48 BEE-CULTURE. 
1838 he had virtually to begin anew. At this period, he contrived 
his improved hive in its ruder form, which gave him the command over 
all the combs, and he began to experiment on the theory which obser- 
vation and study had enabled him to devise. Thenceforward his 
progress was as rapid as his success was complete and triumphant. 
Though he met with frequent reverses — about seventy colonies having 
been stolen from him, sixty destroyed by fire, and twenty-four by a 
flood — yet in 1846 his stock had increased to 360 colonies, and he 
realized from them that year six thousand pounds of honey, besides 
several hundred weight of wax. At the same time, most of the culti- 
vators in his vicinity, who pursued the common methods, had fewer 
hives than they had when he commenced. 
“In the year 1848, a fatal pestilence, known by the name of ‘ fou] 
brood,’ prevailed among his Bees, and destroyed nearly all his colonies 
before it could be subdued, only about ten having escaped the malady, 
which attacked alike the old stocks and his artificial swarms. He 
estimates his entire loss that year at over 500 colonies. Never- 
theless he succeeded so well in multiplying by artificial swarms 
the few that remained healthy, that in the fall of 1851 his stock con- 
sisted of nearly 400 colonies. He must, therefore, have multiplied his 
stocks more than three-fold each year.” ~A further account of his 
operations is found in a German report on agriculture for 1846. ‘ Mr. 
Dzierzon resides in a poor, sandy district of Middle Silesia, which, 
according to the common notions of apiarians, is unfavorable to Bee- 
culture. Yet in despite of this, and of various mishaps, he has 
succeeded in realizing $900 as the product of his Bees in one season. | 
By his mode of management, his Bees yield, even in the poorest 
years, from ten to fifteen per cent. on the capital invested; and 
where the colonies are produced by the apiarian’s own skill and labor, 
they cost only about one-fourth the price at which they are usually 
valued. In ordinary seasons, the profit amounts to from thirty to 
fifty per cent. and in very favorable seasons, from eighty to 100 per 
cent.” 
Mr. James Nokes, of Washington, D. C., has one swarm which pro- 
duced a new one, valued at $5.00. This new one produced, besides 
furnishing their own winter stores, 89 lbs. of surplus honey, which was _ 
sold in the market for $20.00. The old swarm produced surplus honey 
to the value of $5.00. Total proceeds of the old stock for the season, 
