42 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



where one pound of honey is gathered, a ton is wasted. 

 Vast quantities of honey are annually imported from 

 France and the West Indies which should be supplied 

 by our own rural labouring population who, in addition, 

 might, as I have above stated they do in Russia, use it 

 in lieu of sugar. According to the best authorities, it is 

 impossible to overstock a neighbourhood with Bees — at 

 least it never has been done — and, therefore, we may 

 conclude there is no danger here. In Germany, many 

 Apiaries contain in close proximity 200 to 300 hives. 

 Ehrenfels had 1000 in three separate establishments, 

 but sufficiently near together that he could visit them 

 all in half an hour's ride. In Russia and Hungary; 

 Apiaries numbering from 2000 to 3000 hives are not 

 infrequent, and as many as 4000 are often congregated 

 together at one point on the heaths of Germany. It is 

 calculated that in Hanover there are 141 hives to each 

 square mile, and a German writer alleges, that the Bees 

 of Lunenberg pay all the taxes assessed on their pro- 

 prietors, and leave a surplus besides — this in a district 

 so barren that it has been called the Arabia Petrea of 

 Germany. 



In former times, the Island of Corsica, comprising 

 3790 square miles, paid to Rome an annual tribute of 

 200,000 pounds of waxj which presupposes a production 

 of two to three million pounds of honey ; and East 

 Friesland, a province of Holland, maintains at the 

 present day an average of 2000 hives per square mile. 

 These statistics could be indefinitely increased, and they 

 show that, comparatively. Great Britain is bare of Bees. 

 I question if we have one colony to a square mile. 



Oettl says : " When a large flock of sheep is grazing 

 on a limited area, there may soon be a deficiency of 

 pasturage. But this cannot be the case with Bees, as a 



