88 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. 
$4, making an income of about $1,800 from a capital of 
$600 or $700. This, he says, is better than he has ever 
done before, but it shows what may be done in a good 
locality, with a favorable season. M. Quinby, of St. 
Johnsville, N. Y., who has, I believe, the most extensive 
apiaries in this country, and is a practical bee-keeper, 
‘says, In his treatise on bee-keeping : ‘In some seasons, 
particularly favorable, your stocks collectively will yield 
from one to two hundred per cent. J have known a sin- 
gle stock in one season to produce more than twenty dol- 
lars in swarms and honey, and ninety stocks to produce 
over nine hundred dollars.” He speaks of these as instan- 
ces of an extra yield, and further remarks, ‘ that a proper 
estimate can be made only by the average of proceeds of 
several years; but that ‘a single stock, rightly managed, 
in the long run, is worth more than $109 at interest.’ ” 
Mr. R. H. Davis, of Larone, Somerset county, Me., is 
reported in the Maine Farmer, as having received from 
four swarms a clear profit of $67 25, that is, a net of over 
three hundred per cent. 
But California is the Paradise of bees. Mr. Hamilton, 
of Stockton, reports in the Sacramento Union for Jan. 14, 
1861, that he had, the previous season, thirty-five swarms 
of bees, which increased to five hundred, and the yield of 
honey for the season was 20,075 pounds, making an aver- 
age from the thirty-five original swarms of 573 pounds 
each! Mr. H. moved his bees Feb. 1, 1860, from Stock- 
ton to Santa Clara, where they remained till July 1st, 
when the swarms had increased to 270. He then returned 
with them to Stockton, and by the first of October the 
ewarms had increased to 500. 
In 1860 bees were worth in California $25 a swarm, and 
honey 50 cents a pound. With these figures, the reader 
