FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 19 



fastened in the top of each box as starters. I also bought an- 

 other colony of bees at $7.00, and I bought Quinby's text-book, 

 " Mysteries of Beekeeping Explained." I think I had previous- 

 ly read this as a borrowed book. I got 82 pounds of honey, 

 worth 15 cents a pound. 



I began the year 1864 with seven colonies, which had cost 

 me $23.39; that is, up to that time I had paid out $23.39 more 

 for the bees than I had ta-ken in from them, reckoning interest 

 at ten per cent, the ruling rate at that time. Besides getting 

 new hives that year, I bought a colony of bees for $5.00, and 

 twenty empty combs at 15 cents each. I took 54 pounds of 

 honey, 39 pounds of it being entered at 30 cents, the balance at 

 25 cents. 



The year 1865 opened with nine colonies, and the total 

 crop for the season was 10 pounds of honey. Alas ! that it was 

 so small, for that year it was worth 35 cents a pound. 



FIKST ITALIANS. 



In 1866 I got my first Italian queen, paying R. R. Murphy 

 $6.00 for her, and the following year I paid $10.00 for another 

 to Mrs. Ellen S. Tupper, who was at one time editor of a bee- 

 journal. The crop for 1866 was 100% pounds of honey, which 

 that year was worth 30 cents. 



GETTING EVEN. 



I took 131 pounds of honey in 1867, worth 25 cents a 

 pound, and this for the first time brought the balance on the 

 right side of the ledger, for I began the season of 1868 with 

 seven colonies and had $10.40 ahead besides. It will be seen, 

 however, that bad wintering had been getting in its work, for 

 there were two colonies less than there were three years before. 



There was certainly nothing brilliant in being able after 

 seven years of beekeeping to be able to count only two colonies 

 more than the total number I had started with, together with 

 the four I had bought. But there was a fascination in beekeep- 

 ing for me, and it is very likely I should have kept right on, 

 even if it necessitated buying a fresh start each year. At any 

 rate, my friends could no longer accuse me of squandering 



