148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The convention met at two o'clock, Mr. J. J. Webb, of 

 New Haven, in the chair. The first speaker was Mr. Alonzo 

 Bradley, who delivered a lecture on Bees. 



BEE-KEEPING BY AMATEURS AND NON- 

 PROFESSIONALS. 



By Alonzo Bradley, Lee, Mass. 



In this age of bee literature I do not propose to present new 

 ideas, or any new-fangled theories, neither do I propose to show 

 you any new and easy way of accumulating wealth, but to bring 

 before you the old ideas in a simple form. If I had been invited 

 to talk to old experienced bee-keepers, I should have adopted a 

 very different course from the present. 



This enterprise, like all other ^'■side issues''' connected with farm- 

 ing, must pass under this ordeal: ^'■vnll it payl^^ This may be 

 answered briefly, yes. Then again viewed from another stand- 

 point, no. I need not present a long array of facts and figures to 

 convince you that it will pay. Success in this, like all other 

 branches of industry, requires enterprise, energy, tact, and love 

 for the calHng. Every one is not calculated for a farmer, or for 

 a merchant, or lawyer, or in fact for any one calling, but some for 

 one and some for another department, and some have not energy 

 enough to succeed in any. These may be called Drones. 



In the State of Connecticut, there are carloads of honey which 

 go to waste every year, for the simple reason that there are no 

 bees to gather it. Mr. M. Quimby (now deceased), who was one 

 of the most noted and successful bee-keepers in America, stated 

 that every acre of land, on an average, produced one pound of 

 honey each year. This is equivalent to twenty-five stocks within 

 a radius of one and one-half miles from any given point. At this 

 very modest estimate the State of Connecticut, containing about 

 three million acres, would produce three million pounds of honey, 

 equal to one hundred and fifty carloads of ten tons each; this at 

 ten cents per pound would amount to the snug little sum of three 

 hundred thousand dollars. 



