APICULTURE. 803 



APICULTUEE. 



By ALLEN PEINGLE. 



AMONG the recent industries of rapid growth in this country, bee- 

 culture stands prominent. Of course, as a homely art, bee-keep- 

 ing is no modern industry, being as old as history ; but in its scientific 

 developments it is of recent growth. In these times, when science is 

 properly taking its place at the helm in all departments of human in- 

 dustry and activity, it is not strange that it is promptly assuming the 

 guidance of bee-culture. This is a utilitarian as well as scientific age ; 

 and this is why bee-culture is being so rapidly developed, for its ex- 

 traordinary growth is only in the ratio of its utility. Though known 

 to commerce for twenty-five hundred years, hitherto it has been fol- 

 lowed and known, in this country at least, principally as a local indus- 

 try. But bee-culture, from the soundest economic considerations, 

 ought undoubtedly to become a great national industry fostered and 

 protected by the state. Apiculture is naturally a part of, and closely 

 allied with, agriculture, inasmuch as the nectar gathered by the one is 

 immediately derived from the same fields and forests that yield the 

 abundant ingatherings of the other. Indeed, the bulk of the honey- 

 crop of this country (which is, in round numbers, about 100,000,000 

 pounds annually) comes from the bee-keeping which is in connection, 

 more or less, with farming. 



But this is not the principal reason why bee-culture must take rank 

 as an important national industry. The postulate is fully warranted 

 by the following fact or facts : When the agriculturist takes his grain 

 to market, he takes with it more or less of the fertility of his soil ; 

 when he takes his stock and dairy products to market, he does the same 

 thing, only, perhaps, in a less degree. But, when he takes his honey 

 to market, he does nothing of this kind — he takes none of the fertile 

 elements of his soil along with it. When the skilled apiarist, guided 

 by science, so controls, directs, and manipulates his bees that they 

 gather the rich nectar in tons from a given area, representing hun- 

 dreds and even thousands of dollars, he impoverishes neither his own 

 land nor that of his neighbor : he simply secures that which, if not 

 gathered, " wastes its sweetness on the desert air." Likewise, when a 

 country exports its surplus grain or stock, it also inevitably parts with 

 more or less of its fundamental agricultural resources ; but its exported 

 honey-surplus represents no corresponding impoverishment of soil. It 

 would therefore seem clear that, from economic considerations alone, 

 bee-culture ought to and must take its place among the most useful 

 and important national industries. 



There is also an aesthetic and hygienic side to apiculture, though in 

 this practical and materialistic age mere sentiment must be subordi- 



