128 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



stocking are subjects of intense interest. The two sub- 

 jects are intimately connected. They are subjects so elu- 

 sive, so difficult to learn anything about very positively, 

 that if I could well help myself, I think I should dismiss 

 them altogether from contemplation. But like Banquo's 

 ghost, they will not down. I must decide, whether I will 

 or not, how many colonies will overstock the home field, 

 unless I make the idiotic determination to keep all at home 

 with the almost certain result of obtaining no surplus. I 

 do not expect ever to have any positive knowledge upon 

 the subject, because if I could find out with certainty just 

 what number of colonies a given area would support in 

 one year, I have no kind of assurance that the same kind 

 of a year will ever occur again. So I act upon the guess 

 that in my locality it is never wise to have more than 100 

 colonies in one apiary, and possibly 75 would be better. 



SURPLUS ARRANGEMENTS. 



The first surplus honey I obtained worth mentioning 

 was secured in boxes holding somewhere from 6 to 10 

 pounds. The boxes had glass on one or more sides, and 

 were placed on the top of box-hives. Then for a year or 

 more my surplus was extracted honey obtained with the 

 old Peabody extractor (Fig. 2), in which the whole affair, 

 can and all, revolves. 



SECTIONS. 



Then I started on sections of the four-piece kind, and 

 later used one-piece. I have used the 4^x4^x1% 

 size much more than any other. I have used a few hun- 

 dreds of the tall sections, but my market does not seem 

 to like them any better, if as well, as the square sections. 

 I have tried 4^4 square sections of several widths, 1 15-16 

 inches wide, 7 to the foot, also 8, 9, and 10 to the foot. I 

 have made some trial of plain sections, but for my market 

 I am not sure that there is advantage enough in them to 

 make me change from the two-bee-way sections. 



