4 BULLETIN" 325, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of most honey plants east of the Rockies improved materially after 

 the date of this inquiry. 



The July 1 reports indicated that the honey season had been late 

 from 1 to 3 weeks over most of the country, due to cold and generally 

 wet weather. The prospects in the Ohio Valley region were very poor 

 owing largely to the damage to white clover from former droughts. 

 The crop outlook from clover in the Central Atlantic and New Eng- 

 land States and west of the Mississippi was fair to good. The outlook 

 for alfalfa honey in Utah and in sections of adjoining States was 

 unfavorable because of damage to alfalfa from insects. Freezes in 

 Colorado had destroyed the fruit bloom. The relatively poor crop at 

 that date in California was reported as due mostly to light nectar 

 flows from orange and button sage. 



The returns from the States that normally produce a fair propor- 

 tion of their surplus honey crop by July 1 were sufficiently complete 

 to permit of establishing satisfactory estimates except for two States, 

 which are omitted. The reports from Northern and Mountain 

 States which usually produce little surplus by July 1 were not as 

 numerous, and the averages drawn from these are therefore not con- 

 sidered altogether dependable. It has been necessary to omit a 

 number of such States for lack of information. The influence of 

 these upon the United States averages is fortunately not large. 



The average yield of surplus honey per colony up to July 1, 1915, 

 for the States reporting is estimated at 18.3 pounds against 20.7 

 pounds last year. (Columns 11, a, and 11, b.) 



Last year the proportion of the total surplus produced by July 1 

 was approximately 65 per cent, the early flow being favorable and 

 that later in the summer poor. This year the proportion is 50.6 per 

 cent, the summer bloom having been abundant throughout most of 

 the Northern, Central, and Eastern States. Notwithstanding the 

 season's abundant bloom, the large proportion of rainy and cool 

 days, by suppressing the secretion of nectar, washing nectar from 

 the bloom, and most of all by keeping bees confined to the hive, has 

 resulted in merely a fair crop instead of a heavy one. 



The estimate of the usual production by July 1 is 51.9 per cent. 

 These estimates on the proportion of honey usually produced by 

 July 1 (11, c) are of much interest, indicating the degree to which 

 the July 1 report may be accepted by producers and others interested 

 in forming a judgment of probable supplies and prices. It appears 

 that, speaking generally, from two-thirds to three-fourths of the 

 surplus is ordinarily produced by that date in the Southern States, 

 including Maryland, Tennessee, and Arkansas, under one-fourth in 

 the extreme Northern and Mountain States, and 40 to 50 per cent 

 in most of the remainder. The usual average for the entire United 

 States is estimated by correspondents to be slightly over half the 



