296 
Annual Report of the 
put a drop of honey into a surplus box, though there be plenty of 
it in the field; but they will replace the honey of which the meli- 
pulte has deprived them. They have not only a craving instinct, 
but an instinct of satisfaction. The well-filled hive appeals to this 
latter instinct. They know how to rest and be thankful. Take 
away a portion of their stores, and the craving instinct comes into 
play again and drives them forth as busy workers into the fields for 
fresh supplies. 
Another modern improvement is the importation and breeding 
of superior bees. There are inferior and superior breeds of bees 
just as there are of poultry, swine, sheep, cattle, and horses; and 
though it may seem an extravagant thing to give five or ten dollars 
for a queen bee—a little insect about an inch long—it is no more 
so than to give one or two hundred dollars for a superior calf or 
lamb. The Italian cross has greatly improved common black bees 
by giving them a dash of fresh blood, as stock-breeders would ex¬ 
press it, and by imparting to them desirable qualities under the crude 
appliances of old-time bee-keeping. It was a fair remunerating 
business from time immemorial. Much more, then, is it worthy 
of attention with the aid of modern improvements. It is, there¬ 
fore, only natural to expect that before many years, apiculture will 
take a much higher rank than it now does among other industries. 
Honey and beeswax are marketable articles, for which there is* a 
* well nigh limitless demand, which, like that of fruit, increases with 
the supply. Honey forage is abundant everywhere. In wooded 
localities, the maple furnishes hone}' in its early blossoms, and in 
swamp regions there are various plants which supply bee-food 
with the first opening of spring. Our early wild flowers and fruit- 
blossoms give the bees something to do, and when white clover 
spangles the fields and roadsides, the honey harvest is in all its 
glory. The late bass-wood blossoms, asters, golden rod and buck¬ 
wheat protract the honey season into the fall. 
Bees are the best laborers we can have. The chief difficulty with 
beginners in bee-keeping is that they will not be to the slight 
expense and trouble necessary to be informed on the subject. They 
buy a hive of bees about which they know nothing except that bees 
can sting and their honey is nice, and then leave it to take care of it¬ 
self. What wonder that only failure and loss are the results. It would 
be the same in stock-raising, dairying or any other business. While 
