18 PLEASURABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



stock to twenty-eight hives, and her average profit at 

 the end of eight years was £20 per year. 

 /^. In the British Bee Journal for 1885 a cottager 

 wrote: "I am only a cottager, I have taken nearly 

 900 lbs. of honey, all from supers without touching 

 the stock hives." Another, whose daily work occupies 

 him from six to six, said he had taken over 400 lbs., 

 nearly all in sections, and sold it for the nice sum of 

 £22 10s. 



(During the last few years the prices of all kinds 

 of agricultural produce have fallen below what was 

 formerly realised, but from bee-keeping equally good 

 results in comparison with other industries are still 

 obtained. A young man, the son of a farmer at 

 Wainfieet, Lincolnshire, who has been favoured of 

 late years with crops that have bloomed in splendid 

 weather, took an average of 109 lbs. of honey from 

 each of his three stocks in 1892, and an average of 

 156 lbs. per hive in 1893. Near him another bee- 

 keeper had an average of over 90 lbs. per hive. 

 Eesults in other parts of the same neighbourhood 

 were disheartening. But evidently this was due to 

 lack of attention, without which success cannot be 

 expected. 



These are only fair specimens from hundreds of 

 examples that might be quoted ; and they may be 

 taken as evidence that, given a good district and 

 favourable climatic influences, it must be the fault 

 of the bee-keeper himself if his enterprise does not 

 prove to be of an exceedingly profitable character. 



