244 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



ness is not paying- him, or not proving 

 as profitable as it ought. He has a 

 good plant, is doing a good volume of 

 business, 3'et there a "screw loose" 

 somewhere, and he is unable to find it. 

 He finally sends for an expert. When 

 he comes, everj'thing is thrown open 

 to him. Nothing is kept back. To 

 conceal anything would be like de- 

 ceiving your phj'sician. He spends 

 several days examining the business 

 in all of its details. He learns how, 

 and where, and for how much, and in 

 what quantities, the raw materials are 

 purchased. Then the process of man- 

 ufacture is followed carefully through 

 all the details. Particular attention 

 is paid to the system employed, or the 

 lack of system, to the book-keeping, etc. 

 Then comes the selling, the metliods 

 employed, the advertising, etc. The 

 employees may not know that there is 

 an expert among them. He may work 

 as an apprentice in the different de- 

 partments, and thus get a true view of 

 things, and not as they would be per- 

 formed if it were known that some one 

 was watching. The leak is often 

 found where least suspected — some- 

 times there are several leaks. It is 

 well-nigh impossible to see ourselves, 

 or our business, as seen by others. 

 How many times have I seen some 

 man making a mistake in business. I 

 knew it was a mistake, just as well as 

 I could know anj'thing of which I 

 could not be absolutely certain, but it 

 was none of my business to tell him 

 so, and he would have been offended 

 had I done so. On the other hand, I 

 have often wished that an expert in my 

 line of business could come in and 

 "look me over," and tell me where / 

 was making mistakes. 



These experts, working continuallj^ 

 in this line of work, become really and 

 truly experts in detecting the weak 

 spots in a business. The wages that 

 they command are something fabulous, 

 but many a man who has emploj^ed 

 an expert "systematizer, " has found 



it money well-spent. Sometimes it is 

 necessarj^ to wholly re-organize the 

 business, so to speak, to introduce a 

 different system, or to make radical 

 changes, and, again, the trouble may 

 arise from some simple matter easily 

 remedied, but not suspected. 



In my travels about the country I 

 often come across apiaries that are in 

 need of expert advice, of a "systema- 

 tizer." In some instances, I could very 

 easily and quickly tell the owner 

 where he was making a mistake; in 

 others it might require much examin- 

 ation and study to locate the trouble; 

 and it is quite likely that there might 

 be cases beyond my ken. There are 

 hundreds of bee-keepers all over this 

 country who are not successful in the 

 highest and truest sense. Their lack 

 of success comes from poor manage- 

 ment. I don't mean deficient or im- 

 proper manipulation, as most bee- 

 keepers understand that part of their 

 business better than anything else, but 

 in not taking the proper advantage of 

 their advantages. What is needed is 

 some radical change. It may be one 

 of many things. I have seen some in- 

 stances in which the best possible 

 thing a man could do would be to drop 

 bee-keeping. He was not adapted to 

 it, and it seriously interfered with 

 some other business to which he was 

 adapted. There are localities in 

 which successful, financial bee-keep- 

 ing is practically impossible, and it is 

 a waste of time to attempt it. Many 

 might make a success of bee-keeping 

 if they would keep enough bees. This 

 is a point that I have urged so persis- 

 tently that I fear some have tired of 

 hearing it, but it is a vital point most 

 sadly neglected. In order to keep 

 more bees, it may be necessary to 

 adopt different methods requiring less 

 labor or "fussing." A man maybe 

 trj'ing to do all of the work himself 

 in the busy season when he needs 

 help — when he should be doing the 

 overseeing, and others the work. If a 



