8 Wisconsin Bulletin 264 



Only general and distinctly marked influences of climate 

 and soil are observed. These, however, do give general and 

 roughly approximate data. We fmd that there are very few 

 bees kept north of an imaginary line, running from Oconto, 

 about 30 miles north of Green Bay, slightly northwest, 

 through Antigo, Merrill, Ladysmith and through Burnett 

 county to a point on the state line about 40 or 50 miles north 

 of St. Paul. This is probably due in part to the unsettled con- 

 dition of the region, but even more to the cold winters and 

 comparatively short growing seasons for nectar-bearing 

 plants. 



Excepting near the Green Bay and on the Bayfield Penin- 

 sula where it may reach 140 days, less than 120 days is the 

 usual length of the growing season north of that general 

 line. The remainder of the state has a growing season of 

 more than 120 days. In the eastern third of the state, the 

 counties bordering Lake Michigan for a distance west of 

 about 20 to 25 miles, have the growing season lengthened 

 from 10 to 20 days. Likewise, the season for a strip, 15 miles 

 wide, along the Mississippi River is lengthened from 10 to 

 15 days, but this is much less constant in the increased 

 length of growing season than the eastern Wisconsin region. 



Not only does the influence of Lake Michigan lengthen the 

 growing season, but it holds back the advance of plant 

 growth in the early spring, lessening danger from frost, and 

 giving the bees when once started in the spring, a chance for 

 uninterrupted brood-rearing. The dandelion and fruit bloom 

 then close almost simultaneously with the beginning of 

 clover bloom. This is important for in that region clover 

 continues for about five weeks, and the basswood bloom 

 begins about the third and fourth weeks in July. The season 

 for clover and basswood is from one to two weeks earlier in 

 the southern half of the remainder of the state, say from 

 Juneau county south, but north of that county it is the 

 same as is found in eastern Wisconsin. 



Soil Types Affect the Honey Flow 



The soils of the state also affect beekeeping by influencing 

 the character of plant growth. So far as beekeeping is con- 

 cerned, Wisconsin soils are of two kinds, heavy and sandy. 



