308 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Original cost per swarm. $5 00 
Interest per annum. 50 
Labor on each swarm. 1 50 
Making a total debtor of. $7 00 
The credit, on the other hand, would be— 
Seven pounds honey, at 25 cents per pound.$1 75 
One good, early swarm. 5 00 
- $6 75 
Value of original swarm taken out debtor side, or added to 
credit. 5 00 
$11 75 
Deduct original cost. 7 00 
Leaving balance. $4 75 
This gives nearly 100 per cent, on the original investment. 
This is what the best bee-keepers usually do, according to Mr. 
Grimm’s modest estimate. But we should remember that the 
man who cannot bring his bees to produce more surplus hon¬ 
ey, in a fair honey-year, has not learned the art of bee-keeping 
to perfection. The above may be more than bee-keepers as a 
whole average. Their failure to do more must be attributed to 
their ignorance or unskill fulness. They are not masters of their 
business. They are not bee-masters at all. 
But what can be done to increase the profits of bee-keeping by 
the aid of the honey extractor—which eminent experts claim, 
adds to the productiveness of the hive, from 50 to 75 percent, 
during the season—and the advantages gained by the improved 
method of placing the empty box for surplus honey under the 
full box, by raising up the latter so that the bee can make his 
combs continuous from above downwards to the bottom, and 
the benefits gained by the introduction of the Italian bee, 
what can be done to increase the profits of bee-culture by 
using these, and all other real improvements, seems almost in¬ 
credible. The pursuit now is barely remunerative enough to 
induce the few to persevere in a business that has proved prof¬ 
itless to most. 
