218 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



the Blue Mountains. The valleys are 

 fertile, affording some of the most 

 profitable farming areas. This area 

 includes about one-sixth of the land 

 area of the State. It is included 

 mostly within the AUeghanian Life 

 Zone, although upon the higher 

 mountains one comes into the Cana- 

 dian, while here and there it is inter- 

 spersed with the Upper Austral or 

 Carolinian. Forests everywhere are 

 composed of numerous kinds of 

 trees. More than 100 different kinds 

 are recorded. The more prominent 

 bee-visited plants are tulip poplar, 

 basswood, sourwood and the clovers. 

 Other plants which yield available 

 nectar are maple, fruit trees, wild 

 cherry, locust, sumac, goldenrod and 

 aster. The honey flow usually begins 

 about mid-May for tulip, and in lat- 

 ter June for basswood and sourwood. 

 Usually the fall flow from aster is suf- 

 ficiently heavy to supply all colonies 

 with an abundance of honey for win- 

 tering purposes. Sourwood is more 

 abundant upon the eastern slope of 

 the Blue Ridge Mountains and in the 

 counties west of Yancey. Basswood 

 is of common occurrence upon the 

 larger mountains and usually is more 

 abundant upon the northern slopes. 

 Buckwheat is raised extensively in 

 Alleghaney, Watauga, Ashe and 

 Avery Counties. Tulip poplars are 

 abundant throughout most of the 

 mountain regions. The best locali- 

 ties are in the sourwood regions or 

 where there are mixtures of sour- 

 wood and basswood. There is much 

 unoccupied territory in the moun- 

 tains, but the beekeepers must exer- 

 cise careful judgment in selecting 

 localities, for most of the honey 

 comes from forest trees and in cer- 

 tain localities the timber has been 

 mostly i-emoved. 



Piedmont Plateau 

 Between the previously mentioned 

 regions is the Piedmont Plateau. The 

 Piedmont Plateau extends from the 

 Blue Ridge Mountains eastward to 

 the western limits of the Coastal 

 Plain. In it may be found all gr.ida- 

 tions of climate between those just 

 mentioned. The climatic conditions 

 of this region favor the growth of a 

 great variety of field, garden and or- 

 chard crops. The normal average 

 precipitation is .52 inches. It lies in 

 the Upper Austral or Carolinian Life 

 zorie. It is the general farming sec- 

 tion! and includes (eibout one-third 

 the land area of the State. It has no 

 especially favored localities for honey 

 production, excepting that the upper 

 portions (those nearest the moun- 

 tains) have a more luxuriant growth 

 of sourwood. The favorite nectar- 

 yielding plants are tulip-poplar, sour- 

 wood and the clovers, both crimson 

 and alsike. Many other plants are of 

 nectar-yielding importance. Among 

 them are persimmon, holly, black 

 gum, goldenrod, aster, willow, cow 

 peas, sumac, blackberry, maple and 

 fruit trees. Frequently surplus honey 

 is made from the nectar of aster, 

 which usually yields a prolonged au- 

 tumn supply. The nectar-producing 

 plants are of rather uniform distribu- 

 tion over the entire area. The honey 

 flow usually beginsin mid-April. There 



are many beekeepers, but the number 

 of colonies kept by each (taken on 

 the average) is rather small. In sev- 

 eral counties there are apiaries which 

 contain more than 100 colonies. Many 

 kinds of plants of this section are not 

 reliable sources of nectar every year, 

 but very seldom is there complete 

 failure, and good beekeeping prac- 

 tices soon should overcome any ob- 

 jectionable features which may pre- 

 sent themselves. Often from 25 to 

 30 pounds of sui-plus honey per colo- 

 ny are pi'oduced in autumn from 

 aster alone. The best locations usu- 

 ally are along creeks and rivers, 

 where tulip poplar is more plentiful. 

 General Conditions 



The mean temperature for the 

 State is 59 degrees F. By seasons it 

 is: Spring, 58 degrees; summer, 76 

 degrees; autumn, 60 degrees, and 

 winter, 48 degree. Usually January 

 is the coldest month, with an average 

 temperature of 31 degrees, while 

 July, with its average temperature 

 of 81 degrees, is the warmest. The 

 normal average precipitation for the 

 entire State is 52 inches. Although 

 the rainfall is rather uniformly dis- 

 tributed throughout the year, during 

 the months that crops reciuire most 

 moisture, usually, the amount re- 

 ceived is the greatest. 



