The Bulletin. 11 



From this we see that in the east the tendency is to make use of the 

 wild Black bee as found in the native forest, or, even when Italians 

 are introduced, they mingle with the wild Black, producing a 

 Hybrid. It seems to be much more difficult to keep the Italians pure 

 in the eastern section, necessitating frequent introduction of fertilized 

 Italian queens from other apiaries. In the middle and the mountain 

 sections there seems to be less difficulty along this line. In the region 

 where the sourwood abounds the Italian is the decided favorite, for 

 of the nine large bee-keepers on record in this (the piedmont) region 

 six keep the pure Italians, while the other three have Hybrids in 

 which there is Italian blood. 



Thus we see, taking a view of the matter from all sides, that the 

 Italian is in the lead throughout the State as a whole, though out- 

 stripped in numbers by the Blacks in the east. The Italians also 

 have a decided lead in the yield of honey, and are especially preferred 

 in the sections where the finest quality of honey is made. * When a 

 bee-keeper gets to the point of working up a fancy trade in high- 

 priced honey, tie is likely to abandon the Black bees and log "gums" 

 and stock up with pure Italians in modern frame hives, in which the 

 marketable, honey is stored in pound sections, or in frames from irttich 

 it can be easily extracted. The main objection to this lies in the dif- 

 ficulty of keeping the stock pure, and the expense of continually intro- 

 ducing new queens ; but, in view of the higher average yield from the 

 Italians, as shown in these pages, it would seem that they more than 

 compensate for this trouble and expense. 



PRICES FOR HONEY. 



Comb Honey. — There is, of course,, a wide range in the prices paid 

 for honey, depending upon the demand and supply, and also depend- 

 ing upon the distance to the larger towns, the source from which the 

 honey is derived, its color, etc. The prices mentioned for comb 

 honey (with 215 persons reporting) range from 5 to 20 cents per 

 pound, the bulk being sold, however, at from 10 to 15 cents. Averag- 

 ing all the reports for 215 persons, we get a fraction less than 12 

 cents as the average price for comb honey throughout the* State as a 

 whole. An effort to determine in which section of the State the 

 highest prices prevail is only partially successful, owing to the fact 

 that we have not enough reports from representative counties in all 

 sections to warrant conclusions. Six persons reporting from Onslow 

 show an average price of exactly 12 cents per pound; nine from 

 Iredell report an average of a fraction more than 12 cents, while 

 twenty reporting from Madison show an. average of a fraction less 

 than 13 cents per pound. This puts the three sections (east, central, 

 and west) on practically the same basis, so far as price is concerned. 

 But here again we find the sourwood showing the superiority of its 



