AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
83 
result is that we consumers pay from twen¬ 
ty-five to thirty-three cents per pound for our 
honey, and have none too much at that 
price. 
Bee-culture Ooght to be profitable to every 
one who will pursue it carefully and intelli¬ 
gently; and so many of our readers are 
competent to do this, that we invite their at¬ 
tention to the reasons for this opinion. 
The original outlay in this pursuit is very 
trifling. On whatever scale one begins, the 
money which he invests goes a great ways. 
We advise those howevsr who are inexpe¬ 
rienced,^ all means to begin very moderately. 
Let them procure a single colony, and two 
or three of the best treatises on the habits 
and management of bees. No investmentin 
real-estate is required; Mr. Quinby has 
shown how cheaply a hive may be made, 
and if at the end of twelve months the bees 
are dead, and there remain only the books, 
the hive and a few moldy sheets of comb, 
the profit in the shape of experience will be 
enough to counterbalance the loss of capi¬ 
tal ; and one may begin again with greater 
confidence and with a good hope of success. 
Again, bees multiply with great rapidity, 
and by careful management one who has 
ten stocks, may very soon expect to have 
a hundred ; and a moderate increase need 
not interfere with a large annual harvest of 
honey. 
Then the bees require no outlay for food. 
Our cattle and horses and sheep are very 
serviceable, but they must be fed. The bee 
not only finds its own food but lays up its 
choicest sweet in store for man. The for¬ 
est and fruit trees, the white clover pastures, 
the buckwheat fields yield to them on de¬ 
mand all that they require. It may be found 
good economy to cultivate land with special 
reference to the wants of bees, but it is not 
necessary to a reasonable degree of profit; 
and while one needs to own or hire his pas¬ 
ture lands, the bee roams where it will, and 
all the region is its “ common.” Then the 
bee never refuses to work when working is 
of any use. It has the privilege of working 
seven days in the week, and it works day 
and night, for when the flowers are full of 
honey, the making of wax is found to pro¬ 
ceed rapidly at night. 
When we put these things together, how 
can it be possible, if the culture of bees is at 
all practicable, that it should fail to be a 
source of profit ? Here is a creature that 
“ works for nothing and finds itself,” that 
needs no superintendence in its foraging ex¬ 
cursions, that asks only for shelter and oc¬ 
casional supervision, and protection from its 
enemies, and that furnishes an indefinite 
number of pounds of costly sweets all ready 
for the table or packed for market, in an at¬ 
tractive form, all of which is absolutely 
saved from utter waste. What can be more 
profitable! 
Thus far theorizing; the inference is sug¬ 
gested by the “ nature of things.” We must 
add some facts and the opinions of men who 
are “ experts” in bee-culture. And here it 
may be well to remark that no particular 
form of hive is essential to securing the 
greatest amount of honey. Various con¬ 
trivances about a hive may facilitate our 
management of bees, and enable us to secure 
the surplus honey, in marketable form, but 
it is yet to be shown that the bees collect 
more or better honey in the most costly 
apiary than in their wild state ; and proba¬ 
bly the most perfect hive is that which al¬ 
lows them to work in a state of nature. 
Among American treatises on the subject 
before us, we have that of Mr. Quinby, 
which we heretofore commended. Then 
we have that of the Rev. Mr. Langstrotli, 
worthy of high praise, which should be in 
the hands of every bee-keeper. He esti¬ 
mates that if “the increase of stocks is limi¬ 
ted to one new one from two old ones, un¬ 
der proper management, one year with 
another, about ten dollars worth of honey 
may be obtained for every two stocks win¬ 
tered over.” The value of the new colonies, 
he sets off “ as an equivalent for labor of 
superintendence, and interest on the money 
invested in bees, hives, fixtures, &c.” 
He cites also the success of a German 
bee-keeper, Dzierzon, who beginning anew 
in 1838, on a new theory of culture, rapidly 
increased his stocks, till in 1846 he had 360 
colonies, which yielded that year 6,000 lbs. 
of honey, besides several hundred weight of 
wax. In 1848, however, a fatal disease 
swept away 500 colonies, and left him but 
ten remaining; but these he nursed and 
multiplied by artificial swarms, so that in 
1851 his stock consisted of nearly 400 col¬ 
onies. 
