4 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



average yield per colony under fair management is fifty pounds, 

 while individual colony yields have gone above three hundred pounds. 

 The wholesale prices range from ten cents to eighteen cents per pound, 

 varying with quality and package, and the retail prices are from fif- 

 teen cents to thirty cents. 



Modern methods of management have overcome many of the seem- 

 ing annoyances of the past, and the labor involved is slight as com- 

 pared with what is necessary for any other live stock. 



The Market's Demand for Honey. 



The Rhode Island market for honey is very good but it is at pres- 

 ent supplied largely from without the State. Climatic conditions are 

 favorable for bee culture, and there seems to be no good reason why 

 it should not be undertaken by many more persons than are now 

 engaged in it. A few persons are already extending their apiaries, 

 looking forward to bee keeping as an exclusive business. 



Bee Keeping and Orcharding. 



The orchardists are beginning to reahze the importance of hav- 

 ing bees in or near their orchards, and are either buying bees or of- 

 fering inducements to bee keepers to move bees to their vicinity. 



Difficulties in Bee Keeping. 



Some bee keepers are not getting the returns they might from 

 their bees, and the greenhouse and fruit men often find the keeping 

 up of the necessary stock of bees no small expense. These results 

 are due chiefly to incomplete knowledge as to the proper care of bees 

 and partly to losses caused by diseases. 



Control of Bee Diseases. 



At the present time there seems to be no contagious diseases of 

 bees within the State, though such exist close to the northern and 

 western border. Reasonable care should hinder their introduction 

 and prompt action prevent their spread, should they obtain a foot- 



