16 MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 



ness, should enlist as apiarists. Usually a stronger body, 

 and improved health, the results of pure air, sunshine, and 

 exercise, will make each successive day's labor more easy, and 

 will permit a corresponding growth in the size of the apiary 

 for each successive season. One of the most noted apiarists, 

 not only in America but in the world, sought in bee-keeping 

 her lost health, and found not only health, but reputation and 

 influence. Some ot the most successful apiarists in our 

 country are women. Of these, many were led to adopt the 

 pursuit because of waning health, grasping at this as the last 

 and successful weapon with which to vanquish the, grim mon- 

 ster. Said "Cyula Linswik" — whose excellent and beautifully 

 written articles have so often charmed the readers of the bee 

 publications, and who has had five years of successful experience 

 as an apiarist — in a paper read before our Michigan Conven- 

 tion of March, 1877: "I would gladly purchase exemption 

 from in-door work, on washing-day, by two days' labor among 

 the bees, and I find two hours' labor at the ironing-table more 

 fatiguing than two hours of the severest toil the apiary can 

 exact. * * * J repeat, that apiculture ofiers to many 

 women not only pleasure but profit. * * * Though the 

 care of a few colonies means only recreation, the woman who 

 experiments in bee-keeping somewhat extensively, will find 

 that it means, at some seasons, genuine hard work. * •* * 

 There is risk in the business, I would not have you ignore 

 this fact, but an experience of five years has led me to be- 

 lieve that the risk is less than is generally supposed." Mrs. 

 L. B. Baker, of Lansing, Michigan, who has kept bees very 

 successfully for four, years, read an admirable paper before 

 the same Convention, in which she said : " But I can say, 

 having tried both," (keeping boarding-house and apiculture,) 

 " I give bee-keeping the preference, as more profitable, health- 

 ful, independent and enjoyable. * * * j find the labors 

 of the apiary more endurable than working over a cook-stove 

 in-doors, and more pleasant and conducive to health. * * * 

 I believe that many of our delicate and invalid ladies would 

 find renewed vigor of body and mind in the labors and recrea- 

 tions of the apiary. * * * By beginning in the early 

 spring, when the weather was cool and the work light, I be- 

 came gradually accustomed to out-door labor, and by mid- 



