myself to ten colonies. A neighboring 
brother minister has twenty, and disposed 
of nearly 1000 pounds of comb honey last 
year. 
THE IMPETUS TO BEE CULTURE. 
If we live in a close- walled city, we can put 
our colony of bees in the window, up garret 
or somewhere else, and, if need be, can do 
well with them on top of the house. Out of 
sight, sailing their bee-line over everybody's 
head, they fill their hives with the luscious 
product just the same. 
I got my start with bees when a young 
boy. My father was president of a woman's 
college, and among his corps of teachers 
was a professor of natural science, distin- 
guished at that time throughout Ohio. He 
had a great fondness for honey-bees, and 
was the possessor of six colonies. I watched 
him open the hives, saw him secure hun- 
dreds of small boxes of honey containing a 
pound each, observed his veil, his old dog- 
skin gloves, his bee-smoker, found that he 
never was stung either on face or hands. 
When I realized this last my enthusiasm 
bounded, for I had always dreaded a sting. 
The picture of me, when a bee buzzed about, 
was of a boy running away as fast as two 
legs could carry him, wishing for four or 
six, and swinging hat and arms with ex- 
citement .and ludicrous rapidity. I can now 
assure you that you will rarely, perhaps 
never, be stung if you provide against it, 
with no more trouble to do than to put on 
hat, overcoat, and gloves against weather. 
Now, also, that I have learned more of the 
scientific side of bee-keeping, I have ascer- 
tained that reputable breeders of honey-bees 
have eliminated vicious characteristics from 
their strains of them as others have done 
the like with cattle, horses, dogs, and other 
animals, or as strains of poultry, pigeons, 
