Great Falls tribune., 1921-08-10
MONTANA BEES
RACE NEVADA'S
FOR Low SCORE
Each State Has $4,000 Hives,
Smallest Number in Noun
tain District.

With approximately 1900 hives q
bees upon the farms within their
boundaries. Montana and Nevada are
running neck and neck for the tail
end position in the bee industry of the
mountain states, according to figures
from the bureau of census which have
just been made public by the depart
ment Of commerce. If the rate of in
crease in Montana during the next ten
in the last ten years, the Treasure
state will be far in advance of Neva
da. If it's rate of increase remains the
same, it will be ahead of Wyoming and
New Mexico and next to Idaho and
Utah, each of which states have at
the present time about $4,000 hives of
bees.
Double in Decade.
In 1910 Montana had only few
more than 5000 hives on its farms.
The number was nearly double that in
1920. Nevada in 1910 mad 5000 hives
and in 1920 it had 1000. The per
centage increase in Montana during
the ten year period was SS.8 and in
Nevada 42S. The only mountain state
in which the percentage of increase
was greater than in Montana was
Wyoming with 2O5.1. In 1910 Wyom-
AAA6 Auu HscVO uIfCS VI DrcS anu ILL
1920 it had increased them to 14.OOO.
The number of hives of bees on farms
in the United States on January 1,
1920, according to the Fourteenth
Census, was 3,47e,34e, as compared
with 3,445, ,OO6 in 1910, showing an in
crease of 31.34O, or O9 per cent. In
making comparisons between these two
years the change in the date of enum-
Grafton, from April IS in 1910 to Jan
uary l in 1920, should be taken into
consideration.
Severe Winters Hinder.
Especially in states where the win
ters are severe, the number of hives Of
bees on farms in April of any year is
likely to be considerably less than the
number in January. In such states the
1920 figures may be somewhat too high
for fair comparison with 1910 1t is
probable, therefore, that count Of
the hives Of bees in April, 1920, would
have shown a decrease. as compared
with the number in 1910, rather than
even slight increase.
The states reporting the largest num-
ber of hives of bees on farms on Jan
uary 1, 1920, were Texas. with 235,111;
Tennessee, with 191,S9S; California,
with 1SO,719; North Carolina. with
1853, 1856; Illinois, with 162,63O; Mis-
souri,, with 157,67s; Kentucky. with
1876, ,SS9; and Alabama, with 153, ,766.
These eight states are the only ones
which reported over 10000 hives of
bees in 1920. Tennessee showed the
greatest absolute increase, with A.
AT more hives of bees in 1920 than
in 1910. and Oklahoma was second,
with 27,330 more hives in 1920 than |
in 1910.
Honey and Wax.
The production Of honey in 1919 was |
55. .261 .552 pounds. as against 54,814, |
$50 pounds in 1909 an increase of O.S |
per cent. The production of honey is |
fairly uniformly distributed throughout |
the United States. Six states reported |
more than 100000 pounds of honey
produced in 1919 as follows: Calfor
MIA, 5.5O1, ,73S pounds; Texas, 5,026, ,O95
pounds; New York, 3,223.323 pounds;
Iowa. 2,S4O,O25 pounds; Wisconsin, q
676,683 pounds; and Colorado, 2,493,-
$50 pounds.
California. although ranking first in
1919 and 1909 in amount of honey pro-
duced reported 4,762,977 pounds less
in 1919 than in 1909, this being a de-
crease Of 464 per cent. Texas show
ed the greatest absolute increase in
production of honey, with 1925 ,99S
pounds more in 1919 than in 1909.
Other notable increases were in Wash
ington 1.O92, ,626 pounds) and Wyom-
ing f945, 5,349 pounds.)
The production of wax was S26,539
pounds in 1919, as against 904.S87
pounds in 1909, representing decrease
of 1928 hounds or 81 per cent