OR, MANUAI, OF THB APIARY. 205 



WHBRB TO LOCATB. 



If apiculture is an avocation, then your location will be 

 fixed by your principal business or profession. And here I 

 may state that, if we may judge from reports which come from 

 nearly every section of the United States, from Maine to 

 Texas, and from Florida to Oregon, you can hardly go amiss 

 anywhere in our goodly land. 



If you are to engage as a specialist, then you can select 

 first with reference to society and climate, after which it will 

 be well to secure a succession of natural honey-plants (Chap- 

 ter XVII), by virtue of your locality. This suggestion is im- 

 portant, even in California, though it has far less weight than 

 in other sections. If our location is along a river we shall find 

 our honey harvest much prolonged, as the bloom on the upland 

 will be early, while along the river flats it will be later. Who 

 knows how much the many successful bee-keepers along the 

 Mohawk Valley owe to their excellent location ? The same 

 holds true of the mouth of the canyons in California. The 

 flowers of both mountain and valley will then contribute of 

 their sweets. We also gain in the prolonged honey-flow, as 

 the mountain bloom is much the later. It will also be well to 

 look for reasonable prospects of a good home market, as good 

 home markets are, and must ever be, the most desirable. It 

 will be important, also, that your neighborhood is not over- 

 stocked with bees. It is a well-established fact, that apiarists 

 with few colonies receive relatively larger profits, especially 

 in rather poor seasons, than those with large apiaries. While 

 this may be owing in part to better care, much doubtless 

 depends upon the fact that there is not an undue proportion of 

 bees to the number of honey-plants, and consequent secretion 

 of nectar. To have the undisputed monopoly of an area reach- 

 ing at least two and one-half miles in every direction from 

 your apiary, is unquestionably a great advantage. 



If you desire to begin two kinds of business, so that your 

 dangers from possible misfortune may be lessened, then a 

 small farm — especially a fruit-farm — in some locality where 

 fruit-raising is successfully practiced, will be very desirable. 

 You thus add others of the luxuries of life to the products of 



