1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



once and let the customer know what to expect. 

 In our inexperience we have a few times left out 

 parts of a shipment, as rabbets, or pieces of Irames, 

 and T always forward the same by postage or ex- 

 press paid, and apologize. Friend R., that is the 

 kind of " platform " 1 am ruuning on. I tell you all 

 this because I am under everlasting obligations to 

 you, and I feel that you have a right to know what 

 I am doing. I might also add, that I decline credit 

 to all alike. * .T. M. .Tknkins. 



Wetumpka. Ala., Aug. 33. 1887. 



BEE-KEEPING AS A LIFE BUSINESS. 



C. C. Mtr-LEK GIVES US SOME EXCELLENT FACTS IN 

 REGARD TO THE MATTER. 



/ i^T seems a pity he should settle down into 

 k mF nothing but a bee-keeper, when he might 

 be successful in almost any line of busi- 

 ness he should undertake." Such expres- 

 sions I have heard, when, so far as I could 

 see, the only reasons for it were that it was thought 

 the man might make more money at some other 

 business than bee-keeping. I am aware that too 

 much has been said of the bright side of bee-keep- 

 ing in the way of urging every one into it, and 1 

 have protested against it; for in nine cases out of 

 ten, the person who chooses bee-keeping as his life 

 liusiness, merelji for the money there is in it, will 

 meet with disappointment. But for once I want to I 

 take the other side, and say something in the way 

 of urging the choice of this business upon a cer- 

 tain class. Here is a yoiiog man about to settle 

 down in life. His college course of study is per- 

 haps finished (and I would urge upon every young 

 man to get a collegiate education, whether he ex- 

 pects to spend his life in apiary, farm, counting- 

 house, or pulpit); and the question is, whether bee- 

 keeping shall be his vocation. He has aptitude for 

 the business; what little experience he has had in 

 it has been successful; and he would really like to 

 spend his life at it if he thought he could make as 

 much money at it as at merchandise, albeit the 

 continement of a merchant's life is not to his taste. 

 But the matter of monej' stands first in considera- 

 tion, and he decides in favor of mercantile life. My 

 young friend, you are making a mistake. In the 

 first place, it is by no means certain that you will 

 be one of the successful merchants. But suppose 

 you are. and that you make double or ten times as 

 much money as you could at bee-keeping. You go 

 on at your business, looking forward to tlie time 

 when you can retire, and enjoy life. There are 

 events that may hinder the realization of your ex- 

 pectations. You may not live long enough. If 

 you do, you will find that your tastes have some- 

 what changed, and that the life to which you have 

 for years looked forward with bright expectations 

 is mainly a disappointment. On the other hand, if 

 you follow your inclinations, and adopt the pursuit 

 of a l)ee-keeper, there is no necessitj- for looking 

 forward to a certain time in the future for your en- 

 joyment of life. You can take your enjoyment as 

 you go— nii.xed, it is true, with pain and toil, but 

 still a life of enjoyment. You have one important 

 advantage over the merchant: your outdoor life 

 gives you a physical vigor he can not enjoy. He 

 has poorer food than you, even if he eats from the 

 same dish, for he has not the same hunger to spice 



it. The mere fact of existence is a pleasure to a 

 perfectly healthy animal, be he man or beast; and 

 the man who eats his food with a thorough relish is 

 the better man for it, i)hysically, mentally, and per- 

 haps morally and spiritually. 



HIGH VERSUS LOW SALARIES. 



There is another view that is worth taking, and 

 it applies to all callings— bee-keeping or what not. 

 Compare two positions in life. A man in Chicago 

 has a salary of $3000, and his brother in a country 

 village has one half as much, $1000. Which has the 

 better place? Perhaps the Chicago man, perhaps 

 not. Throwing aside all other considerations, and 

 taking just a dollar-and-cent point of view, if the 

 country man's annual expenses are $600, and those 

 of the city man's $1700 (and there may be that ilif- 

 ference, even when each seems to be living equally 

 well), the i-esult will be that the countryman will 

 lay by one-third more annually than the city man, 

 in which case the $1000 salary will be better than 

 the $3000. Suppose, however, that the annual ex- 

 pense in the city is $ir)00, and $600 in the country. 

 In this case, $500 is annually saved out of the $3000, 

 and $-tO() out of the $1000. Is the salary that clears 

 the $r)00 one-fourth better than the salary that 

 clears the $400'/ And it is to this particular point 

 I want to call the especial attention of the young. 

 Nine out of ten of the young will be dazzled bj' the 

 larger salary; and when to this is added the larger 

 annual saving, the question is definitely settled in 

 their mind. If they think far enough ahead they 

 may find a factor they have omitted from the prob- 

 lem. When the time comes to retire from service 

 —it may never come, and it may be forced upon 

 one before he desires it— when this time comes, the 

 city man will be so fixed in his habits and mode of 

 living, his family in their social circle, that he 

 must continue his same life and same expense of 

 living. Even if he had thought of going back to his 

 former country life, he will now find it impractica- 

 ble; the rule is, that men do not. Now let our two 

 men be compared after the same number of years 

 of service, say lo years. In that time the one sav- 

 ing $500 per annum has $7,500 ahead; and the other, 

 saving $400 per annum, has $6000 ahead. But what 

 is this worth to each of them? The first, spending 

 $1500 per year, can live on his $7,500 just 5 years; 

 and the second, spending $600 per year, can live on 

 his $6000 just 10 years. So you see, when looked at 

 from this point of view, the $1000 salary is worth 

 just double as much as the $3000. In other words, 

 the $3000 man lays by each year enough to supiiort 

 him 4 months, while the $1000 lays by enough each 

 year to keep him S months. Some of you young 

 men that are itching to get into places to make 

 money faster, think this over. It may make you a 

 little more content where you are. C. C. Miller. 

 Marengo, 111. 



Friend M., while readinf>- your excellent 

 suggestions, a text kept all the while riin- 

 niug thiough my mind. This text is one of 

 my particular favorites just now. Even 

 though most of you have heard it perhaps a 

 hundred times, I will repeat it here : "■ Laj;; 

 not up for yourselves treasures on earth, ' 

 etc. Now. 1 do believe that too many young 

 men choose an occupation from llie stand- 

 point of money, just as you put it : and 

 whoever does this will make a failure in 

 one way if not another. I have had consid- 

 j erable experience in mercantile business, 



