PASTURAGE. 405 
Hancock County, Illinois, was estimated at about 200,000 
pounds, which made an average of less than half a pound 
per acre. 386,000 pounds of this was our own crop, and 
the county did not contain one-tenth of the bees that could 
have been kept profitably on it. Yet, at this low rate, the 
crop of Illinois alone, with the same percentage of bees, 
would have been 15,000,000 pounds. We cannot form an 
adequate idea of the enormous amount of honey, which is 
wasted from the lack of bees to harvest it. 
713. In our own experience in the Mississippi Valley, 
we have found eighty to one hundred colonies to be the 
number from which the most honey could be expected in 
one Apiary. Dr. C. C. Miller in his interesting work ‘‘A 
Year Among the Bees,’’ says also that one hundred colonies 
is the best number in one location. Mr. Heddon strongly 
urges bee-keepers not to locate within any area already 
occupied by an Apiary of one hundred colonies or more. 
The extensive experience of both these Apiarists confirms 
ours, but we must remember that locations differ greatly. 
714. In all arrangements, aim to save every step for 
the bees that you possibly can. With the alighting-board 
properly arranged, the grass kept down, or better still, 
coal-ashes or sand (568) spread in front of the apron- 
board (348), bees will be able to store more honey, even 
if they have to go a considerable distance for it, than they 
otherwise could from pasturage nearer at hand. Many bee- 
keepers utterly neglect all suitable precautions to facilitate 
the labors of their bees, as though they imagined them to 
be miniature locomotives, always fired up, and capable of 
an indefinite amount of exertion. A bee cannot put forth 
more than a certain amount of physical effort, and a large 
portion of this ought not to be spent in contending against 
difficulties from which it might easily be guarded. They 
may often be seen panting after their return from labor, 
and so exhausted as to need rest before they enter the hive. 
