FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



35 



TOTAL CROP RATHER THAN PER COLONY. 



Some one may possibly ask, "If you can do so much 

 better with 67 colonies, why not restrict yourself to that 



Fig. 10. — Colonies Intended for Out-Apiaries. 



number?" But I can't do any better; at least not in an 

 average season. For it is not the yield per colony I 

 care for, unless it should be to boast over it; what I 

 care for is the total amount of net money I can get from 

 bees. In the year 1897 my average per colony was 71^4 

 pounds, only about three-fifths as much as in 1881, but 

 as I had in 1897 239 colonies, my total crop was 17.150 

 pounds, or more than twice as much as in 1881. 



A BAD YEAR. 



In the year 1887 my crop of honey was a little more 

 than half a pound per colony, and in the fall I fed 2802 

 pounds of granulated sugar to keep the bees from starv- 



