PREFACE. 



Bee keeping as a pastime or hobby is quite extensively practiced 

 in this as well as in other States. Only occasionally, however, do 

 we find persons who enter into it as their principal business, or even 

 as a money-making side line. 



There is a good chance for an enlargement of this industry in 

 Rhode Island. The market for good honey is not overstocked. In 

 fact, we could with great advantage to ourselves supplant with 

 honey some of the sweets now consumed, and it is safe to say that 

 were the advantages of honey as a food well and generally known, 

 and were the supply adequate, the number of bee keepers of both 

 kinds, vocational as well as avocational, could be increased many 

 times over without creating a surplus in the market. 



From an economic standpoint also bee keeping should be en- 

 couraged. Bees gather and store for human consumption a product 

 which is otherwise wholly wasted, and while so doing they render 

 valuable service to the plants by aiding cross fertilization in return 

 for the nectar secured. In the case of fruit trees, this is of immense 

 advantage to the orchardist. 



Bees require but little attention, and the outfit necessary for their 

 care and housing is nominal in cost. While, as Mr. Miller states, 

 our thickly forested areas are not adapted to extensive bee keeping, 

 still there is abundant pasturage for a great many times the number 

 of hives which are now in the State. It is therefore to be hoped that 

 we may have in the near future a considerable increase in this in- 

 dustry, and it is the purpose of the Board of Agriculture to foster it 

 so far as lies within its power. 



