29 



We have indicated, in our paper, "Bee Keeping: how to meet its 

 Difficulties and Dangers," ' the huge honey importation yearly from 

 California and from Vermont. A large portion of this the State could 

 herself produce, and pocket the profits. At present she produces less 

 than one-fourth what she consumes, and at that the average allowance 

 each year per capita is but two tablespoonfuls. 



But the significant point is this: let the crop be doubled, and let the 

 importation to the State go on just the same, and you would still find 

 the market good. It might be necessary to promote the home trade; 

 but from our observations a judicious amount of this will pay. 



Crop of the Country. 



In this connection it may be of interest to know something of the 

 honey crop of the country, as figured by Dr. E. F. Phillips of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, expert in charge of apiculture. 



As opposed to the doubtless incorrect figures of the census, which put 

 the United States crop for 1S99 at 61,000,000 pounds, it has been esti- 

 mated that 200,000,000 pounds more nearly represent the annual 

 crop of honey. The estimate is based on the fact that in two States 

 50,000,000 pounds are manufactured yearly. The crop of extracted 

 honey can well be figured at twice the crop of comb, which would 

 approximate 200,000,000 pounds of honey yearly, or enough to fill 

 10,000 freight cars. Were this crop to sell at the extremely low figure 

 of 10 cents per pound, the industry would represent $20,000,000. But 

 this is exclusive of the value of the bees and of the wax crop, which 

 would bring the figures high. However, in order to get an accurate 

 figure of the worth of the bees to the country, we would have to add to 

 the sum of the items above that incalculable figure which would repre- 

 sent the value of the bees to the fruit producers of the country. This 

 would bring the figures far beyond the human conception. 



In these huge money values we have not reached our limit. We have 

 scarcely begun to utilize the bees. But advance with so small a 

 creature and one so imperfectly understood is slow. With the hope of 

 helping some one to climb a rung higher in the art, we venture to suggest 

 a few items which appear imperative to the immediate progress of 

 apiculture in Massachusetts. 



When we conceive of the vast power of a bacterial or germ disease in 

 the human race, and the havoc it plays if unchecked, we can conceive 

 of the damage possible if such should get headway among bees. 



Diseases of Bees. 



There is no one factor, we are convinced, which has worked and is 

 working, unconsciously and unknown to most bee keepers, so much 

 damage as are the diseases of bees. Wliile they have been known to 

 exist and have been recognized for centuries, they have not been under- 

 stood by the majority of bee keepers. A man loses a colony of bees 

 from no apparent cause. He immediately attributes it to bad luck, 

 because the "bug" which caused it is not large enough to be seen. Or, 

 if the moth has entered, and a bug is really large enough to be ob\'ious, 

 the loss is due to the moth, which, in reaUty, may be only secondary. 



Not infrequently do we hear of some one losing all his bees at one 

 stroke. It is on record that for some reason the industry in localities 



1 Crop Report, Massachusetts State Board ot Agriculture, 1904. 



