PAST AND rRBSBNT. 79 



and invention have supplied, that he can engage in bee-keeping 

 as in a delightful occupation, and one that is capable of being 

 turned to good practical account. 



144. A Profitable industry. — It is something in favour of 

 modern bee-keeping to be able to say that, in proportion with 

 the amount of labour and capital involved, no other agricultural 

 industry can show a like profit. A good stock of bees in a 

 modern hive, with the necessary fittings, and costing in all, 

 say £i los. is capable of producing, in a normal season, and 

 under proper management, a profit of from £i los. to £2, or 

 cent, per cent., and over. It is something also in its favour 

 that it requires neither broad acres nor much physical strength 

 for its employment. Four square feet of land will hold a hive. 

 A window sill will accommodate two. A corner of a yard or 

 garden — a plot 25 feet square, might be occupied by from 25 

 to so. There is no heavy labour required. For five or six 

 months of the year there is little to be done. In the remaining 

 months an average of a quarter of an hour per week should 

 sufiice to devote to one stock. And it is open-air work, light, 

 interesting, and such as ladies, and even children can accom- 

 plish without fatigue. There are many school girls and boys 

 who are working bees successfully, and are making handsome 

 additions to the family purse. There are bee-keepers not a 

 few who, without excessive labour, are marketing over ;£2oo 

 worth, each, of honey per annum. There is the case of Mr. 

 John Doyle, of Kellystown — a case which offers a suflScient 

 reply to folk who sneer at the industry as a mere hobby. 

 Starting in 1887 with the discovery of a stray swarm, he had 

 found bee-keeping increasingly remunerative, and had so 

 applied the modern principles to his industry that in 1901 his 

 bees paid him a profit of over iJioo. In 1906, he marketed 

 over ;£i66 worth of honey from 92 stocks, and from the profits 

 produced by his bees he acquired land and houses, his latest 

 purchase — ^Woodville House and farm, having cost £1,000. — 

 {Irish Bee Journal). Nothing of the kind could have been 

 possible under the old methods. Bees in skeps or boxes 

 cannot produce anything like the same profit which they are 

 capable of producing in modern hives and under capable 

 management. It is surprising that it should still be possible 

 to find whole districts in which modern bee-keeping is un- 

 known, and where only the wasteful, cruel methods of the 

 skeppist are practised. 



