120 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



neglect them once means often a total loss. Most of the 

 work will have to be done during the swarming season in 

 May, June, and July. There has been so much written on 

 the subject and so many inventions and improvements made 

 in the hives that bee-keeping more than any other branch 

 of similar employment has been reduced to a science, and 

 any one can thoroughly master it in two or three years. It 

 is because its possibilities are not generally recognized that 

 so few are now engaged in it. 



The fear of stings will always deter many from entering 

 this business and so check competition from forcing prices 

 down. 



The price of honey makes it a luxury, and there will be 

 an unlimited opportunity in the crop as long as the price 

 does not get near the cost of producing, which is far below 

 the present prices. 



To use land directly is to open almost infinite opportuni- 

 ties. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 204, 

 says: "In the United States the term 'mushroom' refers 

 commercially to but a single species (Agaricus Campestris) 

 of the fleshly fungi, a plant common throughout most of the 

 temperate regions of the world, and one everywhere recog- 

 nized as edible." 



It is unfortunate that the commercial use of the term 

 "mushroom" restricts it to a single species. There are 

 about twenty-five common varieties of edible fungi hi the 

 Northern states. 



The successful cultivation of mushrooms in America has 

 not been so general as in most European countries. It is 

 in France and in England that the mushroom industry has 

 been best developed. France is the home of the industry. 

 Unusual interest has been shown in the United States in 



