as follows: “White clover yields very little nectar. Not much alsike clover is grown here. In spring the fields are yellow with dandelion blossoms. Red maple and redbud bloom in great numbers. Then comes the tulip tree. Sumac is very abundant, and yields well. Raspberries, blackberries, and huckleberries abound on this the 29th day of November. Chestnut, oak, walnut, and hickory furnish pollen, but no nectar. The cultivation of buckwheat is largely confined to Garrett County, which, in 1919, reported 5000 acres. There is also a large acreage of fruit-trees of bearing age. In the mountains beekeeping is pursued chiefly by farmers as a side line, and improved apparatus and methods are required in order to obtain the best results.”

Maryland, says E. N. Cory, is not considered a beekeeping state, and the average yield per colony is extremely low; but there are a number of beekeepers who have made excellent records with a limited number of colonies. The honey produced is almost entirely retailed within this state, which enables many to make a success which would not be possible if they had to ship to a wholesale market. There are many attractive opportunities for small beekeepers with only a few colonies, as the growing season is long and the honey plants varied. There are several beekeepers in the state who are making an excellent living from honey and the sale of bees and queens. It may be that the possibilities in honey production are underrated, particularly in the Piedmont Plateau section, and in the mountain valleys of Washington and Allegany counties.

VIRGINIA

Total area, 42,627 square miles. Virginia, like Maryland, may be divided into three provinces: The Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and a western mountainous district. In the Coastal Plain, or Tidewater Virginia, an area embracing about 11,000 square miles, there are comparatively few beekeepers. Along the coast are extensive marshes, while inland the soil is sandy, and covered with a forest of long-leaved pine. Few counties contain more than two or three hundred colonies, nine reporting less than one hundred each; but the counties of eastern Virginia are of small size. In Westmoreland and Essex counties the yards range from 1 to 20 colonies, and on an average obtain about 40 pounds of surplus. The chief honey plants are alfalfa, clover, black locust, gallberry, cowpeas, goldenrod, and asters. At Center Cross, Essex County, the soil is a red clay, and the principal crops are corn and wheat. This locality will not support more than 25 colonies in one apiary. The seasons are not reliable, and it is a country without a history so far as beekeeping is concerned. At Achilles, Gloucester County, on the coast, the extent of the bee pasturage is greatly reduced by the large area of marshland. In an apiary of 30 colonies an average of about 50 sections is obtained. Partridge-pea, which begins to bloom about July 10, was formerly the most important honey plant; but it has become much less abundant of late years, owing to truck crops replacing wheat and oats.

In the southeast corner, around Norfolk, large tracts of land are devoted to market gardens, and the growing of watermelons, peanuts, and sweet potatoes. From one to three crops are produced annually. Usually little honey is gathered away from the swamps. The principal honey plants are gallberry, tulip tree, gum trees, blackberry, sumac, huckleberry, motherwort, sweet pepperbush, goldenrod, and asters. There are near Norfolk about twenty small yards, which average not far from 25 colonies.

The great Dismal Swamp is not a desirable location for the production of honey. The growth of plant life is so luxuriant and dense that it is difficult to