As beekeeping developed as an industry, the close relationship to fruit growing and horticulture became apparent, as bees were discovered to be the greatest pollen carrying agents known. The government then began to spend more money on the development of the various branches of agriculture; a Department of Apiculture was established and through the work of this department beekeeping is recognized as one of the most profitable branches of agriculture. [Illustration: THE RESULT OF A BEE’S STING] The intense enthusiasm of this pioneer beekeeper was contagious and resulted in many taking up beekeeping. As no attention had been given to developing a market for honey and production increased, older beekeepers became alarmed and raised the cry that he was making too many beekeepers. Seeing the need for some means of increasing the demand for honey, a small honey business was started to dispose of the product of customers who had no market. Soon a definite educational campaign on the value of honey as a food was started, enlisting the co-operation of beekeepers wherever possible. Immediately the necessity for more care in selecting and marketing honey was apparent. [Illustration: A LARGE SWARM OF ITALIANS ON A YOUNG LOCUST TREE] [Illustration: ARRANGEMENT OF CELLS IN COMB] [Illustration: HIGHLY MAGNIFIED EGG] [Illustration: AN OLD-STYLE HIVE--What is inside?] The introduction of Italian bees into the United States in the early sixties marked an epoch in beekeeping, as they soon demonstrated their superiority as honey gatherers, their gentleness and other traits proving them more adaptable to domestication and to modern methods of beekeeping. The marked superiority of some colonies over others attracted the attention of beekeepers to the possibility of race improvement by careful breeding, which gradually developed a new branch of beekeeping aside from honey production--that of queen rearing--as it was discovered that improvement of stock must come through the queen mother. The average production of honey per colony has been materially increased, due not alone to improved methods, but to improvement in stock by careful breeders; and there are many beekeepers engaged exclusively in this branch of the industry who enjoy international reputation as breeders of superior strains of queens, and many thousands are annually sent through the mails to all parts of the world. Live bees are shipped by express as easily as poultry or other live stock. [Illustration: LOADING AN UP-TO-DATE CENTRIFUGAL EXTRACTOR] [Illustration: IN ACTION--FOR A FEW MINUTES ONLY] [Illustration: A MAN-SIZE HIVE OF ITALIAN BEES] [Illustration: WE MUST BRUSH THE BEES OFF SO THAT WE CAN SEE THE COMB] [Illustration: AFTER CELL CAPPINGS ARE CUT OFF--READY TO EXTRACT]