146 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S REVIEW 



Is Specialty in Bee Keeping More Risky than in 

 Other Lines of Business? 



W. S. PANGBURN. 



HAVING read 

 the Review 

 for some time, 

 and knowing 

 that its editor, 

 and others who 

 favor specialty, 

 have, from time 

 to time e X- 

 pressed them- 

 selves more or 

 less emphati- 

 cally in^favor of the same, I wish to say 

 a few words on the subject. I will add 

 that I, too, am in favor of specialty. Like 

 Edwin Brooks, I think "It is better to 

 know much of a few things than little of 

 many things." However, I am not sure 

 that it is good policy to advocate it too 

 strongly without putting up the red flag 

 occasionally to warn the younger and 

 less experienced bee keeper that there is 

 danger ahead. That the young bee 

 keeper is likely, quite likely, to become 

 very enthusiastic, we will all agree. 

 Don't you remember when the fever 

 seized you? How high your temperature 

 run, almost to the boiling point? Mine 

 did. And to tell the truth, it hasn"t sub- 

 sided yet; and I don't think it ever will. 

 Hope not. For an enthusiast, with 

 temperature running high, to read some 

 of your specialist's articles might mean 

 disaster, as you don't put up a single 

 danger signal. 



In the first place, perhaps your reader 

 doesn't, as yet, know enough about bees 

 to give up everything and "keep more 

 bees." He might overlook this fact, and 

 wake up some fine morning to find his 

 bubble bursted. Then, again, your 

 reader may not be well "fixed," finan- 

 cially; and should a bad year drop down 

 upon him, . could he carry through and 

 support his family, until another harvest? 



Suppose the farmer who, as the 

 editor says, has 80 acres of land, and 

 wishes to add to his income (page 48), 

 cannot buy more land, either from lack 

 of means or of opportunity — no uncom- 

 mon occurence in these parts. I am on 

 an 80-acre farm, and have a system 

 that I have been working on for the past 

 10 years. I milk about all the cows the 

 place will keep, raise all the hogs I can 

 feed without buying corn; and raise all 

 of the corn I can, and maintain the 

 fertility of the land. This is the plan 

 followed by nearly all of the farmers in 

 these parts. How are we to do more 

 of these things we are already doing, 

 when we have already reached the 

 limit? It is true, some of us might do 

 some of these things better, but every 

 good farmer is producing all he can with 

 these high prices. On the other hand, 1 

 can manage an apiary by hiring a little 

 help until after harvest, or for about 

 three months; and, by following my plan, 

 or rather. Dr. Miller's, it isn't such an 

 awful joke to handle a good sized apiary 

 and an 80 acre farm; in fact, they make 

 an ideal combination for a man who 

 isn't afraid of work. 



Get your "superabundance" of supers 

 filled and ready, and hives in readiness, 

 in the winter when business on the farm 

 isn't so rushing, and you have solved a 

 goodly lot of the labor question; at least, 

 until your busy time is over on the farm. 



I will admit that an apiary run in con- 

 nection with a farm isn't always run as 

 it should be; but, on the other hand, I 

 don't know of anything in proportion to 

 the money invested that would bring in 

 any more clear money than an apiary, 

 even if it isn't run exactly on orthodox 

 principles. While I intend, some day, if 

 everything works out as I have it now 

 planned, to make bees my specialty, yet 



