300 THE HIVE AND HOKEY-BKE. 



when numbers can be turned to the best account. If 

 his stocks become strong only when they can do nothing 

 but consume what little honey has been previously 

 gathered, he is like a farmer who suffers his crops to 

 rot on the ground, and then hires a set of idlers to eat 

 him out of house and home. 



There is probably not a square mile in this whole 

 country which is overstocked with bees, unless it is so 

 unsuitable for bee-keeping as to make it unprofitable to 

 keep them at all. Such an assertion may seem unguarded, 

 but I am happy to be able to confirm it by the following 

 letter from Mr. Wagner, showing the experience of the 

 largest cultivators in Europe : 



" DEAR SIR : In reply to your inquiry respecting the over-stock- 

 ing of a district, I would say, that the present opinion of the cor- 

 respondents of the Bienenzeitung, appears to be, that it cannot 

 readily be done. Dzierzon says, in practice at least, ' it never is 

 done ;' and Dr. Radlkofer, of Munich, the President of the second 

 Apiarian Convention, declares that his apprehensions on that 

 score were dissipated by observations which he had opportunity 

 and occasion to make when on his way home from the Convention. 

 I have numerous accounts of Apiaries in pretty close proximity, 

 containing from 200 to 300 colonies each. Ehrenfels had a thou- 

 sand hives, at three separate establishments, indeed, but so close 

 to each other that he could visit them all in half an hour's ride ; 

 and he says that, in 1801, the average net yield of his Apiaries 

 was two dollars per hive. In Russia and Hungary, Apiaries num- 

 bering from 2.000 to 5,000 colonies are said not to be unfrequent ; 

 and we know that as many as 4,000 hives are oftentimes congre- 

 gated, in Autumn, at one point on the heaths of Germany. 

 Hence, I think we need not fear that any district of this country, 

 so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and diversified 

 culture, will very speedily be overstocked, particularly, after the 

 importance of having stocks populous early in the Spring comes 

 to be appreciated. A week or ten days of favorable weather at 

 that season, when pasturage abounds, will enable a strong colony 