Throughout the entire State sur- 

 plus nectar is obtained from trees and 

 shrubs, comparatively few kinds of 

 which are of much importance in that 

 particular. Among important sources 

 are tulip poplar, basswood, sourwood, 

 tupelos, gallberry and clovers. Sour- 

 wood is found chiefly in the moun- 

 tains and upper Piedmont sections. 

 Clover is most abundant in the Pied- 

 mont regions. Tupelos and gallber- 

 ries are restricted to coastal plains, 

 chiefly to the tide water regions. Es- 

 pecially is this true of tupelos, while 

 gallberries usually occur further in- 

 land upon the coastal plains. Tulip 

 trees are found wherever bees are 

 kept, but are most abundant in the 

 mountains. They rank among the 

 most constantly reliable and the 

 heaviest yielders of nectar. The trees 

 bloom in early spring, and in the 

 Coastal Plain section there is an ex- 

 ceedingly early flow from tupelos 

 and gallberry. 



In most localities the main honey 

 flow comes early in spring and in the 

 Coastal Plains section it comes ex- 

 ceedingly early. Ordinarily this ne- 

 cessitates exceptionally good bee- 

 keeping practices if a maximum 

 honey yield is to be expected. Most 

 of the literature has been produced 

 by beekeepers in the clover sections 

 of the North, where the honey flow 

 comes later and as a consequence, 

 where the colonies in spring have a 

 longer preparation period for it. In 

 these regions usually the queens are 

 longer-lived, for they have longer 

 rest pei'iods during the winters; but 

 the fundamental requisites for maxi- 

 mum honey production are the same 

 everywhere, in that the colonies must 

 reach the maximum point of brood- 

 rearing just previous to the begin- 

 ning of I he main honey flow. In other 

 words, the period of maximum honey 

 flow must be met with an excess num- 



ber of individuals (that is, an excess 

 number to that ordinarily or usually 

 present). In the South, this spring 

 prepai'ation period is very short, 

 making prompt apicultural practices 

 preparatory to honey flow necessai'y 

 in rather a more limited or shorter 

 time than they are where the spring 

 preparation period is longer. To 

 meet such requirements most suc- 

 cessfully, the bees should have passed 

 the previous autumn under favorable 

 environmental circumstances, such as 

 can result only from the best of api- 

 cultural methods. In North Carolina 

 the beekeepers' autumn begins in 

 about mid-August, and after that 

 date a sufficient number of bees must 

 be reared to successfully over-winter 

 the colony. 



Raleigh, North Carolina. 



STATE AND LOCAL ORGANIZA- 

 TION 



By E. S. Miller 



Now that the success of the Ameri- 

 can Honey Producers' League seems 

 assured, it would appear that the 

 honey producers of each State 

 should organize along business lines. 

 The old form of beekeepers' asso- 

 ciation, with its social and educa- 

 tional features, has served its pur- 

 pose in the past and doubtless will 

 continue to do so in the future, but 

 the time has arrived when the most 

 important problem for beemen is not 

 the increase of production nor the 

 multiplication of beekeepers. To in- 

 crease production without increasing 

 marketing facilities means lower 

 prices; it means more honey carried 

 over from year to year with conse- 

 quent loss to the producer; it means 

 the ultimate junking of high-priced 

 equipment by those forced out of the 

 business. But production is increas- 

 ing enormously, and there is a pros- 

 pect of a vastly greater increase in 

 the future. To those with foresight 

 it is evident that something must be 

 done to bring about a more effective 

 method of marketing if the business 

 is to be conducted on a profitable ba- 

 sis. 



Honey producers are beekeepers, 

 but only a small percentage of bee- 

 keepers are producers of honey to 

 any noticeable degree. It is, there- 

 fore, impossible to organize beekeep- 

 ers, as such, along commercial lines. 

 I believe, however, that honey pro- 

 ducers can and will be organized, and 

 the purpose and objects of such an 

 organization should coincide with 

 those of the National League. Its 

 work may be outlined as follows: 



1. Marketing — 

 Supervision of grading. 

 Advertising. 



Standardization of package. 

 Crop and market reporting. 

 Distribution. 



2. Education — 

 Disease control. 

 Dissemination of information. 



3. Equipment — 

 Standardization. 



Securing and disposing of bees. 

 Purchasing of supplies. 



