BEE-CULTURE. 
94 
I succeeded, in my early experiments, in making some safe 
introductions by immersing the queen in honey at the time 
of presenting her, hut fouud, ultimately, that unless the re- 
cipients were in the proper mood at the time of her pre- 
sentation, they would sometimes kill her. 
PROFITS AND IMPORTANCE OF BEE-CULTURE. 
The profits of bee-culture, like other pursuits in life, de- 
pend greatly upon the knowledge of the subject possessed by 
the bee-keeper and the proper management of his bees. The 
difference in continuance and abundance of pasturage in dif- 
ferent localities will of course produce widely different re- 
sults ; but there are very few, if any, localities in the 
United States habitable by man in which bees properly man- 
aged will not pay a bountiful compensation for their cultiva- 
tion, while in the more favorable localities four or five hun- 
dred per cent, per annum is no unusual product. 
According to the census of 1850, there were produced in 
the United Stales and Territories in that year 14,853,790 
pounds of beeswax aud honey, while that of I860 is 1,357,- 
864 pounds beeswax and 25,028,991 pounds of honey, show- 
ing an increase of about 77? per cent. 
Prior to the publication by Mr. Langstroth of his excellent 
work on bee-culture, and the introduction of his movable 
comb system of bee-keeping, the pursuit had for some years 
been gradually, and in some localities rapidly declining, ow- 
ing greatly to the ravages of the ‘bee moth; inventions of 
hives for the prevention of which are not lacking in either 
abundance or variety. Many of these, however, instead of 
preventing it, proved most excellent auxiliaries for the spread 
of its devastations ; while others, perhaps from ignorance of 
their habits, were so constructed as to prove, sooner or later, 
certain destruction to any colonies that might be placed in 
them. Several kinds of these hives had been extensively 
used throughout a great part of our country, producing de- 
struction wherever introduced, until repeated trials and dis- 
appointments had driven bee-keepers generally to the con- 
clusion that profitable bee-culture had ceased to be practi- 
cable in this country, and so discouraged many as to cause 
them to abandon the pursuit entirely. The expectation that 
any hive, of itself, will ever be found to prevent (he ravages 
