FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 87 



so; and there are beekeepers asking "what will best mix with beekeep- 

 ing?" 



I have little faith in that old saw about ''not having all of the eggs in 

 one basket." I say yes, have them all in one basket, and then carry that 

 basket so skilfully that none are broken. I know there are trying seasons 

 for specialists in any branch of business ; times when it might be better, 

 in that particular year, if there were more than one egg-basket, but the 

 specialist does enough better, in the good years, to bring specialty out at 

 the head in the long run. The specialist can have the best tools, appli- 

 ances, and labor-saving implements, things that the dabbler cannot 

 afford. He can do and have many things in a wholesale way that would 

 be unprofitable upon a small scale. Upon this point Mr. R. L. Taylor, 

 of Lapeer, Mich., once wrote : "A multiplicity of occupations multiplies 

 the burdens of responsibilitj;, induces unrest and embarrassment, and our 

 powers become overtaxed, carelessness, slovenliness, unthrift and failure 

 result. A jack of all trades .is almost a synonym of a ne'er-do-well. 

 What reason is there for dulling the edge of skill, and sacrificing thor- 

 oughness, by combining another business with that of beekeeping? Not 

 certainly to fill up time. Beekeeping as a specialty is no small business. 

 It is capable of great expansion. It can well furnish work for every day 

 in the year, and the larger the business the smaller the proportional 

 expense of the plant and the management, and consequently the larger 

 profits. If beekeeping is so unprofitable as a specialty that the operator 

 must pursue another business to eke out a living, then it is too unprofit- 

 able to be pursued at all, and should be abandoned altogether. If it can 

 not be made profitable as a specialty with all the advantage that specialty 

 brings, then it can not be made profitable as a subsidiary pursuit. We 

 see this demonstrated in practice. It is not the specialist, but the non- 

 specialist that fails. 



Many professional men take up beekeeping as a pastime. With them 

 I can not have any more argiiment than with the beekeeper who studies 

 music for pleasure. But upon a money basis it is a far different thing. 

 When a man is engaged in some pursuit that is capable of absorbing 

 all of his energy and capital, I doubt if he can add to his pleasure or his 

 pocketbook by adding some other business to his regular occu])ation. 

 The beekeeping specialist, with his hundreds of colonies, his improved 

 hives, appliances and methods, can and does produce honey more cheaply 

 than the man with a few colonies. By specialty is not meant that a 

 man does nothing else, but that it is his main business. 



It is true that there are industries in which there is a mutual advan- 

 tage in their combination. The fattening of hogs and the running of a 

 grist mill, or of a slaughter house, is an example. The keeping of swine 

 and the raising of apples also brings about a mutual advantage. The 

 swine enrich and cultivate the soil, and eat the wormy apples that fall. 

 This is good for the trees, and the apples are good for the hogs. There is 

 no business that can be united with beekeeping to any great mutual 

 advantage. There is a slight mutual advantage in the keeping of bees and 

 the raising of fruit, except the small fruits that must be picked when the 

 bees are swarming. There is also some advantage in the raising of alsike 

 clover, or of buckwheat, but not suflflcient to warrant a beekeeper in buy- 

 ing a farm, or a fruit grower to run an apiary. 



I hope no one will imagine that I am advising beekeeping as a specialty? 



