FAEMEKS' INSTITUTES. 189 



%vould take my bees out. I went where they were. All was still. I tapped on 

 the hive ; no answer. I thought they must be slumbering. Yes, they were 

 sleeping the sleep that knows no waking ; and they are sleeping still. There 

 were cabbages, turnips, potatoes, pork, squasli, and pumpkins in the cellar; 

 and, if I should consign my bees to such a place to winter again, you no doubt 

 would call me the biggest pumpkin of them all. 



Now, in order to become a successful apiarist, one must couple theory with 

 practice. Get all the information you can from books and the experience of 

 others. Apply to yourself what meets your needs, discarding the rest. And 

 there is no reason why all, or nearly all, should not succeed in the undertaking. 

 To the beginner it is very essential to have some good work on the bee that goes 

 into details, giving a full description of the work to be done. Quinby, Lang- 

 stroth, Harbison, and others, are all good ; but there is a little pamplilet enti- 

 tled Manual of the Apiary, written by Prof. A. J. Cook of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, which no bee-keeper wlio wishes to succeed can afford to be without. 



Next an address by Prof. A. J. Cook, as follows : 



''IMPORTANT MISTAKES MADE BY BEE-KEEPEES." 



The profits of rational bee-keeping are little understood, and if stated, would 

 be still less believed. Since keeping bees, — if I except disaster in wintering, 

 which has only occurred twice, — I have never failed to secure 300 per cent, net 

 profits, and have often realized over 300 per cent. I fully believe the losses 

 need not be repeated. 



But granting that these are occasionally imperative, with the combs and honey 

 still left at my disposal, I could purchase again in the spring, and still secure 

 100 per cent on my outlay. This is no guess-work, but a fact, built on the secure 

 foundation of past experience, and can only be denied on the ground that there is 

 to be a revolution in the aif airs of bee-keeping. The world is coming more and 

 more to disbelieve in revolutions. 



But, say you, such results are not common. The apiarists of our country are 

 not the millionaires, nor indeed have their bank credits been such as to occa- 

 sion wonder or even remark. But, mind you, I said rational bee-keeping. Is 

 it not true that most bee-keepers make this an avocation, a mere supplementary 

 pursuit, which, though they often admit it brings the best returns, still receives 

 only the fag-end of their time, thought, and energies? Again, a large per cent, 

 of the bee-keepers let the apiary run itself. They give it no thought, no study, 

 and very little attention. They cannot afford to take a bee journal, and as for 

 reading bee books they have no time and less inclination. What wonder their 

 song is burdened with loss? and what wonder that apiculture, which has to 

 carry such weights, loses prestige among employments? Just as with farming, 

 or any art or profession, where the representatives are ignorant or unthinking, 

 she loses caste. To be sure, we have very many laborers in this field, and I am 

 glad to know that the number is increasing, who, like Adam Grimm, love this 

 vocation, and make it a continual subject of thought and study, I am glad to 

 know that such men are also following in the wake of the one already mentioned 

 towards the haven of competency. 



The merchant, even with the closest attention to business, the utmost caution 

 and the best study of tlic markets, treads an uncertain road ; the lawyer and 

 the physician find the walls of competition so high that success seems problem- 

 atical, even with the severest thought and closest study ; wliile the apiarist, if 

 he will only study to know his course, thinks that he may never miss his bear- 



