A year ago, I received a visit from my old friend and College classmate, O. Clute, of Keokuk, Iowa. Of course I took him to see our apiary, and as we looked at the bees and their handiwork, just as the nectar from golden-rod and asters was flooding the honey-cells; he became enraptured, took my little "Manual of the Apiary" home with him, and at once subscribed for the old _American Bee Journal_. He very soon purchased several colonies of bees, and has found so much of pleasure and recreation in the duties imposed by his new charge, that he has written me several times, expressing gratitude that I had led him into such a work of love and pleasure. PROFITS. The profits, too, of apiculture, urge its adoption as a pursuit. When we consider the comparatively small amount of capital invested, the relatively small amount of labor and expense attending its operations, we are surprised at the abundant reward that is sure to wait upon its intelligent practice. I do not wish to be understood here as claiming that labor--yes, real hard, back-aching labor--is not required in the apiary. The specialist, with his hundred or more colonies, will have, at certain seasons, right hard and vigorous work. Yet this will be both pleasant and Healthful, and will go hand-in-hand with thought, so that brain and muscle will work together. Yet this time of hard, physical labor will only continue for five or six months, and for the balance of the year the apiarist has or may have comparative leisure. Nor do I think that all will succeed. The fickle, careless, indolent, heedless man, will as surely fail in apiculture, as in any other calling. But I repeat, in the light of many years of experience, where accurate weight, measure, and counting of change has given no heed to conjecture, that there is no manual labor pursuit, where the returns are so large, when compared with the labor and expense.