362 THK BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



a heavy burden, were compelled to fall down stairs half a 

 dozen times before they could get into the house, they might 

 perhaps think it best to guard their industrious workers 

 against such discouraging accidents. If bees are tossed 

 violently about by the winds, as they attempt to enter their 

 hives, they are often fatally injured, and the whole colony 

 so discouraged, to say nothing more, that they do not gather 

 near so much as they otherwise- would. 



The arrangement of my Protector is such that the bees, 

 if blown down, fall upon a sloping bank of soft grass, and 

 are able to enter the hives without much inconvenience. 



Just as soon as our cultivators can be convinced, by prac- 

 tical results, that bee-keeping, for the capital invested, may 

 be made a most profitable branch of rural economy, they 

 will sec the importance of putting their bees into suitable 

 hives, and of doing all that they can, to give them a fair 

 chance ; until then, the mass of them will follow the beaten 

 track, and attribute their ill success, not to their own igno- 

 ^rance, carelessness or stupidity, but to their want of " luck," 

 or to the overstocking of the country with bees. I hope, 

 -before many years, to see the price of good honey so re- 

 duced that the poor man can place it on his table and feast, 

 upon it, as one of the cheapest luxuries within his reach. 



On page 20, a statement was given of Dzierzon's ex- 

 perience as to the profits of bee-keeping. The section of 

 country in which he resides, is regarded by him as unfavora- 

 ble to Apiarian pursuits. I shall now give what I consider 

 a safe estimate for almost any section in our country ; while 

 in unusually favorable locations it will fall far below the 

 results which may be attained. It is based upon the sup- 

 position that the bees are kept in properly constructed hives 

 so as to be strong early in the season, and that the increase 

 "of stocks is limited to one new one from two old ones. Un- 



