MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 15 



Capt. Hetherington over $10,000 as the cash receipts of a 

 single year's honey-crop. It enabled Mr. Harbison, so it is 

 reported, to ship from his own apiary, eleven car-loads of 

 comb-honey as the product of a single season. What greater 

 recommendation has any pursuit ? Opportunity for money- 

 making, even with hardships and privations, is attractive 

 and seldom disregarded ; such opporturiity with labor that 

 brings, in itself, constant deliglit, is surely worthy of 

 attention. 



EXCELLENCE AS AN AMATEUR PURSUIT. 



Again, there is no business, and I speak from experience, 

 that serves so well as an avocation. It offers additional funds 

 to the poorly paid, out-door air to the clerk and office-hand, 

 healthful exercise to the person of sedentary habits, and su- 

 perb recreation to the student or professional man, and 

 ■especially to him whose life-work is of that dull, hum-drum, 

 routine order that seems to rob life of all zest. The labor, 

 too, required in keeping bees, can, with a little thought' and 

 management, be so planned, if but few colonies are kept, as 

 not to infringe upon the time dem'anded by the regular occu- 

 pation. Indeed, I have never been more heartily thanked, 

 than by such persons as named above, and that, too, because 

 I called them to consider — which usually means to adopt — 

 the pleasing duties of the apiary. 



ADAPTATION TO WOMEN. 



Apiculture may also bring succor to those whom society 

 has not been over-ready to favor — our women. Widowed 

 mothers, dependent girls, the weak and the feeble, all may 

 ^nd a blessing in the easy, pleasant, and profitable labors ot 

 the apiary. Of course, women who lack vigor and health, 

 can care for but very few colonies, and must have sufficient 

 strength to bend over and lift the small-sized frames of comb 

 when loaded with honey, and to carry empty hives. With 

 the proper thought and management, full colonies need never 

 be lifted, nor work done in the hot sunshine. Yet right here 

 let me add, and emphasize the truth, that only those viho 

 will let energetic thought and skillful plan, and above all 

 promptitude and persistence, make up for physical weak- 



