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 set-off, 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 plave 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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