38 FEEDING. 
except what they obtained by grazing in the pastures 
and fields, the year round. And do you think his cows, 
treated thus, would yield him a large product of butter, 
cheese and milk, and consequently a good profit in dollars 
and cents? Do you think he would find his cows, man- 
aged thus, so profitable as to induce him to keep cows 
to any great extent? Let a farmer manage thus—take 
his cows to the barn, milk them, then turn them out the 
year round to graze and provide for themselves, taking 
them up only to milk them, furnishing them with no 
food except what they procure by grazing—how long, 
think you, would such a farmer have cows to milk? Yet 
this is a parallel case with the bee keeper who furnishes 
his bees with no food except what they can procure by 
their own industry. And is it surprising that bees 
treated thus pay no profit? 
Again, the farmer who should year after year plant 
his corn, potatoes, etc., apply no manure, furnish no 
cultivation, yet expect to succeed in farming, harvest 
large crops, and get a good yearly profit in dollars and 
cents, and grumble because he did not, and at last abandon 
the business, asserting that there was no profit in farming, 
furnishes another parallel case to the bee keeper who 
lets his bees shift for themselves, and then grumble 
because they pay no profit, and at last abandons the 
business, asserting that there is no money in bee keeping. 
It being self-evident that it is profitable to feed bees, 
it now remains to show how to do it with the greatest 
possible profit. 
