BEE MANUAL. 305 



weight. Admitting, therefore, that every pound of honey of 

 which the grazing stock are deprived by bees is a loss to the 

 farmer, and therefore to be looked upon as a setoff, to that 

 extent, against the benefits conferred by the bees in other ways, 

 it will be necessary to consider to what extent it is possible 

 that such loss may be occasioned. 



QUANTITY OF HONEY FURNISHED BY PASTURE LANDS. 



In the first place it must be recollected that a large propor- 

 tion — in some cases the great bulk — of the honey gathered by 

 bees is obtained from trees, as, for instance, the linden in 

 Europe, the basswood and maple in America, and in this coun- 

 try the forest trees, nearly all of which supply rich forage for 

 the bee, and everywhere from fruit trees in orchards. A large 

 quantity is gathered from flowers and flowering shrubs reared 

 in gardens — from clover and other plants grown for hay, and 

 not for pasture ; and even in the field there are many shrubs 

 and flowering plants which yield honey, but which are never 

 eaten by cattle. Pastures therefore form but a small part of 

 the sources from which honey is obtained ; and in dealing with 

 this grazing question we have to confine our inquiries to clovers 

 and other flowering plants grown in open pastures, and such as 

 constitute the ordinary food of grazing stock. In order to meet 

 the question in the most direct manner, however, let us assume 

 the extreme case of a large apiary being placed in a district 

 where there is nothing else but such open pastures, and grow- 

 ing only such flowering plants as are generally eaten by stock. 

 Now, the ordinary working range of the bee may be taken at 

 a mile and a half from the apiary on all sides, which gives an 

 area of about 4,500 acres for the supply of the apiary; and if 

 the latter consists of a hundred hives, producing an average of 

 a hundred pounds of honey, there would be a little more than 

 two pounds of honey collected off each acre in the year ; or if 

 we suppose so many as two hundred hives to be kept at one 

 place, and to produce so much as ten tons of honey in the season, 

 the quantity collected from each acre would be four to five 

 pounds. 



PROPORTION POSSIBLY CONSUMED BY STOCK. 



Let us next consider what proportion of those few pounds 

 of honey could have found its way into the stomachs of the 



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