THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



39 



and the foul murder and base robbery 

 were committed where this candid audi- 

 ence is now seated. 1 have said the idea 

 came, and need I tell the result. The log 

 gum was driven from its place in the 

 grove, was expelled from its corner in the 

 yard, was banished from its nook in the 

 garden; and ere long, the little relic of 

 barbarism will be known only as among 

 the things that were. 



Having attained the perfect control of the 

 hive, and by the importation of tlie Italian 

 bee, (whose superiorty has long since 

 been decided,) it became necessary to give 

 the queen more room at certain seasons, 

 wherein she could deposit her eggs. 

 Hence sprang up (as by magic) the mel-a- 

 pult, the honey sliuger, the extractor and 

 avast vocabulary of names, signifying a 

 little machine with which we are enabled 

 to remove the honey from the combs, and 

 return Ihem uninjured to the hive to be 

 refilled by the bees; thus saving much 

 hone}' and labor in building new combs. 



In order to attain the greatest success in 

 apiculture, it is necessary that we should 

 have a large supply of workers on hand 

 to gather the harvest when it comes. 

 (Me-thinks I hear some one say, I thought 

 bees made honey, and why cannot they 

 make it at one time as well as another.) 

 No sir, bees do not make honey; but 

 nature secretes it in the nectaries of the 

 flowers, and bees gather it, and store it ii! 

 the combs which they have made. 



The honey crop in this country is some- 

 times cut short by excessive wet or exces- 

 sive dry weather. Therefore the necessity 

 of having a strong band of workers on 

 hand, that they may wade in at its early 

 appearance and take of the first fruits of 

 the land, and should the harvest linger, 

 you need not fear that the laborers will 

 tire, for when there is work to do, the lit- 

 tle busy bee is always ready. 



I might go on and describe to you the 

 different kinds of bees, such as the com- 

 mon black bee, the grey bee of the South, 

 the German bee, the Itali»n or Liguarian 

 bee, the Cyprian bee, the Egyptian and 

 the Stingless bee of South America, also 

 the various manipulations of the apiary; 

 8uch as rearing queens and bees, remov- 

 ing honey from the combs, and placing 

 them back in the hive to be filled again, 

 etc. But I fear it would be monotonous, 

 and intrude upon your time. But if any 

 of you are sufficiently interested to come 

 to my apiary at any time, I will show you 

 with pleasure, what little I have learned 

 concerning this bountiful gift of nature 

 bestown upon us by the Great Giver of all 

 good. 



It seems like I hear some one say, "does 

 this bee business pay?" In answer, I 

 would say it is not unlike many other ru- 

 ral pursuits. Who among you would buy 

 a fine flock of Cotswold sheep, a herd of 

 Ayshire cows, or a good stock of Berk- 



shire pigs, and turn tlicm on the com- 

 mons, with no care, and expect a large 

 profit? In the same way if he buys a full 

 colony of Italian bees, and puts them in a 

 log-gum to take care of themselves, he 

 may have all the profits, I do not wish to 

 share them with him. We however have 

 statistics from not only this State, but also 

 from almost every State in the Union; 

 where with proper management, it pays 

 from 100 to 800 per cent, on the capital 

 invested. Not only so, it is a business in 

 which ladies can engage as well as men, 

 and I believe some of the most successful 

 apiarists in the United States are ladies. 

 And I would that more of the ladies in 

 this country, who are left with small for- 

 tunes, and can hardly keep the wolf from 

 the door, could be induced to turn their 

 attention to the scientific keeping of a 

 few colonies of bees. 



In conclusion, let me say in the lan- 

 guage of an eminent writer, I would not 

 for one moment encourage any one to en- 

 gage in this enterprise, without fir.st hav- 

 ing a taste for this rural branch. Could 

 you see in this field of labor, a beauty, a 

 grandeur that would give you pleasure to 

 follow, then I would say to you as a 

 friend, that you can make it one of the 

 most successful occupations of the day, 

 and would warrant you a successful future. 

 To do this, the novice must understand to 

 be successful he must know how to get 

 good strong stocks, and learn how to keep 

 them so. Concerning this rural branch, 

 we can safely say that in no other part of 

 the world has apiculture made greater 

 advances, than in America. The pros- 

 perity of the apicultural community has 

 been unparalleled. 



In the apicultural pursuits of this coun- 

 try, there is ample room for all. There is 

 no need for jealousy. Yet we are sorry 

 to say that selfishness has been the motto 

 of some. The more enlightened we be- 

 come as honest men in apiculture, the 

 more we rejoice to see all indications of 

 improvement advance. 



There may be a few Judases in our 

 camp, but we speak as a whole, each 

 endeavors to stimulate his brother apia- 

 rists'by his own success. By tliis means, 

 there is generally among them a fraternal 

 feeling. There is a great pleasure in this 

 — one that we need feel proud of. It pro- 

 duces in social life a feature so lovely, so 

 elevating that it opens a way by which we 

 may be better prepared to understand the 

 beauties of nature. Much of the progress 

 which has been attained in our country, 

 is the result of individual enterprise. It 

 has, however, been aided by the press, to- 

 day, we are marching on to victory. Our 

 course has been one of onward move- 

 ments, although there has been a neglect 

 in this country to cultivate a taste for api- 

 culture, from the fact that the whole sub- 

 ject has been generally viewed with in- 



