BEE-KEEPERS AND BEE-KEEPING 209 



sides; and as we saw they were being filled with 

 combs, we rejoiced that we need not "take up" any 

 more swarms, as the suffocation by sulphur fumes 

 was termed. 



When, to the invention of the box super, was 

 added the greater invention of Langstroth, and 

 finally thereunto was added the invention of the 

 honey-extractor, bee-keeping became a science, 

 instead of a haphazard avocation. 



Bee-keeping in America has since then passed 

 through many phases and survived many experi- 

 ments. Our bee-keepers have been wide awake and 

 willing to try all things and hold fast to the good. 

 Once, having read of the floating apiaries of the Nile, 

 which follow the flower bloom along the banks, an 

 enthusiast tried the same scheme on the Mississippi 

 River, starting at the southern part early in the 

 season and coming north abreast of the spring; 

 but too many bees were left behind to make this 

 profitable. Another enterprising gentleman took 

 his bees south winters, but the cost of transportation 

 took away the profits. Now, however, another plan 

 for gaining pasturage is proving most successful; 

 i. e., the establishment of out-apiaries. As seventy- 

 five or a hundred colonies will usually take all the 

 nectar of a given locality, the bee-keeper places his 

 surplus colonies in other apiaries far enough distant, 

 so there is good pasturage for all. Mr. A. L. Cogg- 

 shall has about 3,000 colonies in out-apiaries in cen- 

 tral New York. 



The up-to-date bee-keeper is not merely an 



