60 BULLETIN" 685^ U, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



bureau are in the main from the better class of beekeepers it 

 is to be feared that the wastage has been even greater. 

 Under the present circumstances, this loss assumes an aspect 

 tragic not only to the multitude, almost a milhon, of indus- 

 trious and interesting insect communities whose ardent 

 haste and joyous hum have been stiUed, but to their human 

 erstwhile beneficiaries. The Nation can ill spare the 20 to 

 30 miUion pounds of honey which past experience permits us 

 to assume as the potential production of these lost colonies. 

 Eoughly, a third of these losses are. ascribed to freezing 

 and another third to starvation, and it is sad to reflect that 

 both of these causes might in large measure have been over- 

 come by their proprietors and protectors. Sugar an^ labor 

 shortage are partial, but only partial, excuse, as is the 

 unusual winter, which came early, shortening the flow of 

 nectar from the autumn flowers, and persisted with unex- 

 ampled severity without the customary brief relaxations 

 which in ordinary years permit of late cleansing flights by 

 the hive-bound bees before the settled cold of midwinter. - 



Lost or failing queens and small colonies resulting from 

 brood diseases or late swarming are as usual the principal 

 other reported causes of loss. 



The losses were most severe in the North Central and 

 Northeastern States and extending as far southward as 

 North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas, ranging in 

 some States as high as 41 per cent and in only a few cases 

 falling below 15 per cent. The losses in the South and West 

 have been less than usual, with the exception of Oklahoma 

 and Cahfomia, and notably Texas, in which State drought of 

 two-year duration in important honey-producing sections 

 created conditions that resulted last winter in 24 per cent 

 of loss. This drought was happily ended by copious rains 

 early in May. 



The number of working colonies remaining on May 1 is 

 estimated at 88.7 per cent of the number on May 1, 1917. 

 Material increases last year partly offset the heavy losses. 

 Increases are shown over last year's numbers in most of 

 the Southern and Western States. 



The condition of colonies is 86.4 per cent of a normal at 

 this date, compared with 91.1 per cent last year and an 



