TRANSACTIONS OF HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 279 



received considerable attention. In what is called the Middle Ages, a 

 vast amount of wax was used for candles for the Romish churches 

 throughout Christendom. At the present day many are making bee- 

 keeping a specialty, and by keeping pace with the intelligence of the age 

 and the modern apiarian appliances one-half more honey can be raised 

 now than could be a few years ago. For the amount of capital and labor 

 bestowed, I think it pays far better than any other rural pursuit ; but, 

 like all other kinds of business, it requires skill, labor and perseverance, 

 and with these and a favorable season it is a profitable occupation. But 

 I would not advise all or any of you to rush into bee-keeping. Allow me 

 to show you a more excellent way. If there is a bee-keeper within three 

 or four miles of you, encourage him not only with your sympathy, but by 

 a free exchange of your produce for his, and I am sure it will place upon 

 your table an article unsurpassed, not only for pleasure but for health. 

 The bee-keeper's interest and yours ought to run in the same direction, 

 for without bees in your garden you would have less fruit. I will now 

 endeavor to make this plain. 



The Maker and Ruler of the universe never works without means ; 

 and the adaptation of means to ends calls forth our wonder and admira- 

 tion. Now, one of the means He has put into operation to secure an 

 end is the honey-bee. Lured both by beauty and fragrance, it carries 

 from flower to flower that fine, subtle dust, pollen, and thus insures 

 abundant and perfect fertilization. It is admitted by all who have paid 

 any attention to the subject that bees not only improve the quality, but 

 increase the quantity of fruit. A. S. Packard says: "The great use in 

 nature of the bee is the securing of a good crop and the permanence of 

 the best varieties of fruit ; for it has been noticed that fruit-trees are 

 more productive when bees are among them, for when the bees have been 

 removed the fruit crop has diminished." A bee-keeper at Potsdam 

 writes to him that his trees yield decidedly larger crops since he estab- 

 lished an apiary in his orchard, and the annual crop is now more certain 

 and regular than before. Baroness Burdette Coutts, in England, had a 

 peach-house, but got very little fruit till they introduced a swarm of Italian 

 bees, when they had an abundance of fruit. 



Many honest people think that fruit in some way is injured when 

 the honey is taken away from the flowers by the bees, but this is a great 

 mistake. A few years ago, in the town of Wenham, Mass., some fruit- 

 growers came to the sage conclusion that one of their neighbors' bees 

 were a great damage to their fruit by visiting the flowers. The subject 

 was discussed for and against ; a town meeting was called, where one man 

 declared that the bees, by taking away the honey out of the flowers, 

 made his fruit wormy and sour, and so they voted that the bees must go. 

 Now for the result. An eye witness writes: "All our fruit-trees bloomed 

 profusely; apples and cherries never looked better and more promising, 

 yet I venture to say that there never was so little fruit raised in Wenham 

 as that year. The vote was reconsidered, and the bees were allowed to 

 come back." Prof. Gray says there is no doubt that the sole use and object 

 of honey in blossoms is to attract insects, so that they may in their visits 



