14 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



grand lindens had been made into broom 

 handles, barrel heads or buggy boxes, the 

 hedge rows supplanted by the barbed wire 

 fence, and the swamps once gorgeous with 

 the purple and gold of autumnal flowers had 

 been drained and converted into meadows 

 of timothy. Then there were great forests 

 that acted as metorological balance wheels. 

 They prevented floods in the spring, and 

 droughts in the summer. Under these con- 

 ditions bee-keeping flourished until the 

 greatest problem connected with the busi- 

 ness was the disposal of its product. Farm- 

 ers dropped the business because they could 

 buy their honey more cheaply than they 

 could produce it 



But a change has come in many parts of 

 the country. Good crops are the exception. 

 I know of no reason for this change except 

 that the natural honey pastures are cut away 

 and the artiflcial resources are not sufficient 

 to make of the business a profitable callinar. 

 Added to this is the summer drouth that re- 

 sults from the clearing away of the forests. 

 A forest is like a sponge for holding water. 

 The earth is shaded and covered with a thick 

 coating of leaves that acts as a mulch. Then 

 there are fallen and decayed logs, brush and 

 tree tops, all of which absorb water and re 

 tard its flow. The amount of water that a 

 forest will absorb and hold is astonishing. 

 Slowly the water evaporates or soaks into 

 the earth to reappear in the shape of springs. 

 With cleared fields the water is off for the 

 sea with a rush, and when the July sun 

 pours down his rays there is no water with 

 which to moisten the parched, bare earth. 

 The time will come when irrigation will be 

 needed in places where it is not now dream- 

 ed of. Man will be obliged to store up arti- 

 ficially the water that nature once stored for 

 him before he destroyed her reservoirs, 



I have always advocated specialty, and I 

 still believe that the highest success can be 

 hoped for when only one business is attempt- 

 ed, but there are many localities now in which 

 I should not dare to depend for a living upon 

 bee-keeping alone. Unpleasant as may be 

 the admission, it seems to be true that in 

 many localities bee-keeping as a specialty is 

 doomed. Letter after letter comes to me 

 saying " I have no fault to find with the Re- 

 view, but three years with no honey crop are 

 more than I can stand, and I am going out 

 of the business." Some mention four and 

 even five failures in succession. The trouble 

 is drouth and a lack of blossoms. 1 am not a 



croaker, and I also know that, as a rule, the 

 best time to buy is when everybody else is 

 selling ; that the time to embark in a busi- 

 ness IS when others are abandoning it, but 

 not so if the natural conditions are against 

 the business. There are probably localities 

 where bee-keeping as a specialty will always 

 be a success. In mountainous regions where 

 the forests cannot be cleared away nor the 

 posies plowed up ; in Florida where there 

 are orange groves and there is no induce- 

 ment to cut down the saw palmetto or the 

 mangrove growing with their roots in the 

 tide-water ; or those localities where the al- 

 falfa sends its roots so deep into the earth 

 that it can smile at dry weather : in these 

 favored spots, and in the newer portions of 

 the country, bee-keeping as a specialty can 

 be followed with every hope of abundant 

 success ; but in those localities where the 

 forests have been cut away, and the swamps 

 drained, and fields of corn, wheat, rye, oats, 

 potatoes and grass stretch away mile after 

 mile, it is folly to attempt making a living 

 by the keeping of bees. To attempt to make 

 a poor honey locality a desirable one by 

 planting for honey is still greater folly. If 

 the conditions are such that it will pay to 

 raise honey producing crops for the crop 

 alone, such crops will be raised — otherwise 

 not. Where three, four and five years of 

 failure come in succession, it is foolhardy 

 for men to cling to bee-keeping alone hop- 

 ing that " next year will be a better one." 

 In fact, unless the purse is a long one, neces- 

 sity will compel the adoption of some other 

 business. If one has kept bees so long that 

 he would feel lost without them, and I am 

 one of that class, he can take up some other 

 vocation as his main business, letting the 

 bees become a side-issue. It is astonishing 

 to see with how little care an apiary can now 

 be managed. It may be almost reduced to 

 this : setting the bees out of the cellar, put- 

 ting on the supers, hiving the swarms, tak- 

 ing off the honey and putting the bees in the 

 cellar. Possibly the swarming may yet be 

 done away with. 



To sum the matter up in a few words, bee- 

 keeping in the early days was a side-issue, 

 then it became a specialty and will remain 

 such in favoral)le localities, but over a large 

 portion of the country it will again become 

 a side-issue ; but improved hives, imple- 

 ments and methods will make of it a more 

 desirable and profitable avocation than it 

 was in days gone by. 



