8 BrLLETIX 6S5. r. S. DEPAP.TMEXT OF AGEICTLirEE. 
COLONIES OF BEES IX THE UNITED STATES. 
Tlie first census to make inquiiy concerning the number 
of colonies of bees on farms in the United States was tlie 
tvreKtli, wliicli reports the number of colonies belonging to 
farmers on June 1. 1900. to be 4.10S.239. Tlie next census 
(1910 reported 3,445.006 on hand as of April 15. 1910. but 
the last shovring is imf airly low even compared with the 
first, because the date of the last census is 45 days earlier 
than the former and at a period of the year when the nimiber 
of colonies is increasing rapidly from swarming. Making 
allowance for this difference, the nimiber in 1910 should 
perhaps have been about 3.700.000 colonies. It seems 
unquestionable that the number of colonies of bees in the 
hands of farmers did actuaUy decline in the intervening 10 
years, which had not been as a rule favorable for honey pro- 
duction and had also been marked by considerable losses of 
bees from diseases of the brood, which often destroyed 
whole apiaries, containing sometimes himdreds of colonies. 
The period of the Xineties preceding the census of 1900 had. 
to the contrary, been favorable for bees, aside from disease 
in some sections. However, the report of the 1910 census 
represents more nearly than the former one the customary 
basis of number of colonies as recognized by bee keepers, 
namely, the spring comit. i. e.. the number of working colo- 
nies of bees remaining on hand (excluding new swarms of 
the ctuTent year', at about the settled beghming of the 
spring nectar fiow. which, for the country at large, would 
average about May 1. 
The changes in numbers of bees since 1910 may be fol- 
lowed in a general way by a study of the percentages of 
increase shown in connection witli the census figures just 
qtioted in Table I. The bureau's fh^st inc^uiry. made on 
May 1. 1914. asked concerning the number of colonies com- 
pared with the usual. The usual, being the average of the 
preceding few years, would represent figures in aU proba- 
bility very close to those of the census year 1910. The 
responses indicated an increase over the usual of 0.4 per cent 
and an increase over 1913 of over 4 per cent, which would 
point to a smaU decline subsequent to 1910. before the 
beginning in 1914 of the upward trend which has been 
