HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 163 



If you can get a swarm that comes through properly in the 

 spring, if a full swarm, it will have from 40,000 to 60,000 by the 

 tenth of June and you will then have your colony all ready for a 

 heavy season's work. But how many times do you find them in 

 that condition ? In many instances you will find them with their 

 brood in only one or two sheets and bees in three or four, when 

 the hive should be full. 



This last year was one of the worst seasons I have ever seen 

 for bees; it was so cold. The bees had to cluster together, and 

 it was almost impossible to induce the queen to lay vigorously. 

 But by the the twentieth of June I had my queens in very good 

 condition — ten days later than it should have been. 



I might here make a great many remarks upon this bee ques- 

 tion; it is an important one. It is a question very little under- 

 stood by the mass of people throughout the United States. Had 

 you seen some of the letters received by me this last summer you 

 would have been surprised at the ignorance of some people upon 

 the subject of the honey bee. I am often surprised by the igno- 

 rance displayed in some of the questions asked me. 



As I stated here last year, there is nothing that is like the honey 

 bee. You may talk of your amber cane products; that is all 

 very good. But, gentlemen, if the people would take hold of 

 this bee question, and take hold of it intelligently, as they 

 would any other kind of business and treat it properly, they 

 needn't go to raising amber cane syrup; they can have plenty of 

 sweets and of a quality that, in my estimation, is far better than 

 all the amber cane in existence. And they can have it cheaper 

 than they can produce amber cane syrup, every time. But the 

 subject is yet comparatively new and there is little int^est taken 

 in it. The business is in its infancy, especially in some of the 

 states. In some of the Eastern states they hold their bee conven- 

 tions and there are many engaged in the business. 



Here is Mr. Taylor who has prospered in the business, and 

 others. There are some new beginners in the state that are tak- 

 ing an interest in it. I believe in twenty years from now where 

 we have one ton of honey produced, there will be hundreds of 

 tons and it will become a common article of food. 



Most of us American people do not know how to use honey. 

 When it can be had for ten and twelve cents a pound it is 

 cheaper than butter, and it is a much healthier article as well as 

 cheaper. I will say this and I can prove it, that you will not find 

 an instance where a man has a family using honey freely, where 



