a radius of five miles, there are a few bees. The average yield per hive is very poor, but a surplus of fifty pounds is occasionally obtained. It is the general opinion that there is not sufficient bee pasturage to permit extensive beekeeping. At Stewarts-town, five miles northward, there are seven apiaries which range in size from 1 to 20 colonies. The average surplus is twelve pounds per colony. The only honey plants of importance are wild raspberry, white clover, willow-herb, goldenrod, willows, and wild cherry. There is at present greater freedom from bee diseases in this region than in the southern part of the state. Both in Coos County and in the White Mountains the winters are very severe, and the bees are usually wintered in cellars. Northern New Hampshire is largely a rugged unreclaimed wilderness which is thinly populated.

In the counties south of the White Mountains there are many small apiaries, and a few which contain from 20 to 50 colonies; but beekeeping is always combined with some other vocation. The honey flora is wholly inadequate to support a large number of colonies. West of the Merrimac River the country is broken by hills and low mountains; but east of this river much of the land is less than 500 feet above the sea, and there are numerous picturesque lakes. The best locations are found in the valleys of the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers and in the southeast portion of the state, where the soil is fairly fertile. At Lebanon there is an apiary of 50 colonies; and in the southwest corner of Cheshire County there are reported to be fair locations for a few beekeepers. The honey plants are locust, raspberry, basswood, the clovers, sumac, goldenrod, and aster. At Nashua, on the Merrimac River, there are not far from 40 beekeepers within a radius of five miles. At Greenville, near the south border, there are half a dozen apiaries which contain from 6 to 20 colonies.

At Durham, in the southeast corner of the state, the surplus is obtained from raspberry, white clover, and alsike clover. Other species of value are willows, dandelion, fruit bloom, sumac, goldenrod, and aster. Basswood is rare, but maples are very common. Of minor importance are milkweed, mustard, willow-herb, and buckwheat. At Exeter the honey plants are the same as those at Durham, except that wild raspberry is less abundant. A surplus of more than 50 pounds per colony is seldom obtained.

The apiaries in New Hampshire rarely exceed 5 to 10 colonies, and the average is about 5. With the elimination of brood disease, and the introduction of better methods, the status of beekeeping in the southern section should be much improved. For those who have some other vocation, beekeeping as a side line can often be pursued to advantage; but for the specialist this state can offer little inducement.

VERMONT

Total area, 10,212 square miles. In Vermont, as in Maine and New Hampshire, the great ice sheet planed down and grooved the rocks, gouged out the valleys, and covered the surface with glacial drift. The best arable land in the state is found in the Champlain Valley, where the underlying rock is limestone. The soils are well adapted to fruit-growing, and the clovers flourish throughout this section. About 1500 species of flowering plants occur in the state, of which 100 are shrubs and trees. Maples, willows, sumac, cherry, raspberry, cornel, and blueberry furnish both nectar and pollen. The pulse family is represented by 46, and the Compositae by 171 species — the two families which contain the largest number of honey plants. Vermont is divided into two nearly equal portions by the Green Mountains, which are densely covered with black spruce and other evergreen trees.