THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



147 



I don't see my way clear just now to 

 abandon everything else. There are 

 some things about the extracting and 

 swarming business that I have yet to 

 learn. 1 think any one making a specialty 

 of bees should understand pretty much 

 all sides of the business. 



Now, friend Beaupre, don't you put it a 

 little strong when you go on record as 

 saying "a man who tries to farm and 

 keep bees don't know much about bees, 

 and probably never will?" While this is 

 quite true in many instances, yet I know 

 of but very few men in these parts mak- 

 ing bees a specialty, who are not only 

 running 80-acre farms, but 160, and 

 some 500 acres; and they clean up from 

 $500 to $1,000 per year; and one man 

 even more. If you got into conversation 

 with them, you would probably find that 

 they knew a good deal about bees. I 

 remember several of them putting out 

 the danger signal to me when I was just 

 starting. They showed me the dark, as 

 well as the bright, side of bee keeping. 

 "Don't go in too deep till you can handle 

 them." "Be sure you like the business, 

 and be sure, very sure, you like bees; 

 if you don't, you better not go in too 

 deep." "Don't go in too much for looks," 

 one man said, "all the fancy articles are 

 all very nice but not always essential. 

 It's the honey you want." I know of one 

 fellow who got the fever so bad that he 

 borrowed money, purchased" more bees," 

 quit his job (R. R. operator,) hit a poor 

 year, and his bubble bursted, and so did 

 he. He got all the specialty he wanted, 

 and never kept bees since. 



Now, methinks, 1 hear some one say: 

 "He didn't know his business as he should. 

 He was inexperienced. One shouldn't 

 make a specialty of bees till one is 

 competent." Well, put up your red flag 

 then. How does one always know one 

 is competent to specialize on bees? It is 

 somewhat of a lottery at best. Some 

 men who can handle a retail business 

 successfully, would be swamped with a 

 wholesale business. While most of the 

 writers for bee journals could, no doubt. 



make a specialty of bees and succeed, 

 yet they are few in numbers compared to 

 the vast number who read the journals, 

 and of whose ability you know nothing. 

 Go on brothers with your specialty, but 

 put in a few ifs. Some of us might think 

 we were competent when we were not. 

 Center Junction, la., Feb. 24, 1910. 



[Let no one imagine that I am. dis- 

 pleased at the receipt of a letter like the 

 foregoing, or that I am loth to publish 

 it. I am always pleased to receive 

 articles that oppose my views, especially 

 when so fair, gentlemanly and friendly as 

 the above. Neither let any one imagine 

 that I have no sympathy for the farmer- 

 bee keeper, or that I have no desire to 

 help him. 1 think I have never said that 

 bee keeping could not be successfully 

 combined with some other pursuit. My 

 contention is that the highest success 

 can be looked for only in specialty, let 

 the pursuit be what it may. It seems to 

 me almost impossible that it should be 

 otherwise. 



Mr. Pangburn says that he believes in 

 specialty himself, wishes that he might 

 follow it as a bee keeper, and indulges 

 the hope that he may sometime be able 

 to make his present dreams come true. 

 I think his situation is that of many 

 others, viz., that present circumstances 

 are not favorable for the adoption of 

 specialty. To be a success, specialty 

 must be adopted wisely. The cautions 

 of our friend are excellent. To engage 

 extensively in any enterprise without a 

 most thorough knowledge of the business 

 is almost suicidal. In this respect bee 

 keeping does not differ from other pur- 

 suits. Farming is held up as the most 

 stable and certain of any business, yet 

 the man who should embark in it 

 extensively, with little knowledge on the 

 subject, would almost certainly "fall 

 down." I can imagine nothing more rash 

 than for a man unfamiliar with bee 

 keeping to venture his all in the business; 

 one should grow into specialty. The 

 trouble is, as I look at it, that so many 

 bee keepers stop growing just as they 



