THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



141 



In the part of the State that we 

 visited there are two systems of nar- 

 row ffauffe railroads, with numerous 

 branches, in the hard timbered dis- 

 tricts, and all along- the roads are 

 chopping-s of different degrees of 

 "ripeness." 



BEST LOCATIONS ARE "BACK IN THE 

 WOODS. ' ' 



But these choppings are back away 

 from civilization, and the only build- 

 ings that are available are log shan- 

 ties at deserted lumber camps, most of 

 which have been robbed of their roofs 

 for the sake of the lumber. The man 

 who g-oes into northern Michigan to 

 produce raspberry honey, must expect 

 to "rough it," and live in a shanty, 

 unless he buys or builds a good house, 

 and this is something he ought not to 

 do until he has been here a 3'ear or 

 two and become familiar with the 

 country, so as to choose wisely in 

 reference to future pasturage. 



Mr. E. D Townsend was fortunate 

 enough to find a location where he 

 could set his bees down within a few 

 rods of a railroad, at a point where 

 the cars will stop on signal, but the 

 man who hopes to find another such a 

 spot will probably be disappointed. 



LARGE TRACTS OF RASPBERRIES HARD 

 TO FIND. 



Again it is not so easy to find a large 

 tract of raspberries in one spot; that is, 

 a tract large enough to allow the 

 establishing of a series of yards with- 

 in three miles of one another. It is not 

 a difficult matter to find a locality suit- 

 able for one apiar\' of say 100 colonies, 

 but to find a large tract of berries is 

 quite difficult. We spent several daj's 

 driving about without finding any 

 such; and the locations that we have 

 selected are several miles apart — one 

 ten miles from \yhat will probably be 

 the home-yard, and the other about 

 s;ven miles away — but each of the 

 locations is excellent for the number of 

 bees we expect to place there. Of 



course, we may make changes later, 

 after we have had a 3'ear's experience 

 and observation in this part of the 

 country, but we can't take any chances 

 of overstocking, even if there will be 

 some time spent in driving to the out- 

 yards. 



LOCATION IS ALL-IMPORTANT. 



The foundation of all is the location, 

 one with an abundance of berries, and 

 around this must cluster all of the 

 other conditions. The most desirable 

 pasture va^y not be in the most desir- 

 able place to live; but I doubt if there 

 will be any locations so inaccessible 

 that the bee-keeper won't be able to 

 get his honey out if he secures a crop. 

 We were fortunate enough to find loca- 

 tions near good, well-travelled roads, 

 and, at two of them, we secured old 

 lumber shanties that can be repaired 

 and made to answer as honey houses, 

 possiblj' one of them will be used to 

 live in. At the other location is a set 

 of old shanties, but at this writing the 

 owner is in California, and we must 

 await his return before we can tell 

 positively if we can have the use of the 

 shanties. 



THE ONLY WAY TO FIND A LOCATION iS 



TO "hunt for it." 

 There is only one way in which 

 a location can be found, and that 

 is to go into this region and hunt for it. 

 Very little can be depended upon what 

 the settlers say, unless they are bee- 

 keepers, as they seem to have no con- 

 ception of what is needed. To illus- 

 trate : One man who had lived in this 

 country several years, told us, with 

 great enthusiasm, of a tract, on the 

 banks of the Manistee, where for miles 

 and miles, there was a perfect sea of 

 raspberries. As it happened, we had 

 that day driven through that very spot. 

 The ground had been burned over, 

 and while there was quite a dense 

 growth, it was mostly black berries, 

 with occasionalljs a little patch of 

 short, scattering raspberries. We were 



