20 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



on four sides. Small pieces of comb were fastened in 

 the top of each box as starters. I also bought another 

 colony of bees at $7.00, and I bought Quinby's text-book, 

 "Mysteries of Bee-Keeping Explained." I think I had 

 previously read this as a borrowed book. I got 82 

 pounds of honey, worth 15 cents a pound. 



I began the year 1864 with seven colonies, which had 

 cost me $23.39 ; that is, up to that time I had paid out 

 $23.39 more for the bees than I had taken in from them, 

 reckoning interest at ten per cent, the ruling rate at that 

 time. Besides getting new hives that year, I bought a 

 colony of bees for $5.00, and twenty empty combs at 

 15 cents each. I took 54 pounds of honey, 39 pounds of 

 it being entered at 30 cents, the balance at 25 cents. 



The year 1865 opened with nine colonies, and the 

 total crop for the season was 10 pounds of honey. Alas ! 

 that it was so small, for that year it was worth 35 cents 

 a pound. 



FIRST ITALIANS. 



In 1866 I got my first Italian queen, paying R. R. 

 Murphy $6.00 for her, and the following year I paid 

 $10.00 for another to ]\Irs. Ellen S. Tupper, who was at 

 one time editor of a bee-journal. The crop for 1866 was 

 100^ pounds of honey, which that year was worth 30 

 cents. 



GETTING EVEN. 



I took 131 pounds of honey in 186T, worth 25 cents 

 a pound, and this for the first time brought the balance 

 on the right side of the ledger, for I began the season 

 of 1868 with seven colonies and had $10.40 ahead besides. 

 It will be seen, however, that bad wintering had been 

 getting in its work, for there were two colonies less than 

 there were three years before. 



There was certainly nothing brilliant in being able 

 after seven years of bee-keeping to be able to count only 



