132 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BEE PASTURAGE. 



It is of the utmost importance, for the success of 

 an apiary, that it should be located in a neighboi'hood 

 where the bees can readily find an abundant supply 

 of good pasturage. The success of bee-keeping de- 

 pends greatly upon this. As well might a stock 

 grower expect to make his cattle profitable, without 

 supplying them properly with food, as to suppose 

 bees will live, thrive and be of benefit to their owners 

 without obtaining constant supplies of pollen and 

 honey, in some way, from spring to fall, with but 

 little if any intermission. 



The inquiry is frequently made, Why is it that 

 bees at the present day do not swarm so much, nor 

 make as much honey, as they did years ago, during 

 the early settlement of the country ? With the same 

 propriety it might be inquired, Why it is that cattle, 

 horses and other stock that run at large without being 

 cared for, do not thrive and be as profitable to their 

 owners now as formerly ? 



I presume that any school boy. of ten years old 

 could very readily answer the latter question, whilst 

 the first has puzzled many older heads, and would-be 

 wise bee-keepers; yet the answer to the second 

 question applies with equal force to the first. 



The country, in its wild state, produced in the 

 greatest abundance an unvarying succession of flow- 

 ers, from early spring until frost came, yielding for 



