THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



11& 



hope for any great success, and a radi- 

 cal change may be needed in his plan of 

 wintering. A man may be a good bee 

 keeper, yet his method of disposing of his 

 crop be such that no manufacturing plant 

 could ever survive if it followed such 

 slipshod, unbusiness-like methods in dis- 

 posing of its output. It is impossible to 

 point out the numerous ways in which a 

 man may fail in reaching the highest 

 success as a bee keeper; and the un- 

 fortunate part is that he does not realize, 

 himself, the cause of his failure. I have 

 often thought that it might sometimes be 

 possible for me to help my readers in 

 thus pointing out the needed changes for 

 turning failure, or indifferent success, 

 into abundant success. In doing this 1 

 should make no claim as to superior 

 natural abilities, or "smartness," simply 

 that my past life has fitted me in that 

 direction. My whole life has been de- 

 voted to bee keeping. 1 began its study 

 while yet in my teens. For years I made 

 my living from the apiary; I have pro- 

 duced both comb and extracted honey; 

 reared and sold thousands of queens; 

 attended and made exhibitions at fairs, 

 year after year; attended numerous con- 

 ventions where I have met the most suc- 

 cessful bee keepers of the country; and, 

 above all, I have visited hundreds of 

 bee keepers, in their homes, from Ver- 

 mont to California, carefully studying 

 why they have succeeded and why they 

 have failed. During all of these years I 

 have carefully read nearly everything 

 that has been published in this country 

 on the subject of bee keeping; and, for 

 24 years, as editor of the Review, I have 

 enjoyed the confidence of thousands of 

 bee keepers who have favored me with 

 reports and descriptions of their failures 

 and successes. Successful bee keeping 

 is about half bees, and the other half 

 business, and the latter half has been 

 almost entirely neglected. For this 

 reason I have been giving much atten- 

 tion of late to the business features of 

 bee keeping. For these reasons 1 might 

 be able to visit a bee keeper, the same as 



an expert visits a merchant or a manu- 

 facturer, and be able to say at the end of 

 my visit, "Mr. Blank, if you would do 

 thus and so, make such and such 

 changes, you might make dollars where 

 you now make dimes." 1 think it is 

 possible that I might be able to thus 

 advise a man without ever seeing him or 

 his apiary, providing he would write me 

 a complete and minute history of his 

 case. If there is any reader of the 

 Review who feels that he is not making 

 the success of bee keeping that he might 

 make, is having a hard time "to make 

 both ends meet," and feels that possibly 

 I might help him if I knew all of the 

 circumstances, let him write me those 

 circumstances in the fullest possible 

 manner, and he shall have the best ad- 

 vice that 1 can possibly give him. He 

 must, if he expects me to help him, tell 

 me everything that can possibly have a 

 bearing on his success, just as the manu- 

 facturer opens up his factory to the 

 expert. Of course, everything would be 

 held in the strictest confidence, not shown 

 to others, or published— at least not 

 without the full and free consent of the 

 writer. 



First, I should wish to know about the 

 man himself; his age, disposition, educa- 

 tion, knowledge and experience with 

 bees, the books and papers he had read 

 etc. Then his resources, cash, farm or 

 home, bees or what not. Next, 1 should 

 wish to know all about the location and 

 its peculiarities, the honey flows, the 

 number of bees kept by the writer, and 

 others in that vicinity, the yields, the 

 manner of wintering, and the success in 

 that line. I would like to know the kind 

 of bees kept, the kind of hives and imple- 

 ments used and the methods employed. 

 I would like to know the kind of honey 

 produced, how prepared for market, how 

 marketed, and the prices secured. This 

 is simply an ouiline of what 1 would 

 like to know; in fact, a man could not tell 

 me too much. Especially, would 1 like 

 to have him tell me what he thinks is 

 the greatest drawback to his success. 