Dr. Eddy of Massachusetts, whose brief 
work on bee-culture is valuable, gives as the 
result of his experience for twelve years, the 
opinion that “ the profits resulting from a 
judicious and proper system of bee-culture 
may be safely estimated at from 100 to 500 
per cent per annum.” He says : “ I have 
three swarms, which have paid me in honey 
and increase of stock upwards of $100 in 
two years. The average profit upon my 
entire stock for three years has been 327 
per cent per annum, or $3,27 cents has been 
the annual profit on every dollar invested.” 
He cites a case where one colony yielded in 
honey and increase of stock, $25 in a single 
year; and another case in the city of Wash¬ 
ington, where a swarm produced a new 
swarm, and five dollars worth of surplus 
honey; while the new swarm produced 89 
pounds of surplus honey which sold for $20, 
making the proceeds of the old stock for the 
season about thirty dollars ” And as for 
time and labor he says, “ the aggregate de¬ 
gree of attention which a dozen swarms of 
bees require during the year is less than a 
dozen house plants or a single canary would 
necessarily demand.” 
Mr. Wood, an English writer, quotes one 
apiarian as receiving from eight stocks about 
.£20 a year, Another, who was regularly 
engaged from six to six daily in other avo¬ 
cations, cleared nearly j£ 100 in one year by 
his bees. “ Fifty or sixty pounds of honey 
have not unfrequently been obtained from a 
single hive in a season, and occasionally as 
much as 100 pounds.” 
Dr. Thacher cites a German writer who 
saw forty large bee-hives filled with honey, 
to the amount of seventy pounds each, in 
one fortnight, by their being placed near a 
large field of buckwheat in flower. 
But we forbear to cite such facts, for wp 
do not wish to encourage any one to plunge 
into this business too hastily. The advice 
of Mr. Langstroth is in point. “ Let no in¬ 
experienced person commence bee-keeping on 
a large scale." Let him be satisfied “ not 
merely that money can be made by keeping 
bees, but that he can make it." And this is 
the conclusion of the whole matter, that in a 
land so wide in extent, so rich in its re¬ 
sources, and so full of enterprise, it is a 
shame and a pity that bee-culture should not 
receive more careful attention, and be made 
to contribute to the prosperity not only of 
the husbandman but of the mechanic and 
the salesman, and in fact of every house¬ 
holder outside of our larger cities. 
E. W. G. 
EFFECT OF SEVERE COLD ON TENDER 
TREES AND PLANTS. 
A recent walk through our grounds re¬ 
vealed some facts worthy cf record. It 
should be premised that, during the past 
Winter, the mercury with us (in Central 
New-York) has fallen several times to 20 a 
below zero, and once to 30°. Alas ! said we, 
as we watched the thermometer, this will be 
the death of our choice and tender trees. 
When the cold abated, in the latter part of 
February, we went forth to note our proba¬ 
ble losses. The record of observations was 
as follows: 
Deciduous Cypress , a native of the South¬ 
ern States, but slightly nipped on the ex¬ 
tremities of its twigs. Salisburia , a native 
of Japan, two twigs a lit tie injured; it has 
passed through three Winteis here before, 
with no injury. Menzies' Spruce, leaves red 
as sole leather, but the buds untouched: had 
no protection. Swedish Juniper, unhurt, 
though a little browned. Fmus Excelsa, na¬ 
tive of the Himalaya Mountains, perfectly 
fresh, less pinched than in former Winters ; 
was protected, on the south side, by a few 
hemloek boughs to keep the sun off. Eng¬ 
lish Yew, with a slight protection of straw 
tied over the top,unharmed. English Maple, 
unscathed. An English gardener in this 
neighborhood planted it several years ago, 
and pronounced it too tender for this lati¬ 
tude. Kentucky Coffee Tree, untouched. 
Gold-barked Ash, slightly injured on the ex¬ 
tremities, but less than in former years. 
Virgilia Lutea, unharmed. White Fringe 
Tree, sound throughout. Deutzia Scabra, 
ditto, Magnolia Glauca, slightly injured : it 
is often cut up badly. Magnolia Acuminata, 
untouched. Kolreuteria, ditto. 
Most of these trees and shrubs, it will be 
remembered, are considered tender, and 
hardly safe to plant at the North. But the 
observations just made confirm our opinion 
heretofore expressed, that it is not the ex¬ 
treme cold of Winter that is fatal to such 
plants, so much as the changeable weather 
of early Spring. If trees of this description 
were slightly protected against such changes, 
we believe that many might be planted at 
the North, which are now confined to the 
grounds of our Southern neighbors. 
