60 BULLETIN 665^ U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 
bureau are in the main from the better class of beekeepers it 
is to be feared that the wastage has. been even greater. 
Under the present circumstances, this loss assumes an aspect 
tragic hot only to the multitude, almost a milhon, of indus- 
trious and interesting insect communities whose ardent 
haste and joyous hum have been stilled, but to their human 
erstwhile beneficiaries. The Nation can ill spare the 20 to 
30 miUion pounds of honey which past experience permits us 
to assume as the potential production of these lost colonies. 
Roughly, a third of these losses are ascribed to freezing 
and another third to starvation, and it is sad to reflect that 
both of these causes might in large measure have been over- 
come by their proprietors and protectors. Sugar and labor 
shortage are partial, but only partial, excuse, as is the 
unusual winter, which came early, shortening the flow of 
nectar from the autumn flowers, and persisted with unex- 
ampled severity without the customary brief relaxations 
which in ordinary years permit of late cleansing fhghts by 
the hive-bound bees before the settled cold of midwinter. 
Lost or failing queens and small colonies resulting from 
brood diseases or late swarming are as usual the principal 
other reported causes of loss. 
The losses were most severe in the North Central and 
Northeastern States and extending as far southward as 
North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas, ranging in 
some States as high as 41 per cent and in only a few cases 
falling below 15 per cent. The losses in the South and West 
have been less than usual, with the exception of Oklahoma 
and California, and notably Texas, in which State drought of 
two-year duration in important honey-producing sections 
created conditions that resulted last winter in 24 per cent 
of loss. This drought was happily ended by copious rains 
early in May. 
The number of working colonies remaining on May 1 is 
estimated at 88.7 per cent of the number on May 1, 1917. 
Material increases last year partly offset the heavy losses. 
Increases are shown over last year's numbers in most of 
the Southern and Western States. 
The condition of colonies is 86.4 per cent of a normal at 
this date, compared with 91.1 per cent last year and an 
