i62 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



the same animal on pure honey or sugar. We may, 

 however, waive that view of the subject, as we shall 

 shortly see that it is only a question of such homoeo- 

 pathically small doses as would not be likely to interfere 

 with the digestion of the most delicate grazing animal, any 

 more than they would considerably increase its weight. 

 Admitting, therefore, that every pound of honey of 

 which the grazing stock are deprived by bees is a loss 

 to the farmer, and therefore to be looked upon as a 

 set-off to that extent against the benefit conferred by 

 the bees in other ways, it will be necessary to consider 

 to what extent it is possible that such loss may be 

 occasioned. 



QUANTITY OF HONEY FURNISHED BY PASTURE-LAND. 



In the first place, it must be recollected that a large 

 proportion — in some cases the great bulk — of the honey 

 gathered by bees is obtained from trees, as, for instance, 

 the linden in Europe, the bass-wood and maple in 

 America, and in this country the forest-trees, nearly all 

 of which supply rich forage for the bee, and everywhere 

 from fruit trees in orchards. A large quantity is 

 gathered from flowers and flowering shrubs reared in 

 gardens; from clover and other plants grown for hay, 

 and not for pasture ; and even in the field there are 

 many shrubs and flowering plants which yield honey, 

 but which are never eaten by cattle. Pastures, there- 

 fore, form but a small part of the sources from which 

 honey is obtained ; and in dealirig with this grazing 

 question we have to confine our enquiries to clovers and 

 other flowering-plants grown in open pastures, and such 

 as constitute the ordinary food of grazing stock. In 

 order to meet the question in the most direct manner, 

 however, let us assume the extreme case of a large 

 apiary being placed in a district where there is nothing 

 else but such ooen pastures, and growing only such 

 flowering-plants as are generally eaten by stock. Now, 

 the ordinary working- range of the bee may be taken at a 

 mile and a half from the apiary on all sides, which gives 



