370 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



BEE KEEPING: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS ADVANCE- 

 MENT IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY BURTON N. GATES, A.M., CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS., 

 EXPERT IN APICULTURE, BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, U. S. DEPART- 

 MENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Apiculture is proverbially the poetry of agriculture. Of agriculture 

 George Washington said: "It is the most noble industry of man." 

 We would therefore flatter ourselves in being fortunately interested 

 in an art, worthy of the most strenuous efforts to advance it. 



As a business proposition, notwithstanding the general belief that 

 the business end (of the bee) is not worth while, we have sufficient 

 evidence from all thrifty bee keepers, in all States, that keeping bees 

 pays. Not a little care is necessary, and this attention is imperative 

 at just the right moment; but on the investment the interest is great. 



Some have considered that bee keeping has had its day; true, the 

 old style. We have done with the box hive and with honey strained 

 through an old body-blanket, as the Indian used to do. We have 

 found that the crops can be increased, the ease of procuring them 

 increased and the profits advanced, by modern manipulation. 



Awakening, renascence, rejuvenation, modern-method progress, 

 larger crops and better prices symbolize bee keeping to-day. Massa- 

 chusetts is no exception ; she responds to the stimulus with the world 

 as a whole. But as yet the response is not general; it is noticeable 

 only here and there, as some one is having his eyes opened to the fact 

 that several times the old returns from a colony of bees are possible 

 under modern manipulation. Furthermore, we must better realize 

 the unquestionably good resources in this State, which are constantly 

 going to waste unutilized. We believe it possible for bee keeping in 

 Massachusetts to rival that of any of the northeastern States ; in order 

 to do it, however, we must first become acquainted with the resources 

 of the State, with modern manipulation, and then spread wide the 

 news among all bee keepers. 



Before we consider how to better the existing bee industry, and be- 

 fore discussing the natural conditions for the industry in this State, 

 we may well observe what a few have demonstrated can be done with 

 bees by no more than a little judicious manipulation. 



