BEE-KEEPING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



A STUDY OF SOME STATISTICS ON THE INDUSTRY, WITH 

 SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 



By Franklin Sherman, Jr., Entomologist. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Bee-keeping is an old industry in this State — so old that it has 

 been allowed in some cases to settle into ruts, which are not only 

 unprofitable, but hard to get out of. There is perhaps no other in- 

 dustry in the State of equal importance and with equal opportunities 

 for development which is so disorganized, so disconnected and suffer- 

 ing so badly from lack of careful attention and better methods as is 

 the bee-keeping business. We make this remark as applying to the 

 State as a whole, for there are some individuals who are conducting 

 their apiaries along modern and profitable lines. 



There is no State organization in which our bee-keepers meet to 

 exchange views ; there is no system of inspection by which the apiaries 

 may be brought to a higher standard ; the bee-keeping magazines have 

 but a limited circulation with us, and there is nowhere in the State 

 a practical bee-keeper whose special duty it is to encourage or protect 

 this industry. 



In order to see if we could reach any of the fundamental facts 

 underlying this industry in the State, the writer— though not an 

 actual bee-keeper — began an inquiry into the industry in the summer 

 of 1905, which has been continued (with interruptions) to the pres- 

 ent time. A carefully prepared sheet of questions was sent out, and 

 all data received in reply have been carefully recorded. We have left 

 out of account any who have less than ten colonies of bees, so that the 

 data which we have is from actual commercial bee-keepers. We have 

 on record replies from about 360 persons, representing a total of 

 10,450 colonies, located in seventy-eight counties — an average of 134 

 colonies for each county heard from, or an average of nearly 108 

 colonies for each and every county in the entire State. We feel that 

 with such an amount of data we are warranted in deducting some 

 conclusions regarding the industry in the State as a whole. 



Of course we have not heard from anywhere near all of the com- 

 mercial bee-keepers. We know positively of several from whom we 

 have not heard. Doubtless some of the counties from which we have 



