88 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



inhabitants of the State, would have allowed less than two table- 

 spoonfuls per capita as a year's ration. Since then, however, the 

 population has increased to more than 3,000,000," and with the esti- 

 mated crop of 100 tons in 190G would have afforded each person less 

 than one tablespoonful. Too little honey is available in Massa- 

 chusetts. This is borne out by the common experience of those who 

 try to buy extracted honey in convenient amounts or even in bulk 

 for table use. The writer's experience is that it is almost impossible 

 to purchase at retail a GO-pound can of good honey or even of a 

 poorer grade at any price. As for being able to buy a gallon or a 

 quart, it is impossible unless the purchaser is willing to pay a high 

 price for a lot of small, fancy bottles, which may or may not contain 

 good-grade honey. With these facts in mind, it is evident that much 

 may be done to improve the retail trade in extracted honey. Comb 

 honey, on the other hand, is usually available either from a producer 

 or a retail store. 



The crop in Massachusetts for 1906, as reported by something less 

 than half the number of bee keepers recorded, was 145,257 pounds, 

 approximately 73 tons; but since only a little over half the re- 

 corded bee keepers were heard from, 80 tons would be a conservative 

 estimate, as is shown below. It is somewhat surprising that this study 

 should show the largest recorded crop, and especially so in view of the 

 fact that the investigation was carried on through the mails, while 

 census data are obtained by personal canvass. This at least suggests 

 that the census figures probably do not justly represent the industry. 



Although 145,257 pounds of honey, of which 108,660 pounds was 

 comb and 36,597 was extracted, is the heaviest crop recorded for the 

 State, the product looks pitifully small when it is remembered that 

 single apiarists in the West frequently produce in a season a fourth 

 to a third more honey than Massachusetts' annual crop. If the 

 actually recorded crop is divided by the number of colonies reported 

 in the spring of 1906, this is an average of but 24 pounds per colony. 

 Conservatively estimating from experience and reports of large prac- 

 tical apiarists in New York State and the West, the average yield, 

 considering all classes of bee keepers, should be about 35 pounds. 

 This would have made Massachusetts' crop, merely from the recorded 

 number of colonies, spring count, 204,330 pounds, or 102 tons. Con- 

 sequently the estimate of 80 tons, assumed for convenience, is safe. 

 The question is, however, a larger one. The possibilities of the for- 

 age and the number of colonies which it would support is more vital 

 than criticism of the present discrepancy. The writer has already 



"Mass. Census, 1905, population 3,003,6S0. 



