Bee-keepers are like people in all other callings of life. Some have the ability to manage successfully twelve or fifteen out-apiaries, and some can not operate more than the home apiary; so a bee-keeper should consider his ability or capacity to do apiary work before he begins extensive bee-keeping. It is hard to get assistance in the apiary, and we can not always depend on it; and this should be a matter for consideration. Experience is also a matter of consideration. No one should think of jumping into extensive bee-keeping without several years' practical apiary work. Location is also a matter of great importance. If you are not getting satisfactory results from the home yard, and you see no better locations around or near you, you should not attempt to spread your bee business unless you move into a more favorable location. A large honey crop should not induce you to enter an extensive bee business, for it might have been an exceptional season, and another crop like it may not be harvested in that section or locality for several years. The crops for successive years should be added, and see what the average has been, and if it will not justify the establishing of an extensive bee and honey business, it should not be embarked upon. Very often a bee-keeper with only a few colonies will get so much interested in them, or enthusiastic over the bee business, that he is completely captivated by it, and then he is apt to invest too much money in bees at once, which he should not do, but grow gradually into an extensive bee business. Bee-keepers sometimes invest money in bees beyond their ability to manage them. This is a very unwise step to take for extensive bee-keeping. Of course, no one should sell property or borrow capital to go into extensive bee-keeping, for good honey seasons do not come often, and we could not expect more than a good living from our bees except during good seasons when a large crop of honey might be harvested; then we might be able to pay something on back indebtedness, or it might be a long time before we could meet our financial obligations; so it is best to let the bees pay their way into an extensive business. If a bee-keeper will let bee-keeping be a side business and invest his surplus money from his main business in bees and apiarian appliances, he can soon have a large business established; and during that time he will gain much valuable experience in handling bees. A bee-keeper can work with his bees during spring and summer, then do something else during fall and winter, and establish himself in extensive bee-keeping in this way; but he should never let his other business cause him to neglect his bees. These are only a few things a bee-keeper should consider before he launches out into extensive bee-keeping, and with these few admonitory remarks we will now turn our attention to extensive bee-keeping. After the home yard has been established with so or 75 colonies of bees, and equipped with a good honey-house and a large work-shop in which to set up supplies we should make a survey of our section of the country in every direction, and especially take notice of the varieties of honey-plants, and note locations where they are the most abundant. After the survey has been made,and all desirable locations marked on the map which you make while viewing the country, the apiary should, be established in the most convenient and favorable location on the map; then as soon as you have bees enough, establish another apiary at the next most favorable location, and so on until you have as many bees as you want in that section. But in occupying this home territory we should not interfere with any other bee-keeper; and it should be occupied to the greatest advantage possible for the bees. Bees penetrate the location they are in, for honey, for three or four miles; but when the honey-plants are in bloom, and honey is coming in, the penetration is not extended so far--one, one and a half or two miles, perhaps, so the apiaries should be 'located over three miles apart, so that the bees in one yard will not gather the honey the bees in the other yards would get. Bees, like other living things that feed upon whatever mother Earth may send forth for them, may not do well in one pasture; for only a certain number are required to remove the supply, and all over that number will only save what others would; so too many bees should not be put in one yard. The number of colonies required to secure the honey in one location depends upon the number of honey- plants there are in it; also the uncertainity of seasons is a matter for consideration. If it is a good season there is plenty of honey in the blossoms, and it will require a large number of bees to gather it; but if it is a poor season the honey-plants will yield sparingly, and a great number of bees will visit the blossoms too often, and only a very small amount will be obtained by each bee; while if the visits were not so often the amount obtained by each bee would be greater. Some of our Southern bee-keepers keep from 75 to 200 colonies in one location; but the most successful ones are keeping only from 40 to 60, but located two or three miles apart, or somewhat closer than large apiaries. I have obtained better results by operating small apiaries, so I do not advocate large ones, taking the uncertainties into consideration. I would not be willing to risk my bee business if too much compacted.