134: 
WlSC0I^8IN STATE AOBICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 
far interest itself in this enterprise as to ask by fcrmal resolution 
the Board of Regents of the State University to establish an apia¬ 
rian professorship in connection with the agricultural department 
of the State University, we think it will have done no more than 
the bee keepers of Wisconsin have a right to expect of them as 
guardians of all industrial interests. Such a department would not 
only be a source of scientific knowledge, but a financial success, 
and shortly become to the university a source of revenue. Let it 
start with an apiary of moderate size, say fifty or one hundred 
swarms, and it will even pay a large interest on the investment 
from the first year. There are many questions yet to be solved by 
careful experiment, some by chemical analysis, of vital interest to 
bee keepers, such as foul brood, its cause and cure; artificial comb 
foundation; the best method of wintering bees, and the best hives 
for given purposes, etc., etc. I venture the assertion that the bee 
keepers of Wisconsin will spend in the aggregate one thousand 
times as much money in perhaps vain efforts to solve the artificial 
comb foundation problem now before them, as the apiarian depart¬ 
ment here alluded to would spend in accomplishing the same end, 
were such a department organized and working for that purpose. 
It is true in Michigan the Agricultural College is entirely separate 
from the State University; but that makes no difference. 
I will close this appeal wdth a short quotation from the postal 
card of Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural College: 
“ I am professor of entomology, and in that connection have charge 
of our apiary, and give a series of lectures in bee culture. Bee 
keeping is one of the separate departments of the college. The 
students like it so much and it^ pays so well that it gets many 
favors.” 
Hon. Matt. Anderson said he had listened with pleasure to this 
paper, and he hoped it would stimulate more of our farmers to keep 
bees. The work of caring for them was light, and could be done 
by women and children. He had twelve swarms which had gath¬ 
ered the last season one thousand pounds of honey. Clover and 
buckwheat produced a large quantity of this sweet, and with the 
extractor it could be taken from the comb and the latter preserved 
for refilling. 
Adjourned till 2 P. M. 
