OVERSTOCKING. 327 



ities are by no means uncommon in this country, and 

 who can be so deficient in discernment, as not to per- 

 ceive that the adoption of any system, however judi- 

 cious, would be attended with different results in 

 these different localities. 



We are informed by White, that whilst in the bleak 

 country of Cambridge, seventy or eighty hives may 

 be seen in a single farm-yard, supported, no doubt, 

 by the neighboring heaths, Suffolk, with its beautiful 

 inclosures and fine gardens, yields so scanty a supply 

 of honey, that he thought Halton could not maintain 

 a dozen colonies. 



In the spring of 1859, my brother (W. C. Har- 

 bison) and myself commenced, at our place situated 

 three miles below Sacramento City, on the east bank 

 of the Sacramento river, with sixty-eight colonies, 

 most of them weak in fact, not equal to half the 

 number of full ones. There were but five other hives 

 within three miles, and but few at that distance. Up 

 to the middle of May, the bees had more pasture than 

 they needed ; by that time, however, the stock had 

 been so largely increased, as to cause a perceptible 

 decrease in the amount of their gatherings ; we then 

 separated the stock, taking portions to three other 

 places, leaving about one mile space between the lots. 



The quantity of honey gathered by the remaining 

 stock was immediately increased, while the smaller 

 portion of the stock, removed to the greatest distance, 

 gathered twice as much as those of equal strength 

 left standing in the main apiary. While the small 



