304 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
may readily be ascertained at stated periods. On the 18th of May, 
it gained eighteen pounds and a half. On the eighteenth of June, 
a swarm weighing seven pounds issued from it, and the following 
day it gained over six pounds in weight. Ten days of abundant 
pasturage would enable such a colony to gather a large surplus, 
while five times the number of equally favorable opportunities 
would be of small avail to a feeble stock. 
11 The island of Corsica paid to Home an annual tribute of 
200.000 lbs. of wax, which presupposes the production of from 
two to three million pounds of honey yearly. The island contains 
3790 square miles. 
!< According toOettl (p. 389), Bohemia contained 160,000 colonies 
in 1853. from a careful estimate, and he thinks the country could 
readily support four times that number. The kingdom contains 
20.200 square miles. 
“ In the province of Attica, in Greece, containing forty-five 
square miles, and 20,000 inhabitants. 20,000 hives are kept, each 
yielding, on an average, thirty pounds of honey and two pounds 
of wax. 
“ East Friesland, a province of Holland, containing 1,200 square 
miles, maintains an average of 2,000 colonies per square mile. — 
(Hkubcl, Bienenzeitung. 1854, p. 11.) 
“ According to an official report, there were in Denmark, in 
1838, eighty-six thousand and thirty-six colonies of bees. The 
annual product of honey appears to be about 1.841.800 lbs. In 
1855, the export of wax from that country was 118,379 lbs. 
“In 1856, according to official returns, there were 58,964 
colonies of bees in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. 
“ In 1857. the yield of honey and wax in the empire of Austria 
was estimated to be worth over seven millions of dollars.” 
Doubtless, in these districts, where honey is so largely 
produced, great attention is paid to the cultivation of 
crops which, while in themselves profitable, afford abun- 
dant pasturage for bees. 
mar. set a well-stocked hive of lees on a tub turned bottom up, after having made 
a hole through the bottom, and took from the tub four bundled and twenty poundi 
of honey.” 
