72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



his family to raise their own sugar by keeping bees. Honey 

 can be used in almost any way that sugar can. It can be used 

 for sweetening coffee and tea, for canning fruit, for making 

 cakes, and for making candy. Indeed, one of the large baking 

 companies, I have been told, has been buying honey by the 

 hundred-car lots. These concerns have discovered that a little 

 honey used in connection with sugar makes a cake keep soft 

 and moist. Without honey or invert sugar, they will become 

 dry and unsalable. It is safe to say that practically all of the 

 cakes and cookies in the groceries and in the bakeshops con- 

 tain a little honey. 



Now, then, if honey can be used in place of sugar, can the 

 problem of swarming be handled by the farmer? Yes. There 

 are textbooks now that show how this can be done. In your 

 own State of Massachusetts, at the Agricultural College at 

 Amherst, you have for teaching beekeeping one of the best 

 schools on the entire continent. Indeed, Massachusetts leads 

 off and stands in the very forefront in the instruction it is 

 giving on bees. Any farmer's boy or daughter can take the 

 course at the college. 



The average colony of bees will cost somewhere about $5. 

 At the present prices of honey to-day, that colony, if a normal 

 crop be secured, can bring back in value between 400 and 500 

 per cent. Indeed, I believe I am safe in saying there is nothing 

 on the farm, for the money invested, not even the hog business, 

 and that is going some, that will yield larger returns. When a 

 $5 investment in a fair year can bring back to its owner as 

 much as $25, show me something on the farm or back lot that 

 will do better. The chicken business cannot do it, because 

 the price of feed is nearly up to the price of the eggs. I have 

 been told that a number are going out of the poultry business 

 because the price of feed is so high. But in a fair season the 

 bees find their own food, and then turn around and give the 

 owner the surplus. 



I do not wish to imply that there are no losses or failures 

 with bees. Some winters they die; some seasons they have 

 to be fed to keep them from starving. Some years they will 

 not produce any surplus honey. But is there anything on the 

 farm that does not fail some seasons? 



