78 SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 



extensive bee-keeper must control the increase of his bees, and, of course, 

 should have a conveyance to go from yard to yard ministering to the needs 

 of his bees. 



How to make increase at these apiaries to establish others, see "Artificial 

 Swarming." 



After you have as many apiaries as you want in the home 

 territory, and decide you can care for more bees properly, take 

 a \rip over the railroads running by your station or . town, and 

 get off at each one, and view the surrounding territory for some dis- 

 tance out; and after you have surveyed the country as far as you wish 

 to in this way, making a memorandum of the amount of honey-plants at 

 each station, and the convenience for establishing an apiary there, locate an 

 apiary at the most favorable station, as close to it as possible, so as to be 

 convenient to the depot. Then establish another apiary at the next favorable 

 station, and so on until you have as extensive honey business as you desire. 

 If you wish you could have your entire business scattered along the rail- 

 roads and make the visits to the apiaries on the train, and transportation 

 would be good. Your bee business would be much better if scattered, and you 

 would be almost sure to have a good crop at some location. While trans- 

 portation might be rather high, yet you could do thorough work at each 

 apiary, and make but few visits. 



ESTABLISHING AND MANAGING OUT-APIARIES. 



The location is, evidently, the first thing to consider. Of the sources 

 of nectar that may be found, whether it is in the forests containing basswood, 

 poplar, or other nectar-bearing trees, or in cultivated areas of sweet clover, 

 alsike clover, buckwheat, etc., I have found here that white clover and 

 buckwheat are of very little value, owing to a climate too warm and too dry. 



The kind of soil has considerable bearing on the subject. It is necessary 

 for the production of nectar that there should be a certain amount of humidi- 

 ty in the ground ; and it follows that a gravelly or sandy land, being naturally 

 dry, is unfavorable. Along the streams and rivers is a better place than the 

 upland, partly because the bottom lands do not dry as fast as the highlands, 

 partly because there are in such places quite an amount of nectar-bearing 

 wild flowers, and also because the soil is richer, for, remember that, the richer 

 the ground is, the more nectar the flowers will produce. The European 

 writers claim that more nectar will be produced on limestone grounds than on 

 other kinds. 



The distance between the apiaries should be two or three miles, or they 

 should be that distance from the apiary of somebody else, should there be 

 any in that neighborhood — that is, apiaries of some size, not half a dozen 

 box hives kept by a farmer. Such do not count. 



To work to advantage there should be enough colonies in an a{)iary to 

 give the operator a full day of work when he goes there, even if that would 



