thirty-two States. The aggregate number of hives reported was 722,385. At the same ratio for the unreported counties, the aggregate for the country would be nearly three millions of hives. But reports have undoubtedly come from counties having somewhat more than any average population, including many in which special attention has been paid to bee culture; and a careful estimate should therefore place the total number of hives at a lower figure. Two millions would be as low as these returns appear to warrant. This is but one to every twenty of the present total population, while the assessors' returns of Iowa-the only official statement for comparison-present a ratio of one hive to ten of the population.

Estimating the total number of hives at two millions, and the surplus honey taken at only fifteen pounds per hive, (which is but two-thirds of the average reported,) the value of honey annually produced in the United States, at the average valuation of twenty-five cents per pound, would be $7,500,000. Were a rational system of bee-keeping in use, crops cultivated for bee pasturage, and the bees carefully wintered, this amount could easily be increased. The profits arising from the sale of surplus honey averages from fifty to two hundred per cent. of the capital invested. The middle, northern, and southern States are particularly adapted to profitable bee-keeping.

The following table presents in detail some of the more important points furnished in these returns:

The reports show that in the southern States, where bee-keeping is in its primitive state, it would yield, if properly conducted, the largest return. The abundance of wild plants yielding honey, the long seasons, and mild climate there are all very favorable to profitable bee-keeping. The chief expense of an apiary in starting is the cost of the hives. When these are procured they form a permanent capital; the hive will last for years. Bee-keeping will be found profitable only to those who engage in it largely, but both profitable and interesting to any person having room sufficient even for one hive. He can supply his table all the year with honey, and find in the nature and workings of these little insects subjects for most interesting study and critical investigation.

HIVES.

The common box hive is the one most generally used. It is usually made of one-and-a-half-inch pine boards, though other materials are used, according to the taste of the maker or the cost of the material. The size of the hive varies much, but generally contains two hundred cubic inches, with cross-bars placed in the center to aid in supporting the combs. In general, they are simple boxes. This form is varied at times, however, by placing on the top of the hive drawers or boxes for surplus honey. In these hives the bees are left to take care of themselves, as very little can be done to aid them. The old-fashioned basket or straw hive is seldom used, and it will soon be wholly discarded, save by a few bee-keepers, who may retain it rather as a curiosity than for any practical use.

In the southern States the favorite form of hive is the "gum." This consists of a hollow log, generally a portion of a cypress stump, about two feet in length and a foot in diameter; upon the top of the hollow is placed a board, and at the bottom is cut a small notch for the entrance of the bees, and the hive is complete. Three-fourths of the hives in these States are of this description. This form of hive served the purpose before the appearance of the moth and foul-brood, but no reliance can now be placed upon it. If the moth is gaining the upper hand, foulbrood raging, honey supply low, or queen lost, there is no remedy-the bees must perish. The do-nothing system in bee-keeping, as in other branches of agriculture, will lead to the ruin of the bee-keeper. Those apiarians who use the movable-comb hive and a scientific method of beekeeping have been the most successful.

The reports show that the movable-comb hive of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth is generally preferred by the bee-keepers of the United States. The Bee-keepers' Association of Tennessee, at their recent convention, by a unanimous vote gave this hive the preference over all other forms. Patent hives have been the curse of bee-keeping in this country. Many of the reports say that the bee-keepers in their vicinity have abandoned all manner and style of patent hives and gone back to the plain box and rude "gum."

Patent bee-palaces, moth-traps, and self-dividers have done as much as the bee-moth, perhaps more, to hinder the progress of bee-culture in this country. That hive only can claim superiority over the common box which permits the bee-keeper to have ready access to every portion of the hive, allows the transfer of frames from one hive to another, will winter bees well, is not complicated in its structure, and is not expensive. The movable-comb hive is used by about one-fourth of the bee-keepers of the country, and its introduction is rapidly extending. Whenever its use becomes general, bee-keeping will become profitable.

HONEY.

