THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



317 



Bee Keeping Needs Carefully Conducted Ex- 

 periments Conducted at the Expense 

 of the Government. 



O. O. MILLER. 



WHEN I first read 

 Xa your leader, 

 Mr. Editor, I under- 

 stood you to say that 

 you wauted to be 

 told what each one 

 considered the best 

 article he had ever 

 written. Then I be- 

 gan thinking over 

 what I had written, 

 ' ' Legislation for bee 

 keepers ?" No, that 

 wasn't good, for it was written in advance of 

 public opinion. "Feeders?" No, for I 

 tried to tell an editor about some of the 

 advantages of the Miller feeder, and he told 

 me that it had the disadvantage of needing 

 a cover in addition to the regular hive cover, 

 and some other things that didn't belong to 

 the Miller feeder at all, showing that I 

 couldn't write on that subject so as to be 

 understood by one of the brightest men. 

 Then I thought over other things, and began 

 to be all in a muddle, when on reading a 

 little farther I found you didn't mean any- 

 thing of the kind. Instead thereof, you 

 want the very best advice that can be given 

 to bee keepers. 



As I am to "write as though it were the 

 last article," and to give the very best advice 

 I can, I should say, first, foremost, and above 

 all, be a through and through Christian man 

 or woman, and then do all the good you can 

 in whatever line opens up to you. Don't 

 make the serious mistake of supposing that 

 if some other opportunity were given you 

 that you could do more good, but settle it 

 finally that you are one of the fortunate ones 

 that have struck just the right place to fit 

 you, and be very happy over it. 



While doing that it is quite important that 

 you should be doing something that may 

 keep the wolf from the door. I understand 

 that you are a bee keeper, but am somewhat, 

 or rather entirely, in the dark as to particu- 

 lars, and all I know further is that you want 

 some advice. Striking at random, then, I 

 will say, if you entered bee keeping solely 

 for the money that's in it, without any liking 

 for the business, get out of it just as quick 

 as you can. As you are so often told, there 



may be good seasons come that will make 

 up for the bad ones. Yes, and there may be 

 a continuance of the bad ones. But suppose 

 good ones come, and the next twenty years 

 shall average just the same as the last twenty, 

 then I think you will be told by any intelli- 

 gent bee keeper familiar with the facts that 

 if the same amount of zeal, energy and 

 brains that have been expended in bee keep- 

 ing in the last twenty years had been de- 

 voted to almost any other line of business, 

 or had been divided up among all other lines 

 of business, the owners of the energy and 

 brains would have had more money in their 

 pockets. 



So, if money is your god, get out of bee 

 keeping. But if you set the right estimate 

 on the value of health and happiness, and 

 have a taste for bee keeping, then it may be 

 that in caring for the busy workers you may 

 find a richer reward than in some other 

 business that would put more money in your 

 pocket. 



The editor gives the general advice that 

 you must lessen the cost of production. 

 Good advice, providing the price you get is 

 not lowered in like proportion. Even then, 

 I should favor tlie lessening of cost, for if it 

 doesn't do the producer any good, it will the 

 consumer. But do all you can to keep prices 

 from being pulled down by false represen- 

 tations or false impressions getting among 

 consumers. And I have my fears as to the 

 outcome, when in our own ranks proposi- 

 tions are made that may be construed by 

 the newsmonger to mean that the honey of 

 the present day is not the honey of the past. 



But now as to keeping down expenses. To 

 be of any value in that direction, advice 

 must be, not general, but specific. I might 

 give a good many items, by saying clip your 

 queens and save the work of chasing after 

 swarms ; have top-bars '« thick with I4 inch 

 space between sections and top-bars, thus 

 saving the muss and trouble of burr-combs 

 as well as the expense of honey boards, and 

 so on. But I think I'll confine myself to one 

 line that I am afraid will be neglected by 

 others. 



To put it in a few words, don't take all the 

 profit out of the business by making experi- 

 ments. Experimenting has cost me hun- 

 dreds of dollars, and I'm sure I'm not alone 

 in that. But are we to have no experiments? 

 Surely, but for the spirit of experiment, the 

 science and art of bee keeping would not 

 hold the advanced ground it occupies to-day 



