18 |-(JRTY YEARS AMONG THE lUCIlS. 



$2.00 each, three box-hives at $i.oo for the three, and 

 some surplus boxes at lo to 20 cents each. These surplus 

 boxes held from 6 to 10 pounds each, some of them hav- 

 ingf g^lass on two sides, and some having' g'lass on four 

 sides. Small pieces of comb were fastened in the top of 

 each box as starters. I also bought another colony of 

 bees at $7.00, and I bought Quinb3''s text-book, "Mys- 

 teries of Bee-Keeping Explained." I think I had 

 previously 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 taken 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 honev, 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. 



FIRST 1TALI.\NS. 



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

 Murphy $6.00 for her, and the following ^-ear 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 hone\', which that year was worth 30 

 cents. 



GETTIXC; 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 