The returns of the yield of honey are very imperfect, as few bee-keepers have kept an account of the yield of their hives. The product of the past season has been less than usual. The late spring and frost, and the scorching heat of the summer, ruined the forage of the bees, and many colonies were unable to obtain honey sufficient for their winter supply, and, unless fed during the winter, will perish. This has been the case principally with the black bees. The Italians, notwithstanding the unfavorable season, were able to gather a supply of honey sufficient for themselves and to yield their owners a small surplus. The average yield of honey throughout the United States is 22.8 pounds per hive. The average price is twenty to twenty-five cents per pound. Honey for market purposes is generally stored in small boxes or supers, about five inches square. This brings the highest market price. The honeycomb taken from the common box hive or "gum" is necessarily in a broken condition, and does not present to the purchaser so clean and inviting an appearance, and hence commands a lower price.

Twenty pounds of honey being required to make one pound of wax, the economy of saving and utilizing combs is rendered evident. In order to accomplish this saving, a honey-emptying machine has been invented, and has now been so simplified in its construction that it is within the reach of all. By this machine honey is emptied, by centrifugal motion, out of the combs, leaving them in a sound condition, so that they may be inserted again, and used for years in succession, thus effecting a great saving in the consumption of honey, and giving the market a purer article than when rendered by heat.

The reports upon the production of wax are still more imperfect than those on honey. The yield is principally derived from hives that are "brimstoned" in the fall, or from old combs that are unfit for use. The demand for wax is always greater than the supply, especially in regard to bleached wax, and it always commands a good price. Little or no attention has been given to this branch of agriculture.

The provident economy of the German makes this apparently trivial item yield a good return. The German apiarian never goes to his hives without having by him a small box or dish in which he carefully deposits every particle of wax, however small, which may be taken from the hives, and also all the droppings. Thus, at the end of the season, a considerable amount of wax has been saved, which in this country is not only wasted but permitted to lie about the apiary and become the breeding place of moths and a source of foul-brood. The bee-keepers of America should profit by this hint, and avert injury and loss. The aver age price is thirty cents per pound.

WINTERING BEES.

Nine-tenths of the bee-keepers of the United States pay no attention whatever to wintering their bees. The hives are permitted to remain on their summer stands, with the exception, perhaps, of a slight shed for a covering. They are thus exposed to all the variations of temperature and the inclemency of the weather. The result of this neglect is that many hives perish annually, and those that survive are so weakened that they are unable to recruit till the honey season is passed.

To make bee-hiving successful, it is necessary to have strong swarms early in spring. This result can be obtained only by careful and judicious wintering. The object sought in wintering bees is to maintain in

the hive throughout the winter a uniform temperature, which will keep the bees in a continuous semi-dormant state. This uniformity of temperature is obtained in several different ways-by protecting the hives on their summer stands, or by removing them to rooms or places prepared for them. Hives may be protected on their summer stands

First. By plastering up all the cracks and openings, except the entrance, with mortar and surrounding the sides of the hives with straw. This can be done only with common boxes or gums.

Second. By placing the hives in a shed, closed on all sides except the front, where the covering extends to within three feet of the ground. A correspondent in Pennsylvania states that he has wintered successfully in this manner one hundred colonies.

Third. By surrounding the hive with a dead-air space, thus preventing outside influence. A frame of light boards is made to surmount the hive on its four sides, leaving an inch or more space between the hive and frame, which space is filled with some good non-conducting material, as sawdust, dry leaves, &c. The honey-board is removed and straw or corn-cobs placed on the combs beneath the cap. This plan has been successfully adopted by a number of bee-keepers.

Some apiarians winter their bees with considerable success on their summer stands, by simply giving them thorough ventilation. Mr. John T. Rose, of Petersburg, Monroe county, Michigan, says in regard to this method: "I winter them on their summer stands, and seldom lose a swarm. I bore in the side of the frame hive an inch hole, three inches from the top, in the middle of the hive lengthwise, and worm an inchsquare stick through the combs for winter passages; make a frame the size of my hive, three inches deep, without top or bottom, remove the honey-board, and set the frame on the top of the hive, and fill it with dry corn-cobs; put on the cap, and they are safe."

