COMMUNICATIONS—BEE-KEEPING. 
359 
to be the standard hive for this country. If you can get what 
stocks you want in the neighborhood—not nearer than two 
miles if in the working season—you may get them most any 
time during the year. From a distance, they can be moved 
the safest about the first of May. Bees can be sent by railroad 
almost any distance, if properly prepared. 
If you have a few stocks, do not try to increase them too fast. 
Let them swarm naturally. Not often will they swarm too 
much. Most beginners are very anxious to increase the num¬ 
ber of their stocks and make the mistake of dividing too early 
and too much ; a mistake that is usually followed by loss and 
discouragement. 
Perhaps the next question will be : Is my location a good 
one for an apiary ? I cannot, of course, answer this question. 
The thYee main sources of honey in this and most other states 
of the Union are white clover, basswood and buckwheat. 
These sources are in most seasons to be relied upon. Where 
all three are found in the right kind of soil, there is the paradise 
for bee-keepers. For clover, a loomy soil, well mixed with sand, 
on high ground is the best. For basswood, a rich clay soil on 
low land is best. On sandy soil, basswood in this section yields 
honey only in wet seasons. For buckwheat, a rich, sandy soil, 
on high ground is preferable. If only two of the above men¬ 
tioned, main sources of honey are found, the location may nev¬ 
ertheless be a good one, and even if only white clover or bass¬ 
wood are abundant, bees properly managed, may be kept with 
much profit to their owners. I doubt whether bee-keeping 
will pay in locations where they have to gather nearly all their 
supply for winter and the surplus for their owner from buck¬ 
wheat. There is, however, no location where men can support 
themselves by the cultivation of the soil in which a small num¬ 
ber of stocks cannot be kept with profit 
What kind of bees shall I get? will be another question 
asked. And here the reader will expect—especially, if he is 
acquainted with my reports in the papers and the business I 
carry on, (propagating and selling Italian bees,) me to recom¬ 
mend the Italian bee unconditionally, but I cannot do so. 
