The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-03-13
The Bee Keeping Industry.

SOOn0A 40 OAO Va ouCu STOWIuS
Importance as to be attracting
the attention of a great many
capitalists. Honey promises fair
to become a source of national
wealth. 1t is estimated that TO-
900 Of our people are engaged
in apiarian pursuits, some of
them sold last year from fifty to
one hundred thousand pounds
each, the product Of their own
bees. It is said that the income
of |. S. HARRISON, the great Cali.
fornia honey magnate, derived
from the sale of surplus honey,
is more than $4,000 per annum
over and above ali expenses. In
this State, Capt. Hetherington,
of Cherry Valley, sold%las year
$4,000 pounds from his own app
iaries. Adam Grim, of Jefftr-
son. Wisconsin, as much more.
In fact, we might go on enumer-
ating individual instances of the
proftableness Of this industry
until we filled a whole column.
But perhaps a better idea will
be conveyed by more general
figures. The 10000 bee-keepers
of this country WI Oh an aver
age a little more than % hives
api, ce, or in round numbers two
millions in all. Twenty-Five
pounds Of honey to the hive is
considered a reasonable yield of
surplus,w worth % cents per pound
or SIS, SOO 600 for the crop The
wax produced is estimated at
20,OOO,O0O pounds, worth at
least S6,OOO,O0O, making the
grand total revenue presented
US by our industrious little
friends, annually, $14,SOO,OOO.
We annually export $1,,2OO,0O0
worth of honey and 100000
worth of beeswaX.
The late Mr.. Ouinby, a most
reliable author, in his work on
bees, claimed that on an average
every acre of ground would yield
ole pound ofhoney. The State
of New York alone has 100000,
900 acres, yet she has never
gathered than 100000
pounds. Just think of the loss;
honey being a sort of valuble oil
evaporat, if not gathered and
wastes it's sweetness upon the
desert air. Mr.. HARRISON SAYS
that the honey thus lost annual
ly in California is os of more
value than the gold gathered .
The profit realized by the keep
ing of bees average from one to
two hundred per. cent on the
capital invcs ed. 1t is a bust
ness any one with limited means
can carry on. Students frequ-
emily support themselves by
keeping bees. Poorly paid min
listers have often depended with
more confidence for their daily
bread upon these little indust-
rious creatures of God than on
their paiishioners. There have
been two or three real progress
sivt steps taken in bee culture
since the days Of Huber. In
1852, the Rev. d l.. Langstroth
invented movable comb hives,
by which we ar, able to buy
those neat little boxes or caps
we see at the grocer's. Lateron
came the extracting machine,
which throws the honey from
the combs by centrifugal force,
leaving the combs intact so they
can be put back in the hives and
refilled by the bees. The greatest
invention, however, has been
reserved TO, this year.
Almost every one has noticed
how delicately and perfectly for
med the honey combs are, SO
much SO that no one ever
dreamt they could be successful
initiated. But it has been done
DR.. John Long has constructed
a machine that turns the combs
out fundamentally correct
The editor of "G:eanings in bee
culture" says in his comments
on these combs that the finest