18 



THE BEE-KEEPERS ' REVIEW, 



Importance of Apiculture at Experiment Sta- 

 tions, and the Difficulty of Securing 

 its Recognition. 



Bee-keeping is beginning to be recognized 

 at the Experiment Stations. This is the re- 

 sult of prolonged and persistent effort on 

 the part of bee-keepers in demanding what 

 is theirs by right. Bat it should be known 

 that it is only by continued asking, and urg- 

 ing upon those in authority the importance 

 of apiculture as an auxilliary pursuit as well 

 as its importance for itself alone, that we can 

 hope for a continuance of these experiments. 

 Some of the difficulties are set forth by ex- 

 perimenter Taylor in an article in the Cayia- 

 dian Bee Journal. He says : — 



'• There seems to be no inconsiderable dif- 

 ficulty in getting for apiculture a foothold at 

 our experiment station, and when that is 

 secured, its tenure generally, so far as I 

 know, seems to be of a very uncertain char- 

 acter. Why this should be so, if the impor- 

 tance of the pursuit is considered, appears 

 to be somewliat of a marvel. 



To be sure the business is not overly pop- 

 ular, for which state of things two reasons 

 may be assigned. The first reason is that 

 the bee will defend its abode with its sting. 

 To the skilled apiarist this reason has no 

 force ; do not cattle use their horns to defend 

 themselves ? Indeed, do they not often use 

 them to gratify wanton anger ? But no one 

 thinks of assigning that as a reason|why the 

 production of cattle should not be encour- 

 aged. But ignorance sees in the honey bee 

 one whose hand is against every living thing, 

 ai-d in its sting an arrow ever ready at the 

 string and ever laden with fatal poison. The 

 other reason is that the bee is a free common- 

 er. There are no limits or restrictions as to 

 its pasture, but time and the endurance of 

 her wing. She gathers as freely from the 

 clover and tho apple tree of the envious 

 neighbor, or the mortal enemy of her owner, 

 as she does from his own. The neighbor and 

 enemy behold it with envy or anger ever 

 magnified by their apparent helplessness. 

 They see in the tons of honey piled on her 

 owner's hiv<^s the measure of the depiction 

 of their own mows and bins. .The light that 

 reveals the bee </etting little but giving much 

 in the fertility of the tree and the clover, that 

 shows her owner receiving little, or nothing, 

 of value to them, but often heaping up their 

 baskets and bins, has not yet found their 

 eye. So ignorance atrain would welcome the 

 absence of th" bee. These reasons give rise 

 to a third, and that is the small estimation 

 in which the business is held, and therefore 

 the low degree of its importance. Some 

 even look upon the bee-keeper as little better 

 than a freebooter — as one who would steal if 

 he had the courage and skill. 



It is hardly worth while to argue to bee- 

 keepers the invalidity of these reasons, but 

 as to one point already mentioned — the im- 

 portance of bee-keeping — a few suggestions 

 may not be without their use. I need not 

 dwell on the magnitude of the business of 

 bee-keeping in itself. Most intelligent bee- 

 keepers appreciate that in some degree. But, 

 perhaps, it would be well to jog our memo- 

 ries, even on that point. What other speci- 

 alty calls together so many and such wide- 

 awake conventions as does bee-keeping ? or 

 supports so many class journals ? or is adapt- 

 ed so generally to all localities ? or whose 

 product is so purely from what would other- 

 wise be only waste ? It creates a finished 

 product — a food of the highest value both for 

 sustenance and health — out of wliat is other- 

 wise without value and must be an entire 

 loss. Bee-keeping ought surely to stand 

 well with the people in view of its direct 

 product alone as compared with other rural 

 pursuits. 



But great as is the gain to the country in 

 the product of bee-keeping, no doubt the ad- 

 vantage arising from the ministry of the bees 

 in causing fruitfulness to follow bloom is 

 immensely greater. Anyone who gives even 

 a little attention to this matter in the time 

 of fruit bloom, comparing the fruitfulness 

 and perfection of fruit of those plants and 

 trees which have been frequented by the 

 bees with that of those which from location 

 or inclemency of weather have Ijeen deprived 

 of their visitations during the time of bloom, 

 will readily see that this ministry, in a great 

 country devoted every where to fruit-grow- 

 ing, must be of almost incalculable value. 

 Many striking instances proving the truth of 

 this might be adduced, but that is unneces- 

 sary here, as the readers of apicultural pub- 

 lications are familiar with the subject. 



What shall we do with these facts, clothed 

 as they are with such grave import ? 



In spite of them apiculture has received as 

 yet but meagre recognition at our experi- 

 ment stations, or, oftener, no recognition at 

 all. It is not to be wondered at, then, that 

 it is unpopular. Let a man however worthy 

 he may be, be persistently slighted and treat- 

 ed with neglect by a few of his prominent 

 acquaintances, and how his reputation will 

 wane ! Why sliould not apiculture be placed 

 on an etiual footing at our stations with po- 

 tato-growing and the manufacture of cheese, 

 with the production of strawberries or seed 

 corn ? The experiments carried on in all 

 these thinas to gain new knowledge calcula- 

 ted to secure higher success, are invaluable, 

 but they should not be heard to deny the 

 validity of apiculture's claim to equal recog- 

 nition. 



Perhaps bee-keepers have themselves prin- 

 cipally to blame for the condition of things. 

 Their claim will certainly not be allowed 

 until they themselve=' feel its justness and 

 assert it with a vigor and firmness which can 

 only come from a consciousness of its equity. 

 Let the bee-keeper be led to withdraw his 

 eyes from the little pile he aets from the pro- 

 duct of his hives and be fed with a knowl- 

 edge of what his vocation does for his coun- 

 try in adding to its store of delicious and 



