4 . Profits of Bee-Keeping. 



as surely fail in apiculture as in any other calling. But I 

 repeat, in the light of many years of experience, where accurate 

 weight, measure, and counting of change exclude all conjec- 

 tiure, that there is no manual labor pursuit where the returns 

 are so large when compared with the labor and expense involved. 

 An intelligent apiarist may invest in bees any spring, in 

 Michigan, with the absolute certainty of more than doubling 

 his investment the first season ; while a net gain of 400 per 

 cent, brings no surprise to the experienced apiarists of our 

 state. This of course applies only to a limited number of 

 colonies. Nor is Michigan superior to other states as a loca- 

 tion for the apiarist. During the past season, the poorest I 

 ever knew, our fifteen colonies of bees in the College apiary 

 have netted us over $200. In 1876, each colony gave a net 

 return of $24. 04, while in 1875, our bees gave a profit, above 

 all expense, of over 400 per cent, of their entire value in the 

 spring. Mr. Fisk Bangs, who graduated at our College one 

 year since, purchased last spring seven colonies of bees. The 

 proceeds of these seven colonies have more than paid aU ex- 

 penses, including first cost of bees, in honey sold, while there 

 are now sixteen colonies as clear gain, if we do not count the 

 labor, and we need hardly do so as it has in no wise interfered 

 with the regular duties of the owner. Several farmers of our 

 state who possess good apiaries and good improved farms, 

 have told me that their apiaries were more profitable than 

 their farms. Who will doubt the profits of apiculture in the 

 face of friend Doolittle's experience ? He has realized $6,000 

 in five years, simply from the honey taken from fifty colonies. 

 This $6,000 is in excess of all expenses except his own time. 

 Add to this the increase of stocks, and then remember that 

 one man can easily care for one hundred colonies, and we have 

 a graphic picture of apiarian profits. Bee-keeping made Adam 

 Grimm a wealthy man. It brought to Capt. Hetherington 

 over $10,000 as the cash receipts of a single yeat's honey crop. 

 It enabled Mr. Harbison, so it is reported, to ship from his 

 own apiary eleven car-loads of comb-honey as the product of 

 a single season. What greater recommendation has any pur- 

 suit? Opportunity for money making, even with hardships 

 and privations, is attractive and seldom disregarded; such 

 opportunity with labor that brings, in itself, constant delight, 

 is surely worthy of attention. 



