360 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Italian bees, although superior in many respects to the black 
bee, require more careful treatment and will be lost more fre¬ 
quently in the hands of beginner than black bees. They re¬ 
quire, on account of their usual weakness in numbers in the 
autumn, more protection through the winter than black bees 
and, therefore, unless you are willing to carefully protect your 
stocks, you had better not meddle with Italian bees. 
“How many stocks shall I keep when I have learned the 
business T’ In last year’s report of the Society, pages 302- 
808, Mr. Mason, of Appleton, says: “that if the estimated de¬ 
posits of honey on a given area made by Langstroth, Quimby 
and other bee-masters are at all correct and reliable, the sup¬ 
plies of honey from white clover alone are practicably inexhaus¬ 
tible.” 
Mr. Kidder is quoted as saying, “ that one acre of white 
clover would yield 830 pounds of honey, one quarter section 
182,800 pounds, and one square mile 581,200 pounds. And 
he goes on to state, that Alsike clover is still more productive. 
In vindication of Langstroth and Quimby I will say that those 
writers nowhere, as far as I am acquainted with their writings, 
make such wild estimates. My own observation on this point 
is that when I attempt to keep more than 100 colonies in one 
location, the yield of surplus honey decreases in the ratio of 
the increase of stocks. In one good honey season, when I 
had nearly 400 colonies in one location the yield of surplus 
honey was of no account, or after equalizing the stores of all 
the stocks, almost nothing. In order to gather food and winter- 
stores the workers of that apiary had to go three miles and 
more to get loaded. If white clover contains so much honey 
there would have been no need for their foraging to so great a 
distance. I have now satisfied myself by experiments, that 
from 50 to 100 stocks would be a sufficient number for one 
apiary. If any person wants to keep more than this, different 
apiaries from two to three miles apart should be made. It will 
pay well to do so. From actual experience I must therefore 
disagree with Mr. Mason’s statement, “ that 500, or even 1,000, 
swarms can be kept in a single apiary with marked success.” 
