THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



79 



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S. D. CHAPMAN. 



MR. EDITOR, in the December num- 

 ber of the Review, you have given 

 us the methods that you followed in 

 increasing from 20 colonies to 104. I 

 have been very much interested in the 

 way j'ou have built up such a nice 

 apiary. It shows the work of a 

 ma&terly hand. Now, as you are com- 

 ing to Northern Michigan, I extend to 

 you a hearty welcome. I can give en- 

 couragement to a man having the 

 knowledge and experience that you 

 * have had. I can see only one thing 

 needful; "just a little enthusiasm." 

 Not only are you coming, but others 

 are coming from Southern Michigan, 

 also from Southern California, Neb- 

 raska and Illinois and several other 

 States. I receive letters from bee-keep- 

 ers as far east as New Hampshire, 

 who wish to mo\e their bees to the 

 raspberry fields of Northern Michi- 

 gan. These men not only ask ques- 

 tions pertaining to our industry, but 

 in regard to farming, as well. So 

 iTiany letters coining to a busy man 

 they nearly swamp me; in fact, I am 

 in sore distress. As nearly all have 

 referred to the Review, when writing, 

 I ask permission to pull off vny coat 

 and answer some of these questions in 

 the Review. 



The first question that I wish to 

 notice coines from Indiana, asking me 

 if I think it would be profitable to come 

 to Northern Michigan with 90 colonies 

 of bees, dividing them into three yards 

 of 30 colonies e.ich, and increasing 

 each yard to 100 colonies. To this 

 part of the question I can answer 

 "yes," if the writer is a man that has 

 the necessary push and energy. Not 

 only must he possess these qualities 



but he must also have experience. 

 Through our experience we obtain the 

 skill, that enables us to make a success 

 of bee-keeping. But this is not all. 

 He wants to know if I think he can 

 run these three yards, when they con- 

 tain 100 colonies each, with only four 

 or live visits each year. It is a pretty 

 hard question. I have have had no 

 experience in running a yard with 

 only four or five visits a year; but I 

 have had sad experience in neglecting 

 mj' bees so that I thereby lost hundreds 

 of dollars. 



I will tell you just how it looks to 

 me. I would just as soon think of run- 

 ning a dairy on the out-yard plan. 

 Turn the cows out in the spring; milk 

 them three or four times during the 

 summer; then, when fall comes, round 

 them all up and give them a good milk- 

 iag, seems to me as sensible, as to run 

 an apiary with four or five visits a 

 year. 



Would it be profitable for the farmer 

 to plant a field of corn, and when it is 

 about knee-high give it a cultivating, 

 and then, when fall comes, harvest his 

 crop ? Is this the kind of farming that 

 pays ? And do our farm journals rec- 

 ommend, to that class of farmers, that 

 they "keep more cows," and "plant 

 more corn ?" I think the tendency of 

 the times is to keep less cows, and then 

 take better care of what we already 

 have. 



SHIFTLESS FARMING AND BEE-KEEPING 

 TO MATCH. 



The bee-keeper who runs his bees 

 with four or five visits a year is in the 

 same boat with that class of farmers. 

 The question resolves itself into just 

 this: Is it profitable to furnish capital 



