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BULLETIN OF 

 MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



BEE KEEPING: ITS PLEASURES AND PROFITS. 



By James B. Paige, Professor of J'eterinary Science^ Massachusetts Agricultural 



College. 



Forty or fifty years ago nearly every farmer kept a few swarms 

 of bees. They furnished him and his family with a healthful ar- 

 ticle of food that was considered almost a necessity. To-day it is 

 the exception rather than the rule that one sees about the farmer's 

 home these producers of the most wholesome and delicious table 

 delicacy that it is possible to obtain. 



In addition to the production of honey, bees perform an invalu- 

 able service to the farmer and fruit grower by the fertilization and 

 cross fertilization of tlowers. The value of what they do in this 

 way cannot be estimated. Growers of hothouse cucumbers and 

 melons make use of them to carr^^ pollen from flower to flower. 

 This work was formerly done by hand by the use of a camel's liair 

 pencil. It has been found that it can be more cheaply and as 

 effectively done, at all times of the year, by allowing bees to circu- 

 late in the hothouse, visiting the flowers upon the vines as they 

 develop. 



Bee keeping not only serves as a source of profit to those who 

 keep them, but they afford a vast amount of enjoyment to one 

 interested in the study of insect life. 



The Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 for 1901 says, in part, of bees and production of honey and wax : 

 " About one farm in nine in the United States was reported as 

 keeping bees in 1900. The largest total value of honey and wax 

 produced by any State in 1899 was by Texas, $468,527. Alaska 

 made no report, and the value of the product in the District of 

 Columbia was S56. The next lowest total was $1,149, for South 

 Dakota." Figures relative to this subject for the United States, 

 with those of the five leading States in which the bee industry 

 brings the largest returns, and Massachusetts, are given to show 

 how generally they are kept throughout the country and the income 

 derived from them : — 



