THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



315 



follows bee keeping simply for the money 

 that he can make, will not follow it long. — 



Ed.] 



Proper Hives, Appliances and Methods will 



Make a Success of Bee Keeping in Nearly 



Every Season.— Why Adulteration 



Has Not Injured Bee Keepers. 



.TAMES HEDDON. 



• ^Y OPINION is 

 . i the same as 

 \oiirs in your lead- 

 er, hut if I hadn't 

 publicly expressed 

 the same in my 

 book, ^'Success in 

 Bee Culture,^' my 

 cuculars, and in 

 bee journals, I 

 wouldn't say so, 

 just immediately 

 after you. I have 

 not only publicly expressed myself as to 

 what to do, but I have done it. Six poor 

 seasons in succession, the whole not averag- 

 ing more than one- fourth crop each, and yet 

 my two apiaries containing about 250 colon- 

 ies, spring count, have paid me a good and 

 satisfactory income for the labor performed 

 and capital invested. No, not wholly "satis- 

 factory," for I am anxiously looking for that 

 turn of the tables you mention, and although 

 it lingers long I am sure it will come. Al- 

 though these one-fourth crops have paid a 

 good interest, — risk and maintainence not 

 overlooked, — nothing short of a good aver- 

 age crop is fully satisfactory. 



As you well know, I have grown up in the 

 bee business; have followed it as a specialty, 

 a leading business, for a quarter of a century. 

 That business purchased my $3,000 stock in 

 our electric light plant, my newspaper, 

 worth .§5,000, (have refused $4,500), my out- 

 lying city lots, and other good property, and 

 a good living, with some luxuries on the 

 side, and nearly all from the sales of honey. 

 I do not expect to " abandon " the business 

 while I still have the cheerful habit of resid- 

 ing in this world, not because of associa- 

 tional attachment, but because I fully expect 

 to make it do in the future all that it has 

 done in the past, and perhaps more. When 

 my labors are finished, I hope and expect 

 that one of my sons will keep the old mill 

 grinding, though perhaps by proxy, as a side 



issue. While both are now studying profes- 

 sions, both know what I have done, and how 

 to do it. I have the field by right of priority 

 and virtue of tact, and this heritage I feel 

 sure my children will hold after me. Oh 

 this "bug business," as it was contemptibly 

 called by my neighbors when I first em- 

 barked in it, (as a specialty) is a great 

 business, I think, when rightly managed. 

 From my book, {Chapter on Hives), pub- 

 lished seven years ago, I quote the following 

 which I deem pertinent to the well selected 

 theme of this issue: 



" ' Necessity is the mother of invention,' it 

 is said, and the great influx into the business 

 of honey production, causing decline in 

 prices, necessitates the use of such imple- 

 ments and methods— especially in hives — 

 as will give us the greatest amount of sur- 

 plus honey, for the amount of capital and 

 labor invested. 



" Some of us have grown from boyhood to 

 manhood, hand in hand with this pursuit, 

 and while we are often complimented upon 

 our thorough knowledge of the business, it 

 is usually forgotten that we have as signally 

 failed to become skilled in any other branch 

 of industry. Such is the case, however, and 

 after the best part of a life-time has been 

 spent in any pursuit, when that pursuit lan- 

 guishes, circumstances tending to make it 

 less profitable, the wise do not hastily desert 

 it, adopting a stranger, but work the more 

 persistently to counteract the detrimental 

 influences, by bringing every possible ad- 

 vantage to bear upon the business." 



From my circular of three years ago I 

 quote as follows, just what I as fully believe 

 to-day: 



" If we reason together, we will see beyond 

 all doul)t that apiculture, like any other 

 business, must seek its level and when that 

 level is reached, like all other lines of busi- 

 ness, those engaged in it who produce at 

 minimum cost will succeed, while those who 

 produce at maximum cost will as surely fail. 

 In the pursuit of apiculture there is need of 

 capital, intelligence, both physical and men- 

 tal activity as well as industry and tact. I 

 found it very easy to make money out of the 

 business in my earlier engagement in it, 

 when honey sold for double what it now 

 brings, but when the price was cut in two, a 

 different phase was put upon the business, 

 and it became necessary to produce much 

 cheaper in order to realize a good profit. 

 This necessity was at once the mother of 

 invention, and after perfecting various other 

 minor implements and arrangements about 

 my apiary, I began studying upon hives, 

 knowing full well that within the construc- 

 tion and manipulatiori of hives there rested 

 that rigid economy which would still make 

 apiculture profitable." 



No, after all these years, after long ago 

 making myself obnoxious by opposing the 

 urging of everybody with the bee business, 

 and persisting that honey was not, and never 



