TFIE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



83 



An> .V')U a fiii-nicr ti-.vinu to mauaRo an 

 apiary V Or. ai'i; .von a hoo-ktopor try- 

 ing to rnn a farm? If you aro. wliv 

 do yon do itV Is it liocanse bee-keop- 

 h\g is so nnccM'tainV If so, why not 

 diop l)ee-kiM>pin,u- and turn your whole 

 liino, money, onori;y and brains into 

 farming'? I have no faith in a busi- 

 ness tliat has to be bolstered up with 

 somethiuiT else. As I have said before, 

 I would throw away the business and 

 keep the bolster. I'erhaps yoiu" loca- 

 tion is not suited for bee-keeping. 

 Then why cling- to it, and waste the 

 best years of your life trying to eke 

 out a living when the natural condi- 

 tions are against it? If the conditions 

 can be changed, profitably, then change 

 them, if not, then I wotdd change 

 the l)usiness or the location. Some- 

 times a locality may not afford the 

 light conditions for successful bee- 

 keeping on a small scale, or with a 

 single apiary, yet. by scattering sev- 

 eral hundreds of colonies around the 

 country, 100 in a place, but the apia- 

 ries several miles apart, fair success 

 may he attained. This very county, 

 light here, is an illustration. I know 

 of no spot within its borders that 

 niight be called an ideal location, yet, 

 by the course that I have mentioned, 

 and the adoption of methods that en- 

 al)Ied him to do nearly the whole of 

 the work himself. Charles Koeppen 

 cleared .$2,000 a year. Mr. Townsend, 

 in his excellent article in this issue of 

 the Re^ iew. touches upon a most im- 

 portant point in this connection, and 

 that is the establishment of apiaries 

 many miles apart, thus minimizing 

 the (hingers of a total failure. He has 

 also adopted methods that allow of 

 the carrying out of his plan. They 

 are very simple, nothing particularly 

 new, simply large hives, plenty of 

 surplus vtH.in and the use of the ex- 

 tractoi-. but they tit his system to a 

 '!'. Everybody may not he so situated. 

 or have the desire, to carry out his plan 



to such an extent as to limit the num- 

 b(>r of visits to only four a year, but. 

 as I said last month, with the systems 

 of electric i-ailways that are so rapid- 

 ly spinning their network of rails over 

 the land, or even by the use of the 

 si cam cars, one may h;ive many apia- 

 I ies widely located. Once more, 

 friends, look about you, study your- 

 self and your surroundings, try and 

 comprehend the conditions, and to 

 make the most of them. 



I*erhai)s you will say that you 

 can't establish out-apiaries, that you 

 haven't capital, or something of that 

 sort. There are few things, within 

 the possiliilities, that a man can't do 

 if he really wants to; if he tries hard 

 enough; if he is earnest and enthu- 

 siastic and goes at it believing that he 

 will succeed. Many times in my life 

 have I met obstacles, trials, troubles, 

 and disappointments. Many times 

 have I felt like exclaiming, "Oh dear, 

 if things only Averen't in the shape 

 that they are, I might do something!" 

 Then the thought would come to me: 

 '■]Men who succeed are the ones 

 who meet and overcome just such ob- 

 stacles and troubles; those who fail 

 are overcome by the stress of circum- 

 stances." Then I would tip and at 

 it again: and circumstances must be 

 desperate, indeed, in which a cour- 

 ageous, resolute man cannot even 

 wring victory from defeat. You can 

 start out-apiaries if you will. That 

 alone will not make your fortune, but 

 it may be a step in that direction. 

 Find out first if you better do it. As 

 I have said before, the temptation is 

 Aery great for me to start a series of 

 out-iipiaries. but I have decided that 

 it isn't liest for me. All of my life I 

 have had to fight the disposition to 

 change from one tiling to another. As 

 a boy I often tore to pieces a half- 

 finished machine of some kind that 

 I niight have the materials with 

 whicli to build something else that 



