300 
THE 111VE AND HONEY-BEE. 
when numbers can be turned to the best account. If 
his stocks become strong only when they can do nothing 
but consume what little honey has been previously 
gathered, he is like a farmer who suffers his crops to 
rot on the ground, and then hires a set of idlers to eat 
him out of house and home. 
There is probably not a square mile in this whole 
country which is overstocked with bees, unless it is so 
unsuitable for bee-keeping as to make it unprofitable to 
keep them at all. Such an assertion may seem unguarded, 
but I am happy to be able to confirm it by the following 
letter from Mr. Wagner, showing the experience of the 
largest cultivators in Europe : 
“ Deaii Sir : — In reply to your inquiry respecting the overstock- 
ing of a district, I would say, that the present opinion of the cor- 
respondents of the Bienenzeitung , appears to be, that it cannot 
readily be done. Dzierzon says, in practice at least, 1 it never is 
done and Dr. Radlkofer, of Munich, the President of the second 
Apiarian Convention, declares that his apprehensions cm that 
score were dissipated by observations which he had opportunity 
and occasion to make when on his way home from the Convention. 
1 have numerous accounts of Apiaries in pretty close proximity, 
containing from 200 to 300 colonies each. Ehrenfels had a thou- 
sand hives, at three separate establishments, indeed, but so close 
to each other that he could visit them all in half an hour’s ride ; 
and he says that, in 1801, the average net yield of his Apiaries 
was two dollars per hive. In Russia and Hungary, Apiaries num- 
bering from 2,000 to 5,000 colonies are said not to be unfrequent; 
and we know that as many as 4,000 hives are oftentimes congre- 
gated, in Autumn, at one point on the heaths of Germany. 
Hence, I think we need not fear that any district of this country, 
so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and diversified 
culture, will very speedily be overstocked, particularly, after the 
importance of having stocks populous early in the Spring comes 
to be appreciated. A week or ten days of favorable weather at 
that season, when pasturage abounds, will enable a strong colony 
