THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Ill 



At the close of the honey season 

 if the beekeeper can sliow a beau- 

 tiful crop of honey, the question 

 most frequently asked is, "■ Where 

 does all the honey come from ? " 



I find a great mistake exists in 

 the minds of the majority of people 

 as to the length of time bees are 

 employed in gathering honey. Kot 

 a few think that bees get honc}^ 

 during the entire year, and I know 

 nearly every person in this audi- 

 ence will be surprised when I 

 state, that the eight tons of honey 

 obtained in my apiary during the 

 past season was all gathered inside 

 of four weeks. 



Our great sources of honey are 

 clover and basswood, and I think 

 I can by an illustration, familiar 

 to all of you, show how bees can 

 accomplish such great results in 

 so short a time, and prove to you 

 that w^e have not had much of a 

 honey shower after all. 



There is not a farmer nor an 

 owner scarcely of a village lot, 

 here to-night but will be seen, in a 

 few weeks from now, armed with 

 an auger, a spile and a tin pail ; 

 he walks out to his favorite maple 

 tree, and taps it, and the result is 

 the flow of liquid one drop at a 

 time. It is a very simple thing ; 

 but suppose a man who never saw 

 the operation should come along. 

 He would probably exclaim, Wh}', 

 my dear sir, do you expect to get 

 that pail full this spring, with 

 those insignificant diops? You must 

 be a fool, sir!" But the drops 

 come, one after the other, and be- 

 fore sundown the pail is brimming 

 full. The owner points triumph- 

 antly to the result, while the stran- 

 ger exclaims where in time, did it 

 all come from ? Now, my friends, 

 you who are sceptical about honey 

 production, come with me and let 

 us sit down by the side of this bee 

 hive. Here, within these walls, are 

 50,000 workers. The fields are 

 white with clover blossoms ; a mere 



speck of liquid oozes from each 

 clover tube, it scents the air. The 

 honey bees, true to instinct, go 

 forth in scores to sip up the treas- 

 ured sweets, and they return with 

 rapid and unerring aim to the hive, 

 so fast that you cannot count them ; 

 every bee has a drop of honey, 

 and at the moment of your obser- 

 vation, honey is running into that 

 hive so rapidly as six spouts would 

 run sap into 3'Our pan. 



But the honey flow differs from 

 the flow of sap. While sap flows 

 steadily all day, the honey flow is 

 perhaps confined to a few hours in 

 the morning or toward evening. 



We can also look at this honey 

 flow from a mathematical point, 

 and in this case find it not such a 

 wonderful thing after all. 



Here is the problem. If 100 

 swarms of bees produce 16,000 lbs. 

 of honey in 32 days, how much will 

 each swarm have to produce per 

 day ? The figures tell us that only 

 3^ lbs. per day from each is nec- 

 essar}^ ; the united efforts of 

 numbers, though seemingly insig- 

 nificant, produce what seems to be 

 a wonder. But whatever the re- 

 sults may be, the insect itself is one 

 of the wonders of God's creation. 

 With an architecture fragile, yet 

 so perfect in construction ; with a 

 mode of defence at once effective, 

 and as p)rompt in action as an 

 army of well drilled soldiers ; and 

 a mode of government so perfect 

 as to put to shame the boasted 

 government of man ; like the phil- 

 osopliers in all ages of the world, 

 let us treasure up inspiring 

 thoughts from the inhabitants of 

 this wonder-land, the bee-hive. 



John H. Martin, 

 Hartford, N. T., 3Iar. 12, 1884. 



Ed. Am. Apicultuiust : 



The February and March num- 

 ber of your excellent work was 



