14 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



work. Yet this will be both pleasant and healthful, and wilt 

 go hand-in-hand with thought, so that brain and muscle will 

 work together. Yet this time of hard, physical labor will 

 only continue for five or six months, and for the balance of 

 the year the apiarist has or may have comparative leisure. 

 Nor do I think that all will succeed. The fickle, careless, in- 

 dolent, heedless man, will as surely fail in apiculture, as in 

 any other calling. But I repeat, in the light of many years 

 of experience, where accurate weight, measure, and counting 

 of change has given no heed to conjecture, that there is no 

 manual labor pursuit, where the returns are so large, when 

 compared with the labor and expense. 



An intelligent apiarist may invest in bees any spring in 

 Michigan, with the absolute certainty of more than doubling 

 his investment the first season ; while a net gain of 400 per 

 cent, brings no surprise to the experienced apiarists of our 

 State. This of course applies only to a limited number of 

 colonies. Nor is Michigan superior to other States as a loca- 

 tion for the apiarist. During the past season, the poorest I 

 ever knew, our fifteen colonies of bees in the College apiary, 

 have netted us over $200. In 1876, each colony gave a net 

 return of $24.04, while in 1875, our bees gave a profit, above' 

 all expense, of over 400 per cent, of their entire value in the 

 spring. Mr. Fisk Bangs, who graduated at our College one 

 year since, purchased last spring seven colonies of bees. The 

 proceeds of these seven colonies have more than paid all ex- 

 penses, including first cost of bees, in honey sold, while there' 

 are now sixteen colonies, as clear gain, if we do not count the 

 labor, and we hardly need do so, as it has in no wise interfered 

 with the regular duties of the owner. Several farmers of our 

 State who possess good apiaries and good improved farms, 

 have told me that their apiaries were more profitable than all 

 the remainder of their farms. Who will doubt the profits of 

 apiculture in the face of friend Doolittle's experience ? He 

 has realized $6,000, in five years, simply from the honey taken 

 from fifty colonies. This $6,000 is in excess of all expenses 

 except his own time. Add to this the increase of stocks, 

 and then rem&mber that one man can easily care for 100 colo- 

 nies, and we have a graphic picture of apiarian profits. Bee- 

 keeping made Adam Grrimm a wealthy man. It brought to- 



