Beekeeping in Wisconsin 5 



absence of bees is noted. A decreasing yield is found as the 

 distance from the bees increases. 



A Few Figures on Beekeeping 



According to the 1900 United States Census there were on 

 about 707,260 farms in the United States more than four 

 milhon colonies of bees. These were valued at a little 

 more than $12,000,000 and produced annually nearly 61,100, 

 000 pounds of honey and 1,765,300 pounds of beeswax. The 

 valuation of honey and wax was given at close to $6,000,000. 

 These figures did not include bees kept in cities and towns 



fig. 1.— an apiary that "GREW" 



The 75 colonies kept by this Wisconsin beeman produced less than 500 pounds 

 of honey in a year. Their owner "follows" neither Bee journals nor books. 



where nearly as many colonies are found as on farms. Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips of the Department of Agriculture has esti- 

 mated the value of the average honey crop produced in the 

 United States as at least $20,000,000 and the beeswax as 

 $2,000,000. He regards these estimates as conservative. 



Conditions similar to those in Wisconsin probably occur 

 in other parts of the country. Here not more than one- 

 tenth of the nectar produced is gathered and converted into 

 honey by the bees, because there are too few bees present 

 to gather it. In his recent book on beekeeping, Dr. Phillips 



