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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



apartment, and then swarm. After 

 swarming time is over, they get strong 

 and finish the partly-filled sections, and 

 do not swarm as long the honey-flow 

 lasts, as Mr. White says. My bees 

 swarm once, and some twice. 



They always have plenty of stores for 

 winter, except late after-swarms, and 

 one year (in 1884 or 1885) we had a 

 drouth, but that is an exception. So 

 Mr. White can see that my black bees 

 do not have the hive full of brood, when 

 they ought to have it full of honey. I 

 I believe that with some the blacks will 

 do better, and with others the Italians 

 are best ; still others have no luck with 

 any bees. 



There is much written about the lal- 

 ians being gentler than the blacks, and 

 vice versa. I think it is not in the bees, 

 at all. Bees do not like every person. 

 For instance, if I have visitors, I gen- 

 erally show them the bees. Some visitors 

 the bees cannot bear ; three or four bees 

 will get after them, and run them out of 

 the apiary ; others the bees do not 

 bother. I know a man who would like 

 to keep bees, but the bees cannot endure 

 him. 



About being prosperous in bee-keeping, 

 it is the same difference as in stinging 

 qualities with some persons. I know 

 many who kept bees, but were not suc- 

 cessful, where others in the same locality 

 did well with the bees. 



Bees in this locality have wintered 

 well, and are strong, with plenty of 

 stores. They are working on the maples 

 on warm days. There are fine prospects 

 for a good honey season, if the weather 

 is favorable. 



Santa Glaus, Ind., March 28, 1892. 



IniDortance of tlie InJiistry of Apiculture 



R. S. KUSSELL. 



Apiculture is the science of keeping 

 bees, and it seems that no ancient his- 

 tory is complete without due considera- 

 tion of this most useful and industrious 

 little insect ; and from Genesis to Reve- 

 lations in the Holy Book, may be found 

 the most beautiful references. God, in 

 his supreme wisdom, placed honey in 

 comparison of all products, second only 

 to milk in importance. He promised a 

 " land flowing with milk and honey," 

 plainly indicating the two most imi)or- 

 tant industries of our model country. 

 Now, that we possess the "promised 

 land," and have a first-class creamery in 

 almost every town of our grand State, 



and the milk secured, is it not high time 

 that we cease talking " pickle and can- 

 ning factories," until we reach them in 

 their proper order? 



Our honey industry is next on the list. 

 Strange that our government should pay 

 2 cents bounty on 4 cents worth of 

 sugar, and nothing on 20 cents worth of 

 honey ! Yet we have unimpeachable 

 testimony that our land is "flowing with 

 honey." We have nearly 5,000,000 

 square miles of territory with an esti- 

 mated capacity of 10,000 pounds of 

 honey on each square mile per annum, 

 making the enormous amount of 50,- 

 000,000,000 pounds of honey per 

 annum ! This honey, at 20 cents per 

 pound, would make in even money $10,- 

 000,000,000 per annum for Uncle 

 Sam. Indiana's share of this honey is 

 enormous. 



Be it said to the shame of the would- 

 be intelligence of the present age, that 

 this great source of wealth is almost 

 totally ignored in many parts of our 

 beautiful State, either through base 

 ignorance or superstition, while the in- 

 habitants are blindly striving to out- 

 rival each other in heaping the now 

 over-burdened granaries of the world 

 with corn and wheat at starvation 

 prices. Bettor sell your teams and buy 

 a few cows and some bees, and be a 

 dealer in milk and honey, and improve 

 your leisure in reading bee and dairy 

 literature. 



Do not fear that you will overstock 

 the country with bees, as 200 colonies 

 in one yard, properly managed, will do 

 equally as well as if scattered a mile 

 apart, yet (hark !) I hear some skeptic 

 say that is not so. But, when I tell him 

 the main honey-flow only lasts about 15 

 days in the year, and during that time it 

 is utterly impossible to get bees enough 

 to gather it, the scales may drop from 

 his eyes. 



In Germany, 900 colonies are kept at 

 a profit on each square mile, and surely 

 we have a much richer soil and a purer 

 atmosphere than Germany or any other 

 country of the Eastern Continent ; yet 

 we can well look to Germany for lessons 

 of economy, in developing the great 

 wealth of our most wonderful country — 

 the " promised land," "a land flowing 

 with milk and honey." 



Strange that it has taken over 100 

 years for our people to learn that milk 

 is our most important product, and no 

 doubt it will require 100 years longer 

 to learn that our honey is tlu; next in 

 importance, although it was so declared 

 by the Creator almost from the very 

 beginning. 



