188 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL EEPORT OF THE 



into it. In lots of localities they could not afford to keep bees at all 

 unless they could move from place to place. 



The "let alone" bee-keeping many would mention as a very 

 important factor in bee-keeping, because many say that bees may 

 be kept in this way with profit. However, as long as disease continues 

 and continues to increase as it has been doing, even as our Government 

 reports show it has done, I do not feel verj^ enthusiastic about "let 

 alone" bee-keeping. But I will compromise to this extent, I will say 

 that with large colonies, large hives, and freedom from disease, I 

 believe that colonies might be managed, apiaries, at a greater distance, 

 and thus more handled with much less work than we used to think 

 necessary. 



The time has come, I believe, when more of us ought to keep 

 more bees, and we have been contented with altogether too small a 

 number. I think that it would be profitable even for our large bee- 

 keepers to keep more. In fact, I think about the largest bee-keeper 

 that is here intends to increase, perhaps double, the number that he 

 has. 



In increasing the number of colonies, one naturally thinks of the 

 trouble of managing so many more, and of the lack of helpers, and 

 perhaps the bottling might occur to him, and the fear of competition, 

 and many other objections. And yet to a real American there are 

 not any of those obstacles that cannot be overcome very easily. 



In the first one that we spoke of, the difficulty of managing so 

 many might very well be answered by an old quotation, I don't re- 

 member who said it, but he said that every man stamps his own value 

 upon himself, and that we are great or little according to our owm will. 

 I think just as soon as we can come to grasp that and believe that, that 

 three-fourths of our difficulty mil disappear at the outset. 



In regard to the difficulty of obtaining helpers, if I should judge 

 from the number of applications that have been coming in for work 

 in our apiaries, I don't think there w"ill be any trouble. There is hardly 

 a mail that comes in that does not have a letter from some one that 

 would like to serve an apprenticeship and learn the business. They 

 are -willing to do this sort of work at a low price for the sake of learning 

 in large apiaries, so such help as that it is always easy to get. 



To get more experienced help is not quite as easy, and yet one 

 good experienced man can usually manage two inexperienced ones to 

 advantage, and of course an inexperienced man of one year will be 

 experienced enough the next year so that they can take a foreman's 

 place and have a couple working under them. And some large bee- 

 keepers find it possible to keep their experienced man or men, as the 

 case may be, through the year, by planning their work right, and can 

 leave enough work to keep him busy all the time. So all we need to 

 do is to get inexperienced men, which is always an easy proposition. 



And the bee-keepers of this year, I am sure, in hiring their help, 

 will give the soldiers, the disabled soldiers, the preference. That is 

 something that I am sure all will be glad to do. We had a letter just 

 recently from a soldier who has been at the front for a year, and one 

 arm is gone. He had a little experience in bee-keeping, but not very 

 much, and when he came back he did not think so much about his 



