8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



unprofitable one ? I say necessarily because 

 sometimes one has notions of the profitable 

 character of the venture he is about to en- 

 gage in so elevated that he wastes sufficient 

 to make a fair profit. 



Once, many years ago, a craze for the pro- 

 duction of hops took possession of the far- 

 mers in a certain locality near where I lived. 

 Prices were high, the crop in their estima- 

 tion certain, and so they were impressed 

 with a certainty that inevitable wealth must 

 fall to everyone engaging in hop raising ; 

 then naturally the absolute certainty of com- 

 ing wealth ushered in a feeling that it was 

 already in possession, at farthest the gold 

 was only over the fence in the soil of the hop 

 field, and a little plowing and harrowing in 

 the spring would secure it, so they were al- 

 ready wealthy and acted on the assumption. 

 No effort was made to secure a line of retreat. 

 Victory was sure. Extravagance in the 

 building of hop houses, in laying in supplies 

 for the packers, and for the handling, weigh- 

 ing, drying and packing of the hops, ruled 

 the hour. But the storm came. Insects in- 

 fested the hops, the quantity, quality and 

 price were all lessened, and bankruptcy 

 overtook well nigh all of them. The same 

 thing is illustrated by numerous instances in 

 the pine lumber business. High expecta- 

 tions obscured the necessity of care and 

 economy, and waste kicked the profits out of 

 doors, and let in disappointment and failure. 



Ruminating upon these things in connec- 

 tion with the business of honey production, 

 the idea suggested itself that perhaps our 

 notions of the status of bee keeping with re- 

 spect to profits and necessary expenses, need 

 readjusting, and that the present series of 

 bad years would be a good time to consider 

 the subject. It may be I thought that we 

 are risking a chance of failure by encourag- 

 ing fanciful prospects of success which are 

 much too highly colored, so that we become 

 content to calculate that though by the 

 spending of time in the useless manipula- 

 tion of the bees and by the purchase of elab- 

 orate lines of machinery and supplies, we 

 make the cost of comb honey twelve or 

 fourteen cents, we may yet be sure of a crop 

 large enough so that the difference between 

 those figures and the selling price will yield 

 a good profit. I do not question the pros- 

 pects of profits in fair seasons with good 

 management, but I wish to call attention to 

 the danger of putting too much reliance on 

 the profits, trusting that tliey will carry us 



through no matter what the seasons are. or 

 to what a high point we run expenses. If 

 one practices proper economy and thereby 

 keeps expenses down to the lowest reason- 

 able point, he has still no bonanza to be sure, 

 but a safe, comfortable business. The cri- 

 terion of expenses should be actual needs, 

 pot what it is supposed the business will 

 bear. If we make this latter the te«t, as the 

 majority are greatly inclined to do, we are 

 all sufficiently optimistic to fall into the 

 fatal error of putting the average yearly 

 production too high, and as a consequence to 

 encounter failure in the end. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle has said that if capital 

 and labor get their due reward the cost of 

 comb honey is thirteen cents per pound. It 

 would be interesting to know how he arrived 

 at his conclusions. Did he take the average 

 of the seasons as they are with him as a 

 basis ? In that case, as the seasons with him 

 average better than with bee keepers gener- 

 ally, to them the cost would be even greater 

 than to him. Then I would like to know 

 how much of the cost is labor and how much 

 capital. Maybe he is extravagant with labor. 

 Not long since, if I remember correctly, he 

 gave it as a reason why he preferred a hive 

 whose frames required handling to one 

 which could be handled in two sections, to 

 accomplish the same purpose, that he en- 

 joyed handling the frames — that he got his 

 pay in fun. It may be that Mr. Doolittle 

 and some other bee keepers may grow fat on 

 fun, but I am pretty sure that our wives and 

 children will not grow fat on the fun that we 

 alone enjoy. We may well enquire, too, 

 whether he figures in this kind of labor to 

 make up the thirteen cents cost, and so is 

 contriving to get full pay from each of two 

 sources. At all events it requires no argu- 

 ment to show that it would not do to permit 

 the cost of honey to reach thirteen cents per 

 pound. If it were a necessity to permit it 

 but few of us would remain in the business. 



There is no one but will admit that we 

 should keep the cost down to the lowest pos- 

 sible point, and all would be glad to know 

 what that point is. Of course there must be 

 no extravagance in buildings nor in supplies, 

 and thare must be no loss of valuable time. 

 I have made and submit tentatively some 

 estimates which may at least serve as ,a ' 

 stimulus to further calculations as well as a 

 conclusion to the suggestions I am making. 

 For my figures I have taken one hundred 

 and fifty colonies as perhaps the average 



