OVEK-STOOKING. 301 



to lay n^ an ample supply for the year, if its labor be properly 

 dii-eoted. 



" Mr. Kaden, one of the oldest contributors to the Bienenzeitung, 

 in the number for December, 1862, noticing the oommunioation 

 from Dr. Radlkofer, says : ' I also concur in the opinion that a 

 district of country cannot be overstocked with bees, and that, how- 

 ever numerous the colonies, all can procure sufficient sustenance, 

 if the surrounding country contain honey-yielding plants and 

 vegetables, in the usual degree. Where utter barrenness prevailSv_ 

 the case is different, of course, as well as rare.' 



" The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of German Agriculturists was 

 held in the city of Hanover, on the 10th of September, 1852, and 

 in compliance with the suggestions of the Apiarian Convention, 

 a distinct section devoted to bee-culture was instituted. The pro- 

 gramme propounded sixteen questions for discussion, the fourth 

 of which was as follows : 



" ' Can a district of country embracing meadows, arable land, 

 orchards, and forests, be so overstocked with bees, that these may, 

 no longer find adequate sustenance, and yield a remunerating 

 surplus of their products ?' 



" This question was debated with considerable animation. The 

 Rev. Mr. Kleine — nine-tenths of the correspondents of the Bee- 

 Journal are Clergymen — president of the section, gave it as his 

 opinion that ' it was hardly conceivable that such a country could 

 be overstocked with bees.' Counsellor Herwig, and the Rev. Mr. 

 Wilkens, on the contrary, maintained that 'it might be over- 

 stocked.' In reply. Assessor Heyne remarked that, 'whatever 

 •might be supposed possible, as an extrerhe case, it^was certain 

 that, as regards the kingdom of Hanover, it could not be even* 

 remotely apprehended that too many Apiaries would ever be 

 established; and that, consequently, the' greatest possible multi- 

 plication of colonies might safely be aimed at and enoouraged. 

 At the same time, he advised a proper distribution of Apiaries.' 



" I might easily furnish you with more matter of this sort, and 

 designate a considerable number of Apiaries in various parts of 

 Germany, containing from twenty-five to live hundred colonies. 

 But the question would still recur, do not these Apiaries occupy 