The plan which has proved most successful and economical is that of wintering bees in a room or cellar prepared for the purpose. The apartment must be dark, dry, and of a low uniform temperature, not falling below 320 and never exceeding 40° Fahrenheit. Bees thus located consume one-third less honey and come out in the spring strong and healthy. Care must be taken to give the hive placed in cellars proper ventilation; otherwise the most disastrous results will ensue, the bees becoming restless, consuming honey, and leaving the hives, and thus perishing in the room. Mr. R. Dart, of Wisconsin, says: "My bees are wintered in a dry cellar, thirty-two by thirty-six feet, holding one hundred swarms. I carry them into the cellar the first of December and bring them out during the month of March, on warm, sunny days. I pack them closely on benches in the cellar, leaving the box and working-holes open, and see that all the swarms have honey enough to support them until taken back to their summer stands. I visit them but once a month, and see that they are not disturbed. When breeding commences, the last of February, I change the air in the cellar every night. By this management I do not lose a single swarm through the winter. Many of my swarms did not consume six pounds of honey while in the cellar last winter." Bees wintered on their summer stands will consume through the winter thirty pounds of honey, while those wintered in cellars will consume but little over six pounds per hive, thus effecting a saving of twenty-four pounds to the hive, giving, in an apiary of one hundred colonies, 2,400 pounds of honey, which, at twenty cents per pound, would amount to $480, a sum sufficient to pay for the building.

North of forty degrees of latitude it is necessary to give winter protection, if bees are to be kept with profit. The cellar or root-house can

generally be used for storing the colonies. Henry C. Blynn, Columbia County, New York, states that he is building a wintering house, with triple walls all around, filled with straw and sawdust, the whole two feet thick, and then clapboarded on the outside of the studding. The greatest attention is paid to wintering bees in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, where they could not be kept without protection, except at continual less. It is to be hoped that the bee-keepers will begin to pay more attention to this important subject. It would annually effect a saving of thousands of pounds of honey.

In the South the winters are so mild that the bees need little or no protection during that season. They need, however, protection in the summer from the hot rays of the sun. This is accomplished by placing the hives under sheds or large trees. The greatest attention should also be given to ventilation, in order to prevent the heat from melting the combs.

Rev. J. V. Allison, of Ogle County, Illinois, writing in reference to burying bees, says: "This season a neighbor, who keeps no bees, told me that, when living with his father, some twenty years since, he and his brothers were going to take up a stock late in the fall; as an experiment, they drummed the bees out into an empty hive, and with them clustered in the top, buried the hive in the ground so deep that there were six inches of dirt over the top of it, and they left it thus buried till the following April. When brought out of their winter quarters the bees, he said, were alive, and, after warming up, flew freely: but having nothing to eat, and not being fed, they died in the course of three days." Can this be true? We give it as a singular case.

FOUL-BROOD.

The returns show that this contagious disease is not extensively prevalent in the United States. It has, however, made its appearance in various portions of many States: in Floyd County, Georgia; Fayette and Hancock Counties, Illinois; Anne Arundel County, Maryland; Winona and Wright Counties, Minnesota; Clark County, Missouri; Iredell, Caldwell, Columbia, Currituck, and Herford Counties, North Carolina; New York, Schenectady, and Montgomery Counties, New York; Cumberland, Jefferson, Luzerne, Washington, and Warren Counties, Pennsylvania; Richland County, South Carolina; Milwaukee and Walworth Counties, and Sullivan Township, Wisconsin; and Hartford County, Connecticut.

Putrid foul-brood is a disease which attacks the young brood of the hive, showing itself fully after the larvæ have been sealed up. It may be known by the viscous, gelatinous, and yeast-like appearance of the decomposing brood, the unpleasant odor arising from the hive, and by the sunken covers of the cells. The cause of foul-brood has been, until recently, involved in doubt, but late discoveries in Germany have thrown much light upon its origin. Mr. Lamprecht alleges that he has discovered the cause of the disease. His theory is this: "The chyme, which the workers prepare from honey and pollen by partial digestion, and with which the larvæ are fed, contains a nitrogenous, plastic, formatice substance, from which all the organs and tissues of the larvae are derived and composed ; and precisely because of this its complicated composition it is peculiarly susceptible of rapid decomposition when exposed to air and moisture; that is, to undergo fermentation and putrefaction. It is hence obvious that pollen, even though having undergone only a partial decomposition, must affect the bodies of bees and larvæ