No._6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 337 



will have throe colonies with which to begiu the second year, men 

 he will have successively to be^jiu each year, U, 27, 81, 2i3, 72U, 2,187, 

 6,5G1, and the tenth year he will begin the season with l'J,G83 

 colonies to work for him. A single colony has gathered 2UU pounds 

 oi honey or more, and at 20 cents a pound, that makes $4U.0U per 

 colony, and the total yield from 11),G83 colonies will give the snug 

 sum of $787,32U.OO, to say nothing of all the crops he has had in 

 previous years. 



Certainly that looks very attractive on paper, and the glib-tongued 

 patent-hive vender can add embellishments by saying that with his 

 hive even better results can be obtained; that there are many cases 

 on record in which 200 pounds per colony have been exceeded, and 

 In some cases 50(1 or GOO pounds has been the figure. He may also 

 say that three, four and even five or six swarms have been known 

 to issue from one colony in a season. But there are some things 

 he does not mention. He does not mention that the cases he gives 

 are very exceptional cases; that instead of such a continuous flow^ of 

 success, years of failure may be expected, in which the bees will 

 fail to gather their own living, and will all die if not fed, and that 

 the wonderful yields mentioned are very few and far between, occur- 

 ring in remarkable localities that fall outside the State of Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



As a matter of fact, no such results as given in the figures men- 

 tioned have ever been obtained, and it is morally certain that they 

 never will be obtained. If more than one swarm issues from a 

 colony, the likelihood is that all after the first will be weaklings, 

 of little value that will not survive the winter. If from any con- 

 siderable number of colonies, a man obtains for a series of years an 

 average of thirty pounds per colony, he has no reason to complain, 

 and if his yearly average reaches fifty he has something to boast 

 of. The man in search of a fortune need hardly turn to bee-keeping, 

 and the number is small of those who depend on bee-keeping alone 

 for a livelihood. 



And yet it is true that in many a case there is nothing about a 

 farm that pays better for the capital invested and the amount of 

 labor involved than bee-keeping. If a professional bee-keeper near 

 by has an apiary of fifty or more colonies, depending largely upon 

 them for a living, it may be part of kindness and of wisdom for you 

 to have nothing to do with bees. If the territory is already occupied 

 by his bees, your flowers wall be properly fertilized with no care on 

 your part, and every additional colony you plant will be just so much 

 taken from his income without a corresponding addition to your own. 

 But if the territory is unoccupied, you may find profit in keeping at 

 least a few colonies. 



22—6—1901 



