68 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



BEE CULTURE. 



By O. J. L,owry of Jericho, Delivered at a Meeting of the 

 Board of Agriculture at New Haven, January 27th, 1899. 



The apiarian industry of the United States is largely a devel- 

 opment of the last 40 years. There was occasionally an 

 individual engaged in this work long before that time. In the 

 year 1869, according to the United States census report, this 

 country produced 14,702,815 pounds of honey. We find that 

 in the year 1889, according to the United States census, we pro- 

 duced 63,894,186 pounds of honey, and it was estimated there 

 were 300,000 persons engaged in the production of honey. 



Addison county takes the lead in honey production in Ver- 

 mont and during the past two seasons it is quite certain that 

 this county produced 200,000 pounds of honey each season. This 

 means ten car loads of ten tons each, and it is quite evident 

 there is no town in Vermont where bees could not be kept at 

 more or less profit. If the honey of Addison county netted the 

 producers 12 cents per pound, we find $24,000 of wealth added 

 to one county, and all comes from what would go to waste, if 

 not for bees to gather the nectar of the flowers. Thousands of 

 dollars of sweet are annually going to waste in the State of 

 Vermont for lack of bees. Intelligent action is necessary along 

 this line, as well as in other branches of Vermont agriculture. 

 If we need to use brains as well as muscle in the production of 

 grain, milk and butter or in the production of fruit, we need 

 also proper methods along the line of bee-keeping. A person 

 in any business must have some love or taste for that business, or 

 he ts not likely to make a success of his calling. Close observa- 

 tion and study are necessary in bee culture. A person that keeps 

 bees should know their habits and understand the flora of his 

 locality. If we expect the honey flow to begin June 15th we 

 should strive to have a large working force at the right time 

 as it takes about 21 days from the egg for the worker bee to 

 emerge from the cell and nearly or quite 14 days before these 

 young bees go into the fields to gather honey. It will be 

 clearly seen that our queens should be doing their ve^ best at 

 egg laying at least 35 days before, the contemplated honey flow. 

 Many do not seem to understand the great good the honey-bee 



