416 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



complex things. If four years is enough for medical training, surely 

 in one year a bright boy ought to be able to learn beekeeping as prac- 

 ticed in commercial apiaries and be able to take care of several hundred 

 colonies. The beekeeping course may not give all the practice needed 

 because of the limited number of colonies usually available, but this 

 can readily be overcome by a summer in a commercial apiary, just 

 as the medical student gets hospital experience. After this extensive 

 beekeeping should be practiced. Of course not all beekeepers manage 

 their apiaries correctly but a beekeeper producing comb-honey in out- 

 apiaries is usually not far wrong. With the proper foundation, the 

 student Avill be able to detect defects in practice. We have all seen 

 men of less than average mental ability who have learned this work, 

 so it is not exceptionally difficult. The old advice to begin with a few 

 colonies and work up slowly is fine for amateurs but does not make 

 professionals. 



Are such results being accomphshed in the college courses? It maj' 

 be too soon to demand results but the purpose of the work seems not to 

 be in this direction in all cases. If there is a remedy it lies in a read- 

 justment of the work so that the fundamental principles are learned. 

 Then when it comes to practical work the essentials must be empha- 

 sized while the non-essentials and petty details of individual systems 

 of management are ruthlessly cut out. 



The teacher of beekeeping will be tempted to give interesting things 

 in the course, as are all teachers. You will be tempted perhaps to 

 overemphasize apparatus because of its availability for laboratory 

 work. You will be frightened perhaps by criticism of present bee- 

 keepers against making more beekeepers. However, our industry 

 and your positions depend on results and there is no way to get these 

 except through the elimination of the unfit from the courses and the 

 placing of emphasis on the two big things that the beekeeper does. 

 This does not decrease the interest in the work if properly presented — 

 quite the contrary. 



Beekeeping is usually part of the entomological work of the colleges 

 and this is probably the correct relation of the work to the other 

 courses. In the work which we did in entomology there was included 

 considerable morphology and taxonomy. Whether this is the proper 

 emphasis for entomology is not for us to decide, but if one is tempted to 

 follow these lines too closely in beekeeping courses there is reason to 

 question whether the beekeeping course should largely duplicate work 

 which is given in the regular entomological courses. Anatomy is some- 

 thing which makes a good beekeeper a better, broader man but prob- 

 ably it does not make a beekeeper, for behavior is more closely allied 

 to practice than is structure. 



