it freely if taken with a glass of milk, or cream eateii' on it. 

 The two appear to be associated : The ancient Isrealites trav- 

 eled many years to reach the " Promised Land, a land said to 

 be flowing with milk and honey." In other words, it was a 

 great grazing country with flowers and wild bees abundant. 



While Maine is not a bee-keeper's paradise, much can be 

 accomplished with bees if the. proper care and housing is given 

 them. As honey is a valuable food, as well as a waste product 

 without the aid of the bees, people should be encouraged to 

 save and use it. Honey is not the most valuable product of the 

 bees. As an agent in the distribution of pollen, the fertilizing 

 property of flowers, the value of the bees in increased fruit 

 production and in better fruit, is hard to estimate. 



The Maine winters are nearly always severe and the springs 

 fickle. Wild bees, bumblebees, etc., which would be of great 

 value if present in large numbers, often perish during the win- 

 ter and cannot be depended on. The fruit grower has it largely 

 within his power to so protect the honeybee that he can have 

 them present in his orchards in the desired numbers when he 

 needs them. There seems to be little question that there are 

 years in which the apple crops are nearly a failure, or a light 

 crop, in certain localities, when, had the bees had access to the 

 trees, there would have been a profitable yield. Nearly all the 

 tree fruits and berries need the bees to insure a profitable crop. 

 Some strawberry growers do not think the bees are needed in 

 the strawberry bed, as the winds are supposed to do the work 

 of pollination satisfactorily, but I am satisfied, from my own 

 observation and the evidence of others that even in the straw- 

 berry patch it pays to have the bees. 



When the expenses of maintaining a few colonies of bees is 

 slight, or nothing at all, and often a crop of honey is secured 

 that pays for all labor and expense, it would seem to be the 

 part of wisdom to see that bees are provided wherever fruit is 

 grown. 



. An apiary of fifty or one hundred colonies of bees, in ordi- 

 nary localities, would care for the bloom of orchards within a 

 mile or a mile and a half of the yard, but it is better to have 

 a few colonies located in or near the orchards. 



