6 The Bulletin. 



heard little or nothing, have ,as well-developed a honey industry as 

 any. For instance, in Madison County, on the west, we have record 

 of 23 bee-keepers, with a total of 646 hives, while in the neighboring 

 county of Mitchell, which is presumably just as well fitted for the 

 industry and with perhaps as many colonies, we have record of only 

 one man, who has 10 colonies. In the east we find Martin County 

 with eight bee-keepers on record, owning a total of 716 colonies 

 (average, 89% each), while the neighboring county of Pitt has only 

 one bee-keeper, with 15 colonies, on our records. We mention these 

 instances to show that, while we have been successful in collecting 

 much data from various parts of the State, it is probably by no means 

 complete for all or, indeed, for any of the counties. 

 The list of questions which we sent out is as follows : 



1. How many colonies of bees have you? 



2. What race or variety of bees do you keep? 



3. What is your average honey yield per hive each year? 



4. What are your highest and lowest prices for honey per pound? 



5. What are your principal honey plants? 



6. What plant, in your opinion, yields the best quality of honey? 



7. What plant, in your opinion, yields the largest quantity of honey? 



8. What kind of gum, box or hive do you use? 



9. Are your bees troubled with Foul-brood, Bee-moth, Paralysis, or other 



enemies? 

 10. What bee-keeping journals, if any, do you take? 



Ihis Bulletin is based entirely on the answers to these questions, 

 sent, as we have said, by 360 bee-keepers, representing 10,450 colo- 

 nies of bees. The writer makes no pretense to any knowledge of bee- 

 keeping, except such as he has learned from these contributors. But 

 the inquiry is sufficiently broad and has been responded to sufficiently 

 well, so that many facts and deductions can be positively stated, after 

 full consideration of them all. 



The author desires to acknowledge valuable assistance rendered by 

 the numerous bee-keepers, and wishes also to express special thanks to 

 Prof. W. ]Sr. Hutt for taking the several photographs with which The 

 Bulletin is illustrated; to Mr. T. B. Parker for valuable sugges- 

 tions in preparing the manuscript, and to Mr. Burton IST. Gates, Ex- 

 pert in Apiculture, United States Department of Agriculture, for cor- 

 recting some technical errors and for suggestions. 



PEINCIPAL HONEY SECTIONS OF THE STATE. 



Probably the first question that would naturally arise is. Which is 

 the leading bee-keeping county ? Or, Which section of the State is in 

 the lead ? This is not easy to answer, and several different conclu- 

 sions may be reached, according to the point of view. Martin County 

 leads in the total number of colonies on record ; Washington leads in 

 the average number of colonies owned by each bee-keeper, while 



