304 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



may readily be ascertained at stated periods. On the ISthof May, 

 it gained eighteen pounds and a half. On the eighteenth of June, 

 a, swarm weighing seven pounds issued from it, and the following 

 day it gained over six pounds in weight. Ten days of abundant 

 pasturage would enable such a colony to gather a large surplus, 

 while fiye limes the number of equally favorable opportunities 

 would be of small avail to a feeble stock. 



'■ The island of Corsica paid to Rome an annual tribute of 

 200,000 lbs. of wax, which presupposes the production of from 

 two to three million pounds of honey yearly. The island contains 

 3790 square miles. 



" According to Oettl (p. 389), Bohemia contained 160,000 colonies 

 in 1853, from a careful estimate, and he thinks the country could 

 readily support four times that number. The kingdom contains 

 20,200 square miles. 



" In the province of Attica, in Greece, containing forty-five 

 square miles, and 20,000 inhabitants, 20,000 hives are kept, each 

 yielding, on an average, thirty pounds of honey and two pounds 

 of wax. ' 



" East Friesland, a province of Holland, containing 1,200 square 

 miles, maintains an average of 2,000 colonies per square mile. — 

 (Heubel, Bienenzeitung, 1854, p. 11.) 



'■ According to an official report, there were in Denmark, in 

 1838, eighty-six thousand and thirty-six colonies of bees. The 

 annual product of honey appears to be about 1,841,800 lbs. In 

 1855, the export of wax from that country was 118,379 lbs. 



" In 1856, according to official returns, there were 58,964 

 colonies of bees in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. 



" In 1857, the yield of honey and wax in the empire of Austria 

 was estimated to be worth over seven millions of dollars.'' 



Doubtless, in these districts, where honey is so largely 

 produced, great attention is paid to the cultivation of 

 crops which, whUe in themselves profitable, afford abun- 

 dant pasturage for bees.' 



man set a well-stocked hive of bees on a tnb tnmed bottom up, after having made 

 a bole througb the bottom, and took frofli the tub four hundred and twenty ponnda 

 of honey." 



