1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



53 



"Low piece of wet ground, indeed!'''' remarks 

 our better half, over our shoulder — "I shoukl 

 thhik so, from the condition in which I found 

 your Sunday gaiters, Mr. Novice, and the time 

 them I liad in getting ready for you to go to 

 church !" 



"But don't you see you shouldn't bother a 

 fellow ? Now we don't know where we were 

 last." 



"In the mud, Mr. Novice, I can certify to 

 that!" 



And now she is gone, we will take iip our 

 thread again. Well, the low wet ground was 

 covered with tall shellbark hickories in full 

 bloom ; and never did buckwheat field or orchard 

 present a grander jubilee in the way of humming 

 industry. 



We got home satisfied, just as our neighbors 

 were "getting up," and were thinking of claim- 

 ing as an excuse that we were not more sinful 

 than they, had not our minister said in his ser- 

 mon, a few hours after, that it was none of our 

 business what our neighbors did, and that our 

 chance of heaven would not be one whit better, 

 whatever they did. 



We will only add that if a spirit should be 

 cultivated of admiring and enjoying the beauties 

 of the works of our Creator, the advantage of a 

 five o'clock ramble across the fields, in contrast 

 with loafing in bed, would make a vast difference 

 with 



Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Unparalleled Yield of Honey ! 



Unprecelented and Astonishing Success!! 



A Young Lady's Report, for 1871. 



Mr. Editor : — If your time is not too valu- 

 able and space not too scarce, please insert the 

 following short account of the last few months 

 with my bees. 



It was on the 29th of May, that my father 

 came home from his northern apiary, and told 

 me that I was to take charge of it the next day 

 (May 30th). It was nothing very unusual to 

 me, because I have done so yearly for the last 

 four years, and thei-efore I was ready immedi- 

 ately to enter my services. 



June and July had always been the most 

 lonesome months of the year for me, and so the 

 former joroved to be this year, but the latter was 

 far different from any I overlived, as you will 

 hear hereinafter. 



When I first came here I had only forty-eiglit 

 stocks to take care of, and indeed I must say 

 that it seemed almost imi^ossible for me to stay 

 with so few, as I had been used to have at least 

 over one hundred. 



During the month of June, I had thirty-eight 

 young swarms from the forty-eight ; but still 

 they were far from being enough to give me a 

 chance to spend all my time in attending to 

 them. 



When I came home one evening, to report to 

 father (as 1 do every Saturday), I complained to 

 him of my few hives, and told him that though 



they were all very busy, and doing their very 

 best, I could not be satisfied ; so lie i)romised to 

 send me more in a day or two. Two days after- 

 ward, I received a load with eighteen hives ; in 

 about a week another ; and some days after- 

 ward a third one. Then I thought that there 

 would be more of a chance to be doing some- 

 thing, and so indeed there was. 



The stocks which father sent me were mostly 

 young swarms, some of which swarmed twice 

 again, others only once, and most of them only 

 once ; so that after the 1st of .Inly I had nine- 

 teen more young swarms, and a little honey, as 

 you will soon learn. 



June 30th, father was here to examine my 

 hives, when he also made twenty double hives, 

 from which I was to extract honey about every 

 three days ; as he thought that during that time 

 they would be filled. July 5th, I extracted my 

 first half-barrel, which was one hundred and 

 eighty-five (185) pounds. When I was through 

 with it, I felt pretty well tired out, and thought 

 it was quite a task for one day ; but I had then 

 no idea of what was still to be done. July Sth 

 and 9tli, I extracted Ij barrels, so that I then 

 had two barrels. July 14th, I extracted 1^ bar- 

 rels, and during the rest of the week 2^ barrels ; 

 July 17th, two barrels ; July 19th and 20th, one 

 barrel ; and four or five days afterward filled the 

 tenth barrel. By this time I had given up the 

 notion of half a barrel being a day's work. 

 You will bear in mind, Mr. Editor, that I was 

 all alone ; so that I not only extracted the 

 honey, but also took out the frames, and put 

 them in again. 



The room in which I lived all this time was 

 so filled up with barrels and boxes that I feared 

 its breaking down, and was obliged to have some 

 of them removed to another apartment. 



This shows what can be done with bees, when 

 there is a good season, and they -are properly 

 managed. I am very certain that those twenty 

 double hives, which were mostly young swarms, 

 gave me three times as much honey as they 

 would have given me, had I not extracted the 

 honey. Had there been two strong men, instead 

 of a girl of seventeen years, to take care of more 

 double. hives, we might have had a larger num- 

 ber of barrels of honey. 



With the honey extracted at home and at our 

 southern apiary (of which my elder sister takes 

 charge), we will have nearly thirty-five (35) bar- 

 rels of honey, each barrel containing three hun- 

 dred and seventy (370) pounds. How much 

 box honey we will have, I cannot yet tell ; but 

 it will not be a little— perhaps 12,000 or 15,000 

 pounds. And all this honey was gathered by 

 two hundred and ninety (290) hives— all that 

 my father had left after his spring sales — with 

 their increase, making in all six hundred and 

 fourteen (G14) hives. If the month of August 

 should be as favorable for bees as it was last 

 year, we may have another five thousand (5000) 

 pounds of fall honey. 



Does not this show that bee-keeping pays? 

 Even if bees did sometimes sting me, so that I 

 got almost discouraged, when the time came 

 again to put ou or take off honey boxes, or ex- 

 tract again (which was almost every two days), 



