Convention—Bee-jceeptng, 
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cost nothing to the bee-master except that knowledge necessary to 
their wise and judicious treatment. Besides, this branch of in¬ 
dustry can be successfully prosecuted, provided what is now known 
of bee culture can be so disseminated as to be within reach of all, 
for old and retired people, invalids and cripples of little use in 
other avocations, can follow this pursuit. 
But how has this knowledo:e of the habits and instincts of the 
bee been ascertained? Not much under any phase of state pat- 
ronasre; but like most ideas new and removed from the common ob- 
servations of everyday life, it has been acquired under difficulties, 
by patient investigation. It has been attained by the assiduous 
and unrewarded labor of a few agriculturists who have spent a 
lifetime, and in some instances fortunes, in making experiments in 
order to determine facts sufficient to make their vocation a success. 
The public are the parties who reap the golden harvests from fields 
sown with the seeds of persevering experiment, after the lapse of 
perhaps a hundred years. I know an old citizen of Wisconsin who has 
literally spent a lifetime in this expensive mode of acquiring knowl¬ 
edge, and has at length, in the afternoon of life, reached a demonstra¬ 
tion of facts and figures in agriculture highly important for the public 
to know, but which he is now too poor to impart. Could he have 
started where in all probability he will have to leave off, he might 
have obtained wealth and independence, which now he will have 
to leave as a legacy to another generation. In view of these con¬ 
siderations, what is the dictate of duty in our future treatment of 
this valuable industrial interest? Other states have gone far in ad¬ 
vance of our own in this department. Michigan has, in connection 
with her agricultural college, an apiary managed by a competent 
practical agriculturist, whose observations are recorded and pub¬ 
lished, and whose methods of treatment of the little insect are al¬ 
ways open to the inspection of learners. 
The state of Tennessee has followed the worthy example of 
Michigan. This department, in connection with the agricultural 
colleges, should be, and will be, if successfully managed, not only 
selfsustaining financially, but a repository of demonstrated facts 
and scientific knowledge, to which the public should have full ac¬ 
cess, and bee keeping will thereby be raised to the rank of a surely 
remunerative pursuit, instead of a hap-hazard speculation. 
Now, if the State Agricultural Society of Wisconsin should so 
