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Bee-culture is a rapidly progressive industry ; new methods and appli- 

 ances are constantly coming to the front, and things that are new to-day 

 may be obsolete to-morrow ; therefore it behoves the beekeeper to keep 

 himself posted in everything going on in the beekeeping world through the 

 excellent bee hterature now at command. 



WHO SHOULD NOT KEEP BEES. 



All begumers sufEer more or less from the efEects of the bee-sting poison, 

 but in most cases the bad efEects wear off gradually as the system becomes 

 inoculated against the poison, till, finally, little more inconvenience is felt 

 from a sting than would be caused by the prick of a needle. In rare instances, 

 however, people are to be found who sufEer so severely that a sting is posi- 

 tively dangerous to them, their system never seems to become immune to 

 the poison ; it is scarcely necessary to say that such persons should not 

 keep bees. Again, there are individuals too nervous to go among their bees 

 without being clad in armour, as it were, from head to feet. I have known 

 many such who had kept bees for a long time, and yet had never been able 

 to get over their nervousness. In my opinion such people shou'd not keep 

 bees. No person who manages his bees properly can escape being stung 

 occasionally, though I am sometimes told about individuals (I never come 

 in personal contact with them) who can do anyiihing with bees without being 

 protected in any way, and never get stung. I have to listen, but never 

 contradict a person who tells me this— it is suggestive, though. 



BEEKEEPING FOR LADIES. 

 Bee-culture oSers a splendid opportunity for our settlers' wives and 

 daughters and other ladies who would like an outdoor, healthy, and profit- 

 able occupation. I may state that I take a special interest in this matter, 

 and hope to be the means of inducing many of our young women to take up 

 beekeeping as a business. As a result of the encouragement given to the 

 industry by the Department of Agriculture, quite a number of ladies are 

 doing so. Ladies who take to it make excellent apiarists — much better 

 than the average man. In America they rank among the most successful 

 beekeepers, and peasants' wives on the Continent of Europe usually look 

 after the household bees, from which they derive a considerable proportion 

 of the family income. There is nothing to prevent a fairly healthy young 

 woman from managing and doing the work, with a Uttle assistance during 

 the height of the season, of an apiary of 100 hives. The work carried out 

 by the lady apiarists at the Ruakura and Weraroa State Apiaries, where, in 

 addition to their actual bee-work, they put together and paint the hives, 

 make the frames, and do everything necessary on a bee-farm, afEords. 

 practical proof that there is nothing connected with bee-farming but what, 

 a young woman can accomplish. 



