Besides the ordinary market prices realized for the hares, some went extensively into breeding fancy stock, and realized from $50 to $250 apiece for them.

This industry had indications of becoming extensive and enduring, but by 1900 so many went into the business that the markets became glutted and prices fell with disastrous effect.

Whether it will pay you depends largely on the attitude of your customers toward the hare as a food product.

Bee-keeping offers an interesting and remunerative field of employment.  More than the average living awaits those only who will make a careful and intelligent study of bees and their habits and will give them the proper care and attention.

One need not be a practical bee-keeper to enter this field.  He can purchase even one hive and, while increasing from this, he can gain an experience that he could get in no other way.

How shall one start bee-keeping?

Get one hive or a few hives.  If you have no room in the yard, put them upon the roof.  One man in Cincinnati, Ohio, makes his living from bees kept on the roof of his house.

Wm. A. Selzer, a large dealer in bee-keepers’ supplies, in Philadelphia, established many colonies on the roof of his place right in the heart of the business district, where it would seem impossible for bees to find a living.

Very little space is required for bee-keeping; hives can be set two feet apart in rows, and the rows six to ten feet apart.  No pasture need be provided for them.  There are always fields of flowers to supply the nectar.

White clover produces a large yield of nectar of very fine flavor.  The basswood or linden tree blossom produces a fine nectar which some consider better than white clover.  Buckwheat also gives a good yield of nectar, but it is dark in color and brings a lower price for that reason.  There are other plants which yield large quantities of nectar, and it would be necessary to know the locality to say what would be the best plants; but as white clover is found almost everywhere in the northern states, it is safe to say this will be the best producer in the spring, and goldenrod, where found, the best for the fall supply.

Frank Benton, in United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 59, says:  “It may be safely said that any place where farming, gardening, or fruit raising can be successfully followed is adapted to the profitable keeping of bees.”

There is always a farmer here and there who keeps a few hives of bees.  These often can be purchased at a very reasonable price, but unless they are Italian bees and are in improved hives, it would be better to purchase from some dealer.  He may sell you a very weak colony, but after the first year these ought to be as strong as any.  Start in the spring; when you have your bees, read good literature on the subject.  A. I. Root’s “A B C of Bee Culture” is good for beginners; subscribe for the American Bee Journal, of Chicago, or Gleanings in Bee Culture, Medina, Ohio.  They are full of the latest ideas on the subject.