132 
WlSGOJS'Si:^ STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
premiums and other means, so as thereby to assist in chrystaiizing 
the diffused particles of knowledge connected with the subjects, 
and to aid those in search of information to come to safe and in¬ 
expensive results. Stock-raising, horticulture and dairying are 
each separate and important interests, not heretofore overlooked. 
By virtue of this precedent, the bee-keeper feels that he, too, has 
claims on the attention of the society, which ought not in justice 
longer to be disregarded. 
Too long has the idea prevailed that bee-keeping is a minor pur¬ 
suit, in which so few can profitably engage; that to neglect it as a 
prominent feature of our national industries should not be regarded 
as detrimental to the general welfare. But we hope a few facts 
here recited will place this subject in a new light. The first point 
we propose to make is, that Wisconsin has growing upon her soil 
as large a variety and abundance of honey-producing plants and 
vegetables as any state in the Union. We have in our forests the 
Basswood, the Maple, the Elm, the Cedar, the Tamarack, the Lo¬ 
cust, etc. We have among the countless multitude of flowering 
shrubs and plants, the following on almost every farm: the White 
and Bed Clover, the Alsike, the Golden Rod, the Honeysuckle, the 
Currant, the Gosseberry, the Apple, the Pear, the Raspberry, the 
Willow, etc. In fact, from the first blossom of early spring to the 
shutting in of winter, the flora of V»Tsconsin are sufficiently pro¬ 
lific in the secretion of honey to afford to the industrious bee 
abundant forage for himselLand his little family. All he wants is 
that considerate and rational attention to his welfare which the 
conditions of his dom'^stication demand. Forage is abundant, as 
the following estimate will show. A German writer of eminence 
states the amount of honey secretions on a single acre of buck¬ 
wheat per day at fourteen pounds. Taking this as a basis of cal¬ 
culation, and admittina’ that White Clover, Alsike and Basswood 
secrete as much per day, which I think to be at least reasonable; 
and for a period of sixty days during the best of the season, and 
allowing that one-tenth part of each township is covered with a 
growth of this vegetation, and we have for each thirt 3 ''-six square 
miles in our great state the enormous amount of nearly 2,000,000 
pounds of honey secreted in a single year. This vast flow of sach- 
arine matter is now almost totally lost to the inhabitants of 
the state for the want of sufficient honey gatherers. These bees 
