STATUS OF APICULTURE IN UNITED STATES. 71 
than in the country. The principal point which should be consid- 
ered, however, is that the winter of 1903-4, just before these counts 
were made, was exceedingly severe, and 75 per cent of the colonies 
of honey bees in New England are reported to have died. Honey 
bees do not hibernate, and long-protracted cold weather is detrimental 
to them. Taking these facts into consideration, it is not so strange 
that the honey bee played a minor part in pollinating the flowers in 
the cases investigated. 
While in the particular cases observed by these authors the honey 
bee was of little value as a pollenizer, the ease with which an enormous 
number of honey bees could be brought to the aid of the orchardist 
places this species in a class by itself. Estimating the population of 
a colony of bees as low as 10,000 in early spring, it may easily be seen 
how readily the orchardist may insure pollination by carrying a few 
colonies of bees to the orchard, provided of course that the weather is 
such that bees can fly while the trees are in bloom. Under adverse 
conditions in winter the other insects may be so decimated that they 
are few in number, but while honey bees may also be killed off in 
winter, there are means of protecting them, which is not the case 
with the purely wild species. 
Fruit growers as a rule recognize the value of the honey bee to 
their industry. Taking into consideration the insurance of pollina- 
tion by transporting colonies of bees to the places where their services 
are needed, it is safe to say that the indirect benefit of the bee- 
keeping industry annually adds to the resources of the country 
considerably more than the amount received from the sale of honey 
and wax. 
PRESENT SOURCES OF LOSS. 
There are several sources of great loss to bee keepers which might 
be eliminated to a large extent by careful manipulation, but there is 
much work which must be done before bee keepers are able to over- 
come all these difficulties. Certain losses are expected regularly, and, 
while some do their utmost to overcome them, an annual loss must 
figure in their calculations. 
Swarming. — The average bee keeper loses many of the swarms 
which issue from his hives, and these escaping swarms may well be 
valued at a high figure. By careful manipulation and the use of large 
hives swarming may be largely controlled, but among the majority 
of bee keepers too little attention is given to this phase of the work 
and nothing is done until the swarm actually issues. In the produc- 
tion of comb honey smaller hives are generally used, and the control 
of swarming becomes more difficult. It is doubtless true that swarms 
aggregating in value $1,000,000 are lost every year. This loss may 
I" 1 considerably reduced. 
