Beekeeping as an Occupation 17 



that there be some incentive to compel action, the financial 

 incentive being most efficient. The small beekeeper usually 

 becomes a menace to the industry in such an outbreak and 

 not until most of these men lose all they have is much progress 

 made against disease. 



The most economical development of the larger honey 

 markets for the beekeepers of any region can come only 

 through co-operation in buying necessary supplies and in 

 selling their products. So long as there are so many thou- 

 sands of beekeepers with small financial interest in the 

 industry, such co-operation is rendered virtually impossible 

 and the industry is thereby retarded. In some of the 

 western states, beekeeping is carried on chiefly by extensive 

 beekeepers and they have found co-operation practical and 

 profitable, while the beekeepers of the east still fight their 

 battles individually, co-operation being made practically 

 impossible because of the thousands of beekeepers who 

 could not be reached by such a co-operative movement. 



Similarly, it is difficult to bring about concerted effort 

 in having desirable laws passed for the protection of the 

 industry or in instituting any agency for the advancement 

 of the industry unless there are a number of men whose 

 financial interest is sufficient to induce them to spend time 

 and money in working for the things they need as beekeepers. 

 Beekeepers are very human people, and "money talks" in 

 this business as well as in other lines of human endeavor. 

 There is therefore adequate reason in the view that the 

 development of beekeeping to its true place in American 

 agriculture depends on the making of a large number of 

 professional beekeepers and this in turn implies the elimina- 

 tion of the beekeeper with a few colonies, little interest and 

 still less of willingness to work for the industry. 



While the number of professional beekeepers is increasing 

 in a way to give satisfaction to those interested in the best 

 development of the industry, a word of caution may not be 

 amiss. Some beekeepers feel that as professionals they 

 must engage in no other business, whereas for certain months 

 c 



