402 PASTURAGE AND OVERSTOCKING. 
found, while some districts can support perhaps a hundred 
or more to the square mile. The bee-keeper must be his 
own judge, as to the honey capacity of his district. 
“When a large flock of sheep, says Oettl, is grazing on a 
limited area, there may soon be a deficiency of pasturage. But 
this cannot be asserted of bees, as a good honey-district cannot 
readily be overstocked with them. To-day, when the air is 
moist and warm, the plants may yield a superabundance of 
nectar; while to-morrow, being cold and wet, there may bea 
total want of it. When there is sufficient heat and moisture, the 
saccharine juices of plants will readily fill the nectaries, and will 
be quickly replenished when carried off by the bees. Every cold 
night checks the flow of honey, and every clear, warm day re- 
opens the fountains. The flowers expanded to-day must be visited 
while open; for, if left to wither, their stores are lost. The same 
remarks will apply substantially in the case of honey-dews. 
Hence, bees cannot, as many suppose, collect to-morrow what is 
left ungathered to-day, as sheep may graze hereafter on the pas- 
turage they do not neednow. Strong colonies and large Apiaries 
are ina position to collect ample stores when forage suddenly 
abounds, while, by patient, persevering industry, they may still 
gather a sufficiency, and even a surplus, when the supply is 
small, but more regular and protracted.” 
Although we believe that a district can be overstocked, 
so as to make bee-culture unprofitable, yet the above extract 
gives a correct view of the honey harvest, which depends 
much on the weather, and must be gathered when produced. 
The same able Apiarist, whose golden rule in bee-keeping 
is, to keep none but strong colonies, says that in the lapse 
of twenty years since he established his Apiary, there 
has not occurred a season in which the bees did not 
procure adequate supplies for themselves, and a surplus 
besides. Sometimes, indeed, he came near despairing, when 
April, May, and June were continually cold, wet, and un- 
productive; but in July, his strong colonies speedily filled 
their garners, and stored up some treasure for him; while, 
in such seasons, small colonies could not even gather enough 
to keep them from starvation. 
