LOCALITY 
569 
are transferring into modern hives very 
rapidly. The number of colonies per 
square mile is greater here than else¬ 
where in the country, which indicates 
good beekeeping conditions.” The solu¬ 
tion of the problem in the South,” says 
Phillips, “lies in the development of a few 
extensive beekeepers relatively who will 
practice migratory beekeeping. If the dif¬ 
ficulties of transportation can be overcome 
the South can produce enormous crops of 
honey.” In the southeastern States the 
honey crop comes chiefly from the swamps 
or from the mountains, and in both loca¬ 
tions the honey plants are mostly shrubs 
and trees. Much of the soil is acid and 
white clover is found only to a limited ex¬ 
tent. 
The pine barrens of eastern Virginia 
offer little opportunity for bee culture. A 
good locality is the section of the Pied¬ 
mont Plateau east of the Blue Ridge. In 
the Great Limestone Valley west of this 
range of mountains and in the smaller lime¬ 
stone valleys in the southwest portion of 
the State the area of sweet clover and white 
clover is yearly increasing. There is, how¬ 
ever, little commercial honey production in 
Virginia. Beekeeping is most prosperous 
in Kentucky in the famous blue grass 
region or the Lexington Plain. It is a 
limestone area, and in Pendleton and 
Bracken Counties there is a great acreage 
of sweet clover. The Coastal Plain of 
North Carolina, with its vast area of swamp¬ 
land covered with gallberry, gum trees, 
huckleberry, and blackberry, offers, in the 
opinion of E. R. Root, great opportunities 
to the specialist. The cotton belt is the 
poorest part of the State for beekeeping. 
Sourwood and tulip tree yield a large sur¬ 
plus in the western highlands and moun¬ 
tains. Beekeeping is in a very undevel¬ 
oped condition in South Carolina. More 
than 10,000,000 acres of pine barrens are 
largely destitute of honey plants. Good 
opportunities may be found in Horry 
County on the coast, and in Pickens and 
Oconee Counties in the northwestern part 
of the State. 
In southeastern Georgia where the gall- 
berry and tupelos are abundant the honey 
crop is usually reliable, and a surplus of 
100 pounds per colony is often obtained. 
There is little commercial beekeeping in 
northern Georgia. About one-tliird of the 
honey crop of Florida comes from the 
black and white tupelos growing in the 
swamps of the Apalachicola River. 
A light crop of honey is often obtained 
in central and southern Florida from or¬ 
ange and palmetto, and black mangrove in 
some seasons yields well in the southwest¬ 
ern part of the State. Migratory beekeep¬ 
ing is found to be fairly profitable on the 
Keys. (See Migratory Beekeeping.) In 
general, beekeeping in Florida is not as 
profitable as in many northern States. The 
great advantage of the peninsula State is 
from the standpoint of health, and for this 
reason much of the available bee-territory 
is overstocked. 
In Alabama and Mississippi the best 
section for beekeeping is the Black Belt, 
or sweet clover belt, a tract of land 
which extends from Union Springs, Ala¬ 
bama, to Noxubee County, Mississippi, 
where it follows the State line northward 
to Tennessee. Thousands of acres of sweet 
clover flourish in this section, and the api¬ 
aries, which range from 50 to 200 colo¬ 
nies, are much larger than in other parts 
of the State. In the Yazoo Delta are the 
most fertile soils in Mississippi and a more 
dense acreage of cotton can not be found 
elsewhere in the South; but none of the 
honey plants are of great value except 
holly, without which, declares a beekeeper, 
it would not pay to keep bees. Fair op¬ 
portunities for beekeeping may be found 
near the swamps and in most of the river 
valleys of both Alabama and Mississippi. 
In Louisiana the alluvial tracts along the 
Red and Mississippi Rivers and the Atcha- 
falaya River Basin are as well adapted for 
honey production as any portion of the 
southern States. It is in these sections that 
white clover has taken such a strong hold. 
It grows iiere.more luxuriantly than in the 
North and yields a large amount of honey. 
Unfortunately only a few beekeepers are 
located in the territory as yet. The south¬ 
east half of Arkansas belongs to the Coast¬ 
al Plain, and, as the honey flora of the low¬ 
lands is dependable, it offers excellent op¬ 
portunities for engaging in beekeeping on 
a co mm ercial scale. A thorny chaparral 
of Mexican origin covers the Rio Grande 
Plain in southeastern Texas. Huajilla, 
catsclaw, mesquite, coma, and a score of 
