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THE BEE-KEEPERS- REVIEW, 



Among other heterodox notions of mine. 

 I believe in what may be called esthetic bee- 

 keeping. There is very little of it in this 

 country, but it abounds in England, and I 

 am " Hinglish you know." Most of the 

 apiaries I have seen are disorderly, rickety, 

 tumble-down rookeries of places — a disfig- 

 urement to this fair earth. The majority of 

 bee-keepers have no eye for beauty. They 

 "don't care for looks.". I do. English 

 bee-books abound in fancy and ornamental 

 hives. Mr. Heddon would denounce them 

 as " unpractical. " That with him is the 

 foulest of crimes in bee-keeping. But it is 

 a libel on fancy and ornamental hives to call 

 them unpractical. You may have a 



thoroughly practical hive interiorly, that is 

 a thing of beauty exteriorly. English bee- 

 books, like those of Neighbor, and Chesh- 



As people become more intelligent, we 

 are going to have a class of bee-keepers who 

 will keep a few colonies for their own use 

 and pleasure, just as there are multitudes 

 who cultivate a garden so as to raise their 

 own small fruits and vegetables. No 

 " boughten " fruits and vegetables taste so 

 nice as those grown in your own garden. 

 There are hosts of people who do not know 

 the taste of a ripe strawberry, because they 

 have only eaten those bought from fruiter- 

 ers. These in order to stand carriage to 

 market, must be plucked before they are 

 ripe. Pears are the only fruit I know of 

 that are improved by being gathered before 

 they are ripe. Wrapped in tissue paper and 

 laid in a bureau to ripen, they attain a per- 

 fection of flavor they never reach on the 

 tree. 1 want my strawberries gathered just 



■WM. F. CLABKE, HIS DRIVING PONX AND APIABY. 



ire, furnish plans of hives that, with every 

 convenience inside, are pretty outside. 

 Why not ? " They are costly. " What if 

 they are ? They pay in appearance, just as 

 a beautiful house does for human beings 

 to live in. I cannot go into argument on 

 the subject, though I believe a nice hive pays 

 in dollars and cents. If a hive costs sflO.OO 

 we will say, and is good for 30 years, I do 

 not consider it extravagant. 



before supper-time, dead ripe, and then 

 they are good enough without being 

 "smothered in cream" or buried in sugar. 

 I think it is the same with honey. People 

 who produce their own know what they are 

 eating and can get the best which is none 

 too good for a human stomach. 



But to " my apiary. " That hive which 

 stands in the fore ground is labeled 

 " Mansion of Industry " and surmounted 



