262 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
great central markets at a distance rather than the 
immediate local needs. 
In the establishment of a bee-farm the first care 
must be the choice of a suitable district. The 
nature of the surrounding country must largely 
govern the systems on which the farm can be most 
profitably worked. The first maxim in success- 
ful beemanship is to get all hives filled to the brim 
with worker-bees by the time the great honey- 
flow sets in. This time, however, varies accord- 
ing to the district. In the orchard-country we 
need bees early; in heather-districts we want 
them late. In south-west England, where the 
country is half fruit-ground and half moorland, the 
hives must be huge in population both late and 
early. But where the bee-keeper follows the sheep- 
farmer—and there is no better guide to honey than 
the sheep—his true policy is to work his colonies 
slowly and steadily up to their greatest strength 
by the time the main feed-crops come into blossom, 
which is seldom before the middle of May. And 
all these considerations land us on the brink of a 
very vexed question in modern bee-craft—whether 
bees should be artificially fed, and if so, how and 
when? 
If only the purest cane-sugar is used, and the 
syrup well boiled and never burnt, there is nothing 
to say against the practice on the score of harm to 
the stocks. Where early bees are wanted, it is 
absolutely necessary to give them a continuous 
