64 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



ing into bloom. The general bloom 

 will not appear until the last of 

 February or first of March. Our 

 saw palmetto, which promised so 

 favorably in January, has come to a 

 standstill owing to the continued 

 damp spell. Its huge brother, the 

 cabbage palmetto, blooms later 

 and furnishes the most abundant 

 and the finest honey produced in 

 the state.. 



I hope to be able to give some 

 information in regard to the value 

 of orange blossoms as a honey- 

 producer. I have fed a few colo- 

 nies in order to see if there is any 

 marked difference in brood rearing 

 which at this date is in their favor. 



Feb. 1, 1885. 



C. G. Ferris. 



is beekeeping profitable.'' 

 Ed, Am. Apictjltdrist : 



In most of the works on "Bees" " 

 that I have read, beekeeping is 

 represented as being "a fair busi- 

 ness in which to embark. You 

 cannot mention any business that 

 is so convenient and desirable as 

 an occupation, etc." 



The usual history of bees, de- 

 scriptions of queen, drone and 

 worker, the author's reversible, sin- 

 gle, duplex and quadruplex hive 

 (from one of which an enormous 

 yield was taken in 18 — ) and G. 

 M. Doolittle's report for '77 are 

 innocently dovetailed in. Then the 

 question "Who should keep bees?" 

 is asked and echo answers "Every- 

 body." In estimates of profits I 

 fail to note any charge for services 

 of the owner or his assistants or 

 for the depreciation in value of 

 utensils, etc. In other occupa- 

 tions before any profits are arrived 

 at, the salaries of the various offi- 

 cials are charged as is also the es- 

 timated amount of depreciation in 

 value of stock, tools, etc. For 



instance, let a man purchase a 

 schooner say for $20,000. This ves- 

 sel will rot down say in ten years. 

 Should she net the owner $2000 

 per annum over her expenses, then 

 at the end of ten years he would 

 ■ have his $20,000 back but no prof- 

 its on the investment and he would 

 be out a large amount of interest. 

 Bee houses, clamps, hives, frames, 

 extractors, foundation mills, etc., 

 also depreciate in value and as this 

 point is not generally touched upon 

 I would beg leave to ask through 

 the "Apiculturist" : — 



1. Charging fair salaries for 

 work done, for necessary expenses, 

 and for depreciation in the value 

 of accessories, does beekeeping 

 pay? 



2. If yes, then suppose a spe- 

 cialist having a fair field for opera- 

 tions where basswood is fairly plen- 

 tiful, say on some line of railroad 

 where his apiaries could be located 

 about every four miles and running 

 them say for extracted honey at 10 

 cts. per pound, how many colonies 

 would he require to have to ensure 

 him an average salar3' of a first- 

 class clerk or say from $1000 to 

 $1200 per annum over and above 

 expenses and depreciation ? 



3. How many assistants would 

 he I'equire to have during the honey 

 yield to operate these colonies suc- 

 cessfully ? 



4. Given a first-class hive and 

 fixtures, how many colonies could 

 one man examine and extract 

 honey from in a day of ten hours 

 hard work? 



5. With proper assistants how 

 many colonies run for extracted 

 honey could one apiarist success- 

 fully oversee ?^ 



Apistically yours. 

 Apis Canadensis. 



Kingston, Canada, Jan. 24, 1884. 



1 Will some of tliose who have had experi- 

 ence in these mattei-s please send answers to 

 tliese questions for our next number ?— Ed. 



