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understood that it has lifted this industry out of the domain of 

 luck and chance to the level of one of the most certain and 

 successful employments. 



Amid the great army of noxious insects that are ever con- 

 tending with man for the right of possession to the products 

 of the garden and field, it is refreshing to meet with a few 

 like the honey-bee, who are friendly to man and work in his 

 interests. I claim for the bee that it stands at the head of all 

 useful insects and brings the largest blessing to man, not even 

 excepting the silk worm. While the latter gives us only a 

 single product, the bee serves a four-fold purpose yielding wax 

 and honey, and as an agent in the fertilization of blossoms ; 

 even in death her body is used as a medicinal article. 



Why is the honey placed in the blossoms ? Certainly to 

 attract the bee that she may bring with her the pollen from 

 other blossoms, and thus fertilize those that would otherwise 

 prove sterile and fruitless. In this realm of nature the service 

 of this great conservator of nature's bounty is, to man, be- 

 yond calculation. It has been estimated that each square mile 

 will produce annually 640 pounds of honey on an average. 

 This would give to Massachusetts, with her 7800 square miles, 

 two thousand five hundred tons of honey. But a mere frac- 

 tional part of this vast quantity is ever gathered. 



There is no part of Essex cwmty so barren but what a few 

 colonies of bees would do well. 



This industry has been allowed to fall into decline in our 

 section and for reasons which I will not discuss, but which the 

 march of improvement has rendered invalid at the present 

 time ; and I would say rally I A brighter day has dawned upon 

 this industry and my advice to the farmers of old Essex, and 

 to all others who do or can control a few rods of land is, Keep 

 Bees. Very respectfully yours, 



Phil R. Russell, Jr. 



Lynn, October 15, 1880. 



