164 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



greatly lessen the amount of surplus 

 for the bee-keeper; and, on "the other 

 hand, if more surplus is secured, it 

 will lower the price of honey. It was 

 only a short time ag^o that I showed 

 the fallacy of the latter arg-ument, but 

 nothing- has been said lately regarding 

 the former, that of each colony con- 

 suming- from 100 to 200 pounds of honey 

 each 3^ear, and, as it comes from Bro. 

 G. M. Doolittle, with whom I so seldom 

 have occasion to arg-ue, I must make 

 the most of it. 



In brief, it is really a question of 

 overstocking-. Of course, it requires 

 honey to rear bees, and, after they are 

 reared they must eat, but, so long- as 

 each colony can g-o out and gather this 

 honey, we don't care a fig whether the 

 amount so used is 100 pounds or 500 

 pounds. It is quite generally admitted 

 that the number of colonies may be so 

 increased in any locality that the sur- 

 plus per colony will be diminished, 

 but even this might be done, yet the 

 amount of honey secured in the aggre- 

 gate would be so increased as to make 

 the increase in nuinber of colonies a 

 profitable move. It is not always the 

 g-reater j'ield, pej- colony, that pro- 

 claims the greatest success. The most 

 successful bee-keeping- is that which 

 gets the greatest yield from a g-iven 

 area with the least expenditure of cap- 

 ital and labor. Just how manj^ col- 

 onies can be kept at a profit in a given 

 locality, is one of the hardest nuts that 

 bee-keepers are called upon to crack, 



but when a bee-keeper decides that he 

 has gone beyond that point, it then be- 

 hooves him to branch out and establish 

 another apiary in an unoccupied field. 

 This is the way in which I advocate 

 the "keeping of more bees." 



It is a disputed point whether 

 spreading the brood, or similar "fuss- 

 ing," really puts more bees in the 

 field, but, supposing it does, honey is 

 used to rear and feed these extra bees 

 just the same as though they were se- 

 cured by putting more colonies in the 

 field. Here is the point: a man has 100 

 colonies. By "fussing" with them, w'e 

 will suppose that he increases the crop 

 from 5,000 to 7,00) pounds. My con- 

 tention is that he might better use this 

 extra time or labor in caring for 200 

 colonies, using "short-cut" methods, 

 and getting, say 8,000 pounds. 



I don t advise any bee-keeper to in- 

 crease his business in a reckless man- 

 ner. Let him gradually increase the 

 number of his colonies until he is sat- 

 isfied that he has as manj' as can be 

 profitably kept in that yard, then let 

 him start another; and when that be- 

 comes overstocked, start another; and 

 so on, thus letting experience and 

 number of colonies keep pace with 

 each other. 



I have traveled about considerably, 

 visiting hundreds of bee-keepers in 

 their homes, and one thing that I have 

 noticed is worth pages of theory, and 

 it is this: The most prosperous bee-keep- 

 ers are those ivho keep the most bees. 



A NEW USE FOR A CARD INDEX. 



How it May Be Employed in Keeping 

 Track of Valuable Articles. 



I fear there are many bee-keepers 

 who do not obtain the full amount of 



benefit that they might from their bee- 

 journals, from a lack of some system- 

 atic method indexing the valuable 

 articles. To be sure there is an index 

 published at the end of each year, but 

 the seeker for information does not 

 usually knoXv in which year a certain 

 article was published, besides, some 



