OR, MANUAI, OF THB APIARY. 401 



DESCRIPTION, WITH PRACTICAL REMARKS. 



As this subject of bee-pasturage is of such prime impor- 

 tance, and 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 (except in 

 such very highly-favored localities as Southern California, 

 where in good seasons two or three hundred are profitably 

 kept in a single apiary, even six hundred having been proved 

 in the best seasons to do well), 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 of 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 gath- 

 ering. 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 colonies 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 swarming season. 



APRII, 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 feeding — and 



