Honey 185 



comb, brood-comb, bee-bread and dead bees were con- 

 sidered a good yield for one season, while the following is 

 quoted as being extraordinary even in the best constructed 

 hives at the time it occurred, — 



"Mr. Wildman states that in the year 1789 he pur- 

 chased a glass filled with exceedingly fine honey-combs 

 weighing sixty-three pounds, which had collected within a 

 month, and that the hive which it had surmounted still 

 contained a full supply for the winter's consumption of the 

 bees. This, however, was a very unusual product; an 

 ordinary hive or box may be considered well stocked when 

 it yields from thirty to thirty-five pounds of honey." 



There is a different story to tell today when the bees are 

 cared for with scientific knowledge ; provided with hives 

 that seem to put them on their honor to fill the prepared 

 chambers with honey ; encouraged to devote their time and 

 strength wholly to honey-gathering by being given empty 

 combs to fill, or wax foundation to build quickly into new 

 oombs ; and supplied with abundance of nectar-flowing 

 tlowers. No wonder they are stimulated to feats of honey- 

 making that would have taxed the credulity of Mr. Wild- 

 man with his sixty-three pounds of surplus honey. 



That amount is now the average in a prosperous apiary 

 and even in the northern part of the United States a hun- 

 dred pounds of pure surplus honey is not uncommon and 

 two and three hundred pounds is sometimes obtained. 



In Texas one hive is reported as having yielded the 

 amazing amount of seven hundred pounds of honey in 

 one season from the horse-mint, that grows there in 

 abundance. 



Seven hundred pounds of honey means over three 

 hundred and fifty gallons of nectar brought drop by 

 drop in the little " bottles " of the bees from the horse- 

 mint to the hive. 



