March Honey Plants. 343 
DESCRIPTION, WITH PRACTICAL REMARKS. 
As this subject of bee pasturage is of such prime import- 
ance, arid as the interest in the subject is so great and wide- 
spread, I feel that details with illustrations will be more 
than warranted. 
We have abundant experience to show that forty or fifty 
colonies of bees, take the seasons as they average, are all 
that a single place will sustain to the greatest advantage. 
Then how significant the fact, that when the season is the 
best, full. three times that number of colonies will find 
ample resources to keep all employed. So this subject .of 
artificial pasturage becomes one well worthy close study 
and observation. The subject, too, is a very important one 
in reference to the location of the apiary. 
It is well to remember in this connection, that while bees 
do sometimes go from five to seven miles for nectar, two 
or three miles should be regarded as the limit of profitable 
gathering. That is, apiaries of from fifty to one hundred 
or more colonies, should not be nearer than four or five 
miles of each other. 
MARCH PLANTS. 
In Florida the orange gives early bloom, and the thou-. 
sands of trees in that land, not only of flowers but of 
honey, will have no small influence in building up the col- 
onies for the grand harvest of mangrove and palmetto soon 
to follow. — 
The gall-berry of the South commences to bloom even 
in February, and yields abundant nectar. In Florida this 
shrub gives the main supply of honey during the swarm- 
ing season. 
APRIL PLANTS. 
As we have already seen, the apiarist does not secure 
the best results, even in the early spring, unless the bees 
are encouraged by the increase of their stores of pollen and 
honey; hence, in case we do not practice stimulative feed- 
ing—and many will not—it becomes very desirable to have 
some early bloom. Happily, in all sections of the United 
States our desires are not in vain. 
