THE HONEY PLANTS AND CONDITIONS OP BEEKEEPING IN THE DIFFERENT STATES

MAINE

Total area, 38,040 square miles. About 140 miles from the coast a watershed crosses the state from west to east, dividing its surface into two drainage slopes. The northern slope, which has an extreme width of 80 miles, is so poorly drained in its middle and western portions that there are many swamps and lakes and it remains an uninhabited wilderness. The southern slope in its western portion is hilly or mountainous, but eastward becomes more level in Hancock and Washington counties. The coast, which is noted for its scenic beauty, is fringed with a series of narrow rocky ridges running far out into the sea, between which are deep fiord valleys forming bays and river mouths. Granite is the prevailing rock in the western portion of the state and is abundant in every county; but there are many beds of limestone. All of Maine was glaciated, and as a result there are large areas of barren rocks, and the hills are covered with a thin sterile soil mixed with gravel and boulders. The more fertile valley soils are underlaid by a deposit of clay and boulders known as hardpan. Of the 19,000,000 acres within its borders only five and one-half million acres are in farms. Much of the land is unfit for agriculture and can never be cultivated.

There are no good locations along the coast, and the counties bordering on the ocean have but few bees. The honey plants are willows, maples, dandelion, fruit bloom, white clover, alsike clover, raspberry, sumac, willow-herb, and goldenrod, but none of them are sources of a large amount of honey. There is usually a fair flow in June and July from the clovers, while in the fall the goldenrods are the main dependence of the beekeeper for winter stores. Near Bangor, on the Penobscot River, the locations are equally poor, and more honey is stored from wild raspberry than from any other plant. In Hancock County, near Ellsworth, there are about a dozen apiaries of 6 colonies each. As high as 48 pounds of surplus have been obtained, but the average is much less. In Washington County, in the southeast corner, clover is of little value, and goldenrod is the chief dependence. There is one yard which contains 32 colonies. At Addison an apiary of 28 colonies reports good results from clover, willow-herb, and goldenrod. At Machias the blueberry barrens are important.

In the central part of the state, at Dover, conditions are better; bees are fairly profitable, and a failure is almost unknown; but there is no one who makes beekeeping his sole occupation. The apiaries average from 15 to 20 colonies, but one