The American Apiculturist. 



§. Jfournal bfbohb to Scientific anb practical gfelucpiiig. 



EXTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEM, AS SECOXD-CLASS MATTER. 



Fublished Monthly. S. M. LoCKE, Publisher & Prop'r. 



VOL. III. 



WENHAM, MASS., MAY i, i^ 



No. 



b}^ right, no interest in my crop or 

 n\v land ?" The answer to this is 

 obvious. It is, of course, quite 

 open to the agriculturist to keep 

 any number of bees he may think 

 fit ; only he must consider well in 

 how far it will pay him to add the 

 care of an apiary to his other duties. 

 No doubt, everyone farming land 

 may, with advantage, keep a few 

 colonies of bees to supply his own 

 wants in honey ; the care of them 

 will not take up too much of his 

 time, or interfere much with his 

 other labors ; but if he starts a 

 large apiary with the expectation 

 that it shall pay for itself, he must 

 either give up the greater portion 

 of his own time to it, or employ 

 skilled labor for that special pur- 

 pose ; and he must recollect that 

 the profits of beekeeping are not 

 generally so large as to afford more 

 than a fair remuneration for the 

 capital, skill, and time required to 

 be devoted to the pursuit. In any 

 case, he cannot confine the bees to 

 work exclusively on his own prop- 

 erty, unless the latter is very ex- 

 tensive. When such is the case, 

 he may find it greatly to his ad- 

 vantage to establish one or more 

 apiaries to be worked under proper 

 management, as a separate branch 

 of his undertaking ; but in every 

 case, Avhether he may incur or share 

 the risks of profit and loss in work- 

 ing an apiary or not, the thiug it- 

 self can only be a source of unmixed 

 advantage to his agricultural oper- 

 ations, and consequently, if he 

 does not occupy the ground in that 

 way himself, he should only be 



glad to see it done by any other 

 person. 



The position which is here sought 

 to be maintained, namely, that the 

 extension of apiculture cannot pos- 

 sibly be injurious, but must, on the 

 contrary, be highly advantageous 

 to agricultural interests, is deserv- 

 ing of the earnest consideration, 

 not only of those more directly 

 interested in the question, but of 

 the public generally, because, if 

 taken as established, it disposes 

 of the only diflaculty that has ever 

 been raised in the way of an in- 

 dustry which is one of no trifling 

 importance to any country, and 

 which manifestly has had so much 

 to recommend it in other respects. 

 Its importance in an economic 

 point of view must be admitted 

 when we see what is being done for 

 its development in other countries. 

 In the United States, for instance, 

 in no part of which are the natural 

 climatic advantages more favora- 

 ble, and in few parts so favorable 

 to the industry as here in New 

 Zealand, the production of honey 

 is already considerably over 30,000 

 tons, representing a value of nearly 

 a million and a half sterling per 

 annum, and is increasing rapidly 

 every year. In these islands, even 

 in the present infant state of their 

 population and land cultivation, 

 there is nothing to prevent a pro- 

 duction of two to three thousand 

 tons, worth some hundred to hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand pounds per 

 annum, being attained as soon as 

 the work is taken in hand by a 

 sufficient number of qualified per- 

 (97) 



