14 BULLETIN 489, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
to increase the planting of clovers, both as cover crops and for 
forage, and this naturally would result in an increase in the quan- 
tity and also in some places the quality of the honey crop. The 
total sum of increased revenue to the State which would accrue 
from the use of better methods, apparatus, and stock is so great that 
quite naturally the average beekeeper does not credit it. Fortunately 
the returns of a few of the better beekeepers are known, so as to 
permit a fair estimate of the possibilities, and some cases will be 
cited. 
In the northwestern part of the State a man and his son operating 
about 500 colonies in three apiaries secure an average income per 
colony of $5.60 from bulk comb-honey. In Iredell County, from 47 
colonies in 1913, a beekeeper received $663 for his crop of bulk comb- 
honey. Near the center of the State a beekeeper started the season 
of 1915 with 80 colonies, increased to 125, and secured 5,000 pounds 
of bulk comb-honey, for which he received more than $600. In the 
southeastern part of the State in 1914 a producer owning 150 colonies 
secured 21 fifty-gallon barrels of extracted honey, selling for nearly 
$900. In Alamance County 23 colonies in 1915 produced section comb- 
honey yielding nearly $9 per colony, and the care given was practi- 
cally nothing, except to hive swarms and to put on and remove 
supers. 
Many cases like the foregoing may be cited, but these indicate the 
possibilities, except that it must be borne in mind — and this is said 
Avith no thought of disparagement — that these beekeepers, without 
exception, are making some error in their work. They fail to use full 
sheets of foundation, fail to control swarming, use inferior stock, or 
neglect to give extra winter protection to the hive, all of which reduce 
the production per colony, so that the figures given above do not 
indicate the maximum which it is possible to obtain. 
It is also possible for those in the western part of the State to 
secure at least the usual market price of 28 cents instead of 20 cents 
a pound for their beeswax, and those in the eastern part who are now 
receiving but 10 cents for their section comb -honey to receive at least 
15 cents, the usual market price for this grade of honey. 
To show the possibilities more fully, the errors of a few of the 
best beekeepers will be pointed out in detail. The best bulk comb- 
honey producer visited does not have his colonies as strong as would 
seem possible under the existing conditions of the nectar supply, and 
the resultant yield is lessened. He does not give any extra winter 
protection and this decreases the crop. The most successful 
comb-honey producer visited does not use full sheets of founda- 
tion in the brood-chamber, consequently enormous numbers of 
drones are uselessly reared and fed to the detriment of the work- 
ing force of the colony, and the surplus honey crop is reduced. t He 
