THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



37 



It may oblige me to be personal. For the 

 present, however, I will only susrgest that 

 he takes for his next montii's Scripture 

 text: Matt. VII: 12— " Therefore, all 

 things wiiatsoever ye would that men 

 should do to you, do ye even so to them." 

 He also says, same page: "In the 

 American Bee Joorn.\i,, for Nov., M. J. 

 Siibbs makes quite an error when she 

 states that we received the necessary 

 instructions for building our house apiary 

 of Mr. Coe — her brother. Mr. Coe gave )is 

 no instructions, but on the contrary, ridi- 

 culed our idea of two-inch auger holes 

 and dispensing with ventilators; our 

 building was made for another purpose 

 years ago, as our rcadeis are aware, and 

 there can be no possible need of buying a 

 patent to build sucii a one as ours." We 

 give this as a companion piece U^ "Nov- 

 ice's " letter of April 80, 1875, copied above. 

 Tliey belong together — one serves to ex- 

 plain the other. 



It may be necessary to refer to this mat- 

 ter at some future time. 



If the " House Apiary " proves to be a 

 blessing to tlie world, I have my reward. 

 If it re ults in a failure, no one but my- 

 self will lose a farthing by it. 



J. S. Coe. 



Montclair, N. J., Jan. 15, 187G. 



"Scientific" Talks to Farmers. 



Our friend, " SciENTrnc,'' talks to the 

 farmers of New York in the Washing- 

 ton County Post, as follows, on the sub- 

 ject of " What Shall we Farmers do 

 Next?" 



For several years we have been engaged 

 in a specialty in connection with farm- 

 ing, that we find both pleasant and profit- 

 able. In comparison with the more ex- 

 tensive fields of labor, in which the great 

 mass of our agriculturists are employed, 

 we would hold up the art of bee culture 

 and the production of honey as second to 

 none in point of profit, for the capital in- 

 yested. 



We do not expect every one will choose 

 this pursuit, for this species of stock is 

 possessed of many sharp points of charac- 

 ter, intensely disagreeable to sensitive 

 persons; but to those who can listen to 

 their quiet music without plunging head 

 first into the nearest brusli heap, we 

 would advance a lew facts for consider- 

 ation. 



If we invest five dollars for a swarms 

 of bees they should produce at the lowest 

 estimate twenty pounds of box honey, 

 which is, at the usual rate of twenty-five 

 cents per pound — $5. We have here 

 doubled upon the capital invested, and 

 not counted upon the increase of a young 

 swarm worth another $5. These results 

 can be accomplished with the old-fash- 

 ioned box hive which our grandfathers 



used. But we find that bee keeping, like 

 all other pursuits, has kept pace in im- 

 provements with all the other industries 

 of the age. Instead of the old box hive 

 we now liave the movable comb bee hive 

 which admits of the examination of every 

 comb in the hive, the queen bee can be 

 removed and replaced by another, or 

 young queens can be reared at pleasure — 

 in fact, we have complete control of the 

 interior workings of the hive. We also 

 have the honey -emptying machine with 

 which any comb in the hive can be filled 

 with honey, and be removed, and the 

 honey thrown out without injury to the 

 comb, the comb to be re-filled by the bees. 

 This process can be followed as long as 

 the honey season lasts. 



Instead of allowing our new swarms to 

 come off and fiy away to the woods, we 

 now make swarms when we get ready, 

 and have our queen nurseries in which 

 our young queens are hatched and given 

 swarms as needed. Our stock has also been 

 improved by the importation of Italian 

 bees from Italy, and our queen breeders 

 send these royal insects in small wire 

 cages to all parts of the country. It will 

 therefore be observed that in starting in 

 this business a small or large amount of 

 capital can be employed. An apiary with 

 all the modern improvements would cost 

 several hundred or thousand dollars, ac- 

 eording to the number of swarms, and 

 the income accordingly great. We now 

 have frequent instances of whole apiaries 

 of a hundred swarms yielding one hun- 

 dred pounds of box honey per hive, or 

 two and three hundred pounds to the hive 

 when the honey emptying machine is 

 used. 



• Should we desire to make our profits 

 from the sale of colonies, the method of 

 making artificial swarms presents a rapid 

 means of increase. Ten or more swarms 

 can be made from one in a single season, 

 but no surplus honey will be obtained. 



We do not make these statements in 

 relation to bee-keeping in order to excite 

 expectations of large gains and rich re- 

 wards to every one who takes up this 

 fascinating pursuit, for there are many 

 discouragements in this business, and 

 quite as many foes to contend with as in 

 any other occupation; but to persons who 

 desire to study the peculiar habits of one 

 of the most interesting and industrious 

 insects by which man is surrounded, this 

 branch of human industry presents not 

 only a pleasant but profitable field of 

 research. While there are but few who 

 are naturally adapted to make this pur- 

 suit their exclusive occupation, there are 

 but few who could not keep a few swarms 

 to suppl_y their table with a healthful 

 luxury, and, perhaps, find it also a profit- 

 able adjunct to their other business. 



At this time, when we hear so much 

 about women's rights and new fields of 



