2 BULLETIN 685, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGKICULTURE. 



full seed or fruit production of a number of forages and grains, 

 berries, and vining plants such as the squash and its rela- 

 tives, not to mention many ornamental plants and trees. 

 Many other varieties of bees than the honey producing kind 

 and a multitude of other insects assist in the work of trans- 

 ferring pollen from plant to plant, but the honeybee is 

 probably the most important single agent, certainly so in 

 the case of fruit trees. 



MAP INDICATING DISTRIBUTION OF BEES. 



The map printed herewith, showing the distribution 

 of bees in the United States according to the 1910 

 census, indicates within reasonable hmits where bees are 

 most numerous, but some features require a brief explana- 

 tion. The map shows only bees owned and reported by 

 farmers, omitting the great number of colonies kept in towns 

 or in outapiaries by professional beekeepers, thus making a 

 relatively heavy showing in the more purely rural portions 

 of the country. 



The large number of bees indicated in the Southeastern 

 States and particularly in the Appalachian section, while 

 reflecting an undoubted fact, carries an impression stronger 

 than the facts warrant, partially because the territory is 

 predominantly rural, but more because in that region the 

 colonies are, to a greater extent than elsewhere, kept in small 

 boxes, kegs, and similar receptacles which hmit the size of 

 the colony and cause heavy swarming. This latter fact 

 tended to further exaggeration because at the time the census 

 was taken swarming was well advanced in the South though 

 hardly begun in the North. 



The great importance of beekeeping in the sage and orange 

 sections of southwestern CaUfornia, the alfalfa and sweet- 

 clover sections of other Western States, the clover belt of 

 the North Central and Northeastern States, in the cotton, 

 horse-mint, and desert plant sections of Texas and in the 

 belt of tupelo and mixed bloom of the coastal plains adjoin- 

 ing the south Atlantic and Gulf coast, are all readily ob- 

 servable. 



The great development in certain regions subsequent to 

 the census, as in the Imperial Valley of Cahfornia (the 

 southeastern section of the State), in southern Idaho (Twin 

 FaUs region), and elsewhere, is, of course, not indicated. 



