THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 185 



for the next year's crop. I know of no better combination for 

 health and results. 



A Most Profitable Year With the Bees. 



ENTHUSIASM LAGS WHEN THE PROFITS STOP COMING IN.— THE SCALE 

 HIVE GAINED FOUR TO SIX POUNDS, THEN EIGHT. THEN TEN, 

 TWELVE, AND ONE DAY A COLONY GAINED TWENTY- 

 FOUR POUNDS— IT CAME FROM MILKWEED.— 

 MILKWEED AS A HONEY PLANT. 



By IRA D. BARTLETT, East Jordan, Mich. 



'"J|T is nothing unusual to pick up a journal and read of some one 

 /|l who has some little side line outside his or her regular busi- 

 ness that they claim gives them real enjoyment, health and 

 pastime, and incidentally is a source of profit. The bee business is 

 more often a side issue, and truly there is pleasure, health and past- 

 time, and also the profit end of the business for one entering it. 

 But I wonder if that fascination was as keen when the yield of 

 honey was very small as when there was plenty for the family and 

 quite a little besides to be disposed of at a good price? 



I believe that if there was little profit coming in, and that the 

 sole reason of the person continuing in such business was simply 

 the enjoyment of the work connected with it, he would soon lose 

 interest and eventually discontinue. This is natural. It is human 

 instinct to forge ahead, so the Review editor, who is ever about and 

 eager for something that will be of interest to the reader, asked me 

 to describe the conditions, time, yield, source, price obtained, etc., 

 when I secured my most profitable crop of honey. I am sure that 

 there is no question but that the motive that prompts-' us all to 

 forge ahead is a financial one. 



T believe it was in the seaMMi of r.i(i"i th;it I rcceix-ed niy largest 

 cro]) of honev. 1 wintered ni}- 1)ee-^ in town, in Avinter hi\es. and 

 earlv in the spring. usuaH\- the first of Mav, moved them one atid 

 one-half miles south and east to mv sunirner apiar}'. The spring 

 was v.'arm and wet. Clo\er grew as I ne\er saw it before. It 

 blossomed profusely, and yet when the clover was harvested for hay 

 T had secured but one barrel of honey from eighty-eight colonies 

 of bees. 



T did not feel over-enthusiastic, as in ^•ears past when the clover 

 was cut that was the end of the honev and the l)ees were all that 

 T had to depend upon for my income. Had I known then what I 

 have found out to be true since, that heavy continued rains through 

 ^lay and June, with warm, bright and even hot weather following 



