 the flow of honey. Take, for example, white clover. I have found 

 that on calcareous and clay loam soils it yields much better than on 

 gravelly soils, and under conditions when on gravelly soils it does 

 not yield at all. The same is true of sandy loam underlaid with lime- 

 stone. It would, therefore, be well for the bee-keeper to take the 

 character of the soil into consideration when selecting a location 

 for his apiary. 



The next important factor is the kind of bees. Much has been 

 said about a general-purpose bee, but as that race of bees does not 

 exist we shall have to confine our selection to the varieties that we 

 have at present. I have tried several of the different strains, but 

 have settled down to the conclusion that if 1 were located where 

 clover is the main honey plant I would prefer the pure three-banded 

 Italian. But as I am located in a part of the State where large 

 quantities of buckwheat are grown, and clover is plentiful, I prefer a 

 direct cross of Italians with the black, or German, for the Italians 

 do not work well on buckwheat. By crossing them we have a bee 

 that will work on buckwheat as well as on clover. I do not wish it 

 to be understood that I keep all hybrids; far from it. I always buy 

 and try to raise pure Italian queens. But I keep all queens that 

 mate with black drones, and their colonies nearly always pile up 

 more supers of honey than the pure Italians do. Therefore the 

 selection of the race of bees best adapted to the bee-keeper's loca- 

 tion depends somewhat upon the kind of honey plants found in that 

 section. 



Much of the bee-keeper's success depends also on the kind of hive 

 used. But I shall omit to mention a choice of hive in the fear of 

 getting on somebody's corns. Suffice it to say that the bee-keeper 

 should use a modern, up-to-date, hive. After a crop of honey has 

 been secured it seems to me that time and money should not be 

 wasted in shipping it away to the large cities to be sold when it 

 could all be disposed of near home by the apiarist himself by work- 

 ing up honey routes. Thus the transportation charges and commis- 

 sion could be saved, another big item to help swell the bee-keeper's 

 pocketbook. Establishing honey routes in a new territory is up-hill 

 work for a time, but you will soon get all the customers that you 

 are able to supply, as your product becomes better and more favor- 

 ably known. Only a few years will pass until you will have no need 

 to peddle honey, as your customers will send in their orders to your 

 home, or come and get their supply. This is my experience along 

 that line. 



I believe that every large bee-keeper should make his own founda- 

 45 



