392 OVEBSTOCKINa. 



districts, the road sides and the borders of fields, are, almost 

 if not quite, as valuable to the bees as the Golden Rod. 

 "Where these two last mentioned plants abound, bees should 

 not be fed until they have passed out of bloom, as light but 

 strong stocks, will often obtain from them a supply. 



no danger, at present, of overstocking a district with 

 Bees. 



We have now come to a point of the very first impor- 

 tance to all interested in the cultivation of bees. If the 

 opinions which most American bee-keepers entertain on the 

 subject of overstocking, are correct, then the keeping of 

 bees, in this country, must always remain an insignificant 

 pursuit. I confess that I find it difficult to repress a smile, 

 when the owner of a few hives, in a district where as many 

 hundreds might be made to prosper, gravely imputes his ill 

 success, to the fact that too many bees are kept in his 

 vicinity ! If in the Spring, a colony of bees is prosperous 

 and healthy, it will gather abundant stores, even if hundreds 

 equally strong, are in its immediate vicinity, while if it is 

 feeble, it will be of little or no value, even if it is in " a land 

 flowing with milk and honey," and there is not another swarm 

 within a dozen miles of it. 



Success in bee-keeping requires that a man should, in 

 some things, be a very close imitator of Napoleon, who al- 

 ways aimed to have an overwhelming force, at the right 

 time, and in the right place ; so the bee-keeper must have 

 strong colonies, just at the time when numbers can be turned 

 to the best account. If the bees are not numerous, until the 

 honey-harvest is almost over, numbers will then be of as 

 little account, as were many of the famous armies against 

 which " the soldier of Europe" contended ; which, after the 



