THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



to produce in that State in a single year 60,000,000 pounds. 

 The average moisture content of honey is 17.59 per cent, 

 while that of nectar is not far from 75 per cent, so that the weight 

 of the nectar would exceed that of the honey fourfold. This 

 estimate, of course, does not take into consideration the nectar 

 consumed by anthophilous insects other than the honey-bee. 

 If a region were already stocked to its fullest capacity with 

 bees, it is clear that it would be impossible to establish large 

 apiaries containing millions of bees, storing twenty or more 

 tons of honey, consuming, perhaps, twice as much more, and 

 requiring enormous quantities of pollen for brood-rearing. It 

 will be remembered that the honey-bee does not usually fly 

 more than two miles from the apiary.* 



It would be easy to multiply examples in the case of buck- 

 wheat, basswood, tupelo, raspberry (Fig. 57), heart 's-ease, and 

 goldenrod, and the extra-floral nectaries of cotton and Cassia 

 Chamoechrista in the Southern States. Certain plants, as Bidens 

 aristosa in the lowlands of the Mississippi, fairly carpet large 

 areas with their myriads of flowers. The "Big Sawgrass" is 

 a tract of land in Florida covering a thousand acres. It is a 

 wilderness of weeds, a dense jungle of grass and flowers with 

 vast stretches of nectariferous plants, like boneset and wild 

 sunflower, yielding honey enough to keep a thousand colonies 

 busy for months; but as yet there are only fifty colonies in one 



* The question might be raised at this point whether there are not too many 

 bee-keepers ah'eady, or whether tiie ten milHon colonies are not using all the 

 honey or nectar there is in flowers. The facts are, more nectar goes to waste 

 than is gathered. It has been estimated that from 50 to 80 per cent of it is 

 lost simply because there are no bees in the vicinity to gather it. It is at least 

 conservative, says Doctor Phillips, apicultural expert of the Department of 

 Agriculture, in his book. Beekeeping, to say that ten times as much honey 

 could be produced in localities where there are now no bees or an insufficient 

 number, as is now produced. In other words, the resources of this country 

 could furnish $200,000,000 worth of honey instead of $20,000,000, as at pre- 

 sent.— E. R. Root, in A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture, p. 3. 



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