584 
young. Under conditions where the food 
is scarce and the question is one of suffi- 
ciency for the life of the colony, this 
habit enables the colony to survive where 
others would die. Viewed from the stand- 
point of the class, the killing of the 
drones or males is unmerciful and un- 
just; but viewed from consideration of 
the good of the colony as a whole, the 
action is justified. 
Objection to Bees in Orchards 
An objection urged is that they carry 
blight from tree to tree. This is doubt- 
less true, but the remedy here is, to cut 
out the blight. I do not conceive it pos- 
sible to fertilize the flowers without bees, 
or some other insects which do the work 
of bees, even though it be true that they 
are carriers of blight. Some of our best 
orchardists think that there should be a 
colony of bees for every 50 trees in an 
orchard, while others think one colony 
for 100 trees is sufficient. 
GRANVILLE LOWTHER 
BEE KEEPING 
FrRaNK BENTON 
In Charge of Apicultural Investigations 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Locations Suited to the Keeping of Bees 
It may be safely said that any place 
where farming, gardening, or fruit rais- 
ing can be successfully followed is adapt- 
ed to the profitable keeping of bees—in a 
limited way at least, if not extensively. 
Many of these localities will support ex- 
tensive apiaries. In addition to this there 
are, within the borders of the United 
States, thousands of good locations for 
the apiarist—forest, prairie, swamp and 
mountain regions—where agriculture has 
as yet not gained a foothold, either be- 
cause of remoteness from markets or the 
uninviting character of soil or climate. 
This pursuit may also be followed in or 
near towns and, to a limited extent, in 
large cities. It even happens in some in- 
stances that bees in cities or towns find 
more abundant pasturage than in coun- 
try locations which are considered fair. 
The danger of overstocking a given 
locality is very frequently exaggerated. 
Each range, it is self-evident, has a limit. 
The writer is, however, fully convinced, 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
after long experience in numerous locali- 
ties and under the most varied circum. 
stances, that three or iour times as many 
colonies aS are commonly considered gut. 
ficient to stock a given range may usually 
be kept with a relative degree of profit. 
But to secure such results sufficient care 
and close observation have too frequently 
not been given in the selection of bees 
adapted to the locality and conditions. 
The Returns to Be Expected from an 
Apiary 
Aside from the pleasure to be derived 
from the study of these interesting crea- 
tures, what returns can one who is well 
adapted to such work expect to derive? 
A moderate estimate for a fairly good 
locality would be 35 to 40 pounds of ex- 
tracted honey or 25 pounds of comb honey 
per colony. This presupposes good win- 
tering and an average season. By Jlocat- 
ing in some section particularly favor- 
able to apiculture—that is, near large 
linden forests, with clover fields within 
range, supplemented by buckwheat; or in 
a section where alfalfa is raised for seed; 
Where mesquite, California sages and 
wild buckwheat abound; where man- 
grove, palmettoes and titi, or where 
sourwood, tuliptree, and asters are 
plentiful—these returns may frequently 
be doubled or trebled. But these favored 
locations, like all others, are also subject 
to reverses~—~the result of droughts, great 
wet, freezes which kill back the bee pas- 
turage, etc. On the whole, there should 
be expected from the raising of bees for 
any purpose whatever only fair pay for 
one’s time, good interest on the money 
invested, and a sufficient margin to cover 
contingencies. With no greater expecta- 
tions from it than this, and where intel- 
ligence directs the work, apiculture will 
be found, in the long run, to rank among 
the best and safest of rural industries. 
The value of bees in the pollination of 
various fruit and seed crops is often sufi- 
cient reason to warrant the keeping of a 
small apiary, even if circumstances do 
not favor its management in such a man- 
ner as to secure the largest possible crops 
of honey or to insure the saving of all 
swarms. 
