Women as Bee-Keefers. 7 



tomed to out-door labor, and by midsummer found myself 

 as well able to endure the heat of the sun as my husband, 

 who has been accustomed to it all his life. Previously, to 

 attend an open air picnic was to return with a headache. 

 * * * My own experience in the apiary has been a source 

 of interest and enjoyment far exceeding my anticipations." 

 Although Mrs. Baker (jommenced with but two colonies 

 of bees, her net profits the first season were over$ioo; the 

 second year but a few cents less than $300; and the third 

 year about $250. " The proof of the pudding is in the eat- 

 ing ;" and such words as th6se above show that apiculture 

 offers special inducements to our sisters to become cither 

 amateur or professional apiarists. At the present time 

 almost every State has women bee-keepers, whose success 

 has won attention. True it is, that in neatness and deli- 

 cacy of manipulation, the women far surpass the men. The 

 nicest honey produced in Michigan, year after year, comes 

 from the apiary of two ladies whom I believe are peers of 

 any bee-keepers in our country. 



IMPROVES THE MIND AND THE OBSERVATION. 



Successful apiculture demands close and accurate obser- 

 vation, and hard, continuous thought and study, and this, 

 too, in the wondrous realm of nature. In all this, the 

 apiarist receives manifold and substantial advantages. In 

 the cultivation of the habit of observation, a person be- 

 comes constantly more able, useful and susceptible to i)leas- 

 ure — results which also follow as surely on the habit of 

 thought and study. It is hardly conceivable that the wide- 

 awake apiarist who is so frequently busy with his wonder- 

 working comrades of the hive, can ever be lonely, or feel 

 time hanging heavily on his hands. The mind is occupied 

 and there is no chance for ennui. The whole tendency of 

 such thought and study, where nature is the subject, is to 

 refine the taste, elevate the desires, and ennoble manhood. 

 Once get our youth, with their susceptible natures, engaged 

 in such wholesome study, and we shall have less reason to 

 fear the vicious tendencies of the street, or the luring vices, 

 and damning influences of the saloon. Thus apiculture 

 spreads an intellectual feast that even the old philosophers 



