so KSSEX SOCIETY. 



Bkes and Honey. 

 If the small number o( hives and boxes offered is anj^ indica- 

 tion of tl^e exlent to which the culture of the honey bee is car- 

 ried in tlie county of Essex, the committee regret tliat so inter- 

 estinii and profitable a pursuit should be so much neglected by 

 our farmers. There must be a vast quantity of honey that lies 

 unfathered deep down in the sweet cups of the wild flowers, 

 wasting its luscious sweetness upon the passing winds. There 

 must be in our county, a very sparse population of 



•• Sweet honey-sucking bees. 

 That out of summer velvet buds 

 Do bear away the pillage of the fields." 



Just one hive, four boxes, and one glass globe, as samples of 

 all the honey culture of this stout county of Essex, T\'ith a more 

 dense rural population than can be found in any other county 

 of the State ! Why, do the farmers know that such honey as 

 \va5 presented to the inspection of the committee, is worth, at 

 retail, twenty-five cents a pound, and is bought by wholesale 

 buyers in the market towns at seventeen to twenty cents a 

 pound r Do they know that a properly planned, properly made, 

 and properly managed hive will yield from thirty to fifty pounds 

 a season of just such honey, for which just such prices may be 

 obtained ? Do they once think that a dozen hives may be man- 

 aged with almost nothing of care, and nothing of cost, after the 

 first outlay I Why, •- good friends, sweet friends,"' let us look at 

 it a moment, in a practical and economical light. A properly 

 made hive, of the right construction, one that shall save the 

 lives of all "the little busy bees,'' as long as their bounteous 

 Maker intended they should live, (for your committee are no 

 friends to that crael system of management, which kills the 

 bees to get the honey — ^murder and robbery both combined.) — 

 soch ahive. of best stock and well painted, maybe bought for four 

 dollars and fifty cents. A new swarm may be bought and put 

 therein for, ay at a high figure, four dollars more. Throwing 

 ont of the account the fact that in a good season, from an early 

 stock, you will get ten to fifteen pounds of honey, the first 

 year of the swarm, over and above what the bees will need 



