6 Adaptation to Women. 



That able apiarist, and terse writer on apiculture, Mrs. L. 

 Harrison, states that the physicians told her that she could not 

 live ; but apiculture did for her what the physicians could notdo, 

 restored her to health, and gave her such vigor that she has 

 been able to work a large apiary for years. 



Said "Cyula Linswik" — whose excellent and beautifully 

 written articles have so often charmed the readers of the bee 

 publications, and who has had five years of successful experi- 

 ence as an apiarist — in a paper read before our Michigan Con- 

 vention of March, 1877: "I would gladly purchase exemp- 

 tion from in-door work, on washing-day, by two days' labor 

 among the bees, and I find two hours labor at the ironing-table 

 more fatiguing than two hours of the severest toil the apiary 

 can exact." I repeat, that apiculture offers to many women 

 not only pleasure but profit. 



Mrs. L. B. Baker, of Lansing, Michigan, who has kept bees 

 very successfully for four years, read an admirable paper be- 

 fore the same Convention, in which she said: "But I can 

 say, having tried both, (keeping boarding-house and apicul- 

 ture,) I give bee-keeping the preference, as more profitable, 

 healthful, independent and enjoyable. * * * I find the 

 labors of the apiary more endurable than working over a cook- 

 stove in-doors, and more pleasant and conducive to health. 

 * * * I believe that many of our delicate and invalid 

 ladies would find renewed vigor of body and mind in the labors 

 and recreations of the apiary. * * * By beginning in 

 the early spring, when the weather was cool and the work 

 light, I became gradually accustomed 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 head-ache. * * * My own experience in the 

 apiary has been a source of interest and enjoyment far exceed- 

 ing my anticipations." Although Mrs. Baker commenced 

 with but two colonies of bees, her net profits the first season 

 were over $100 ; the second year but a few cents less than 

 $300; and the third year about $250. "The proof of the 

 pudding is in the eating;" and such words as those above show 

 that apiculture offers special inducements to our sisters to be- 

 come either amateur or professional apiarists. 



