the counties of Williams and Fulton and the northern part of Defiance and Henry counties, where the rock is black shale. East of this line, including a little over one-half of the state, the rock is largely black shale and sandstone, from which the surface soils have been derived by weathering. In some of this territory the farmers, urged by the county farm agents, are putting lime into the soil. Where this is being done the clovers are being grown. In the southeast section a very productive soil of limestone origin is found in Belmont, Monroe, Noble, and Morgan counties. The central and western portions of the state have been heavily glaciated, and the surface soils are derived directly from the drift; but in the southwest corner, where the land is very level, the clay and muck soils are the deposits of an old glacial lake. The poorest and thinnest soils are found on a belt of land extending north and south through the center of the state, derived from the decomposition of the shales. Beekeeping is only moderately successful in this section, many counties containing only a few colonies each. The excellent soils of the western portion of the state are largely of limestone origin, and are well adapted to support a luxuriant growth of clovers. While tobacco may be grown successfully on a great variety of soils, it favors a soil containing lime, and it is for this reason that it is so largely cultivated in the western counties. The southwestern corner of the state has a surface soil of brown silty loam of moderate fertility overlying heavy beds of glacial till. Clover does well on the southern drift, but secretes less nectar than in the northwest counties because of the higher summer temperature.

The best section of the state for beekeeping is the southern slope of the valley of the Maumee River in the northwest and the territory directly south of it. Nearly every farmer in this section is growing alsike clover for seed, and there are many farmers with 10 to 20 acres, and a few with 30 to 60 acres under cultivation. Red clover is grown, and sweet clover has become well established on ditch-banks, roadsides, and in waste places. Basswood was formerly much more abundant than it is to-day; but, even where the trees are common, it is far from dependable. A beekeeper in Wood County writes that, although he has thousands of basswood trees near his apiaries, during the past four years his bees have stored only a little basswood honey. Of secondary importance are fruit bloom, dandelion, catnip, heartsease, Spanish needles, goldenrod, and aster. On the southern slope of the Maumee Valley commercial beekeeping is at its best. There are more bees, and more honey is produced, than anywhere else in the state. Conditions are especially favorable around Tiffin, Defiance, and Delphos. The Miami Valley, farther south, according to State Bee Inspector Chas. A. Reese, is rapidly developing into one of Ohio’s best beekeeping areas.

Several counties in the northeastern part of the state furnish some clover and considerable buckwheat. Sweet clover has made a good start. There is likewise a good fall honey flow from a variety of sources, chiefly swamp plants. There is an area in the northeast corner in which apple orchards are very abundant, while pears, peaches, cherries, strawberries, and bush fruits are common south of Lake Erie. The mixed honey from fall honey plants is amber-colored, of good body, and fine flavor. The apiaries contain from 6 to 10 colonies. In Ashtabula County and the northern part of Trumbull County there are several commercial beekeepers, and a large crop of honey is often secured. It is one of the few areas in the state that are blessed by two distinct honey flows, says Reese. But in most of the counties in this comer of the state the number of colonies is limited. In Lorain County the only sources of nectar are white clover and alsike clover, hut there are several commercial beekeepers, especially around Oberlin. It is remarkable that in Medina County, where the soil is semi-acid and the conditions for beekeeping are not the best, there should have been established the largest industry for the manufacture