THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



245 



man loses his bees winters he can nev- 

 er hope for any great success, and a 

 radical change may be needed in his 

 plan of wintering. A man may be a 

 good bee-keeper, yet his method of dis- 

 posing of his crop be such that no 

 manufacturing plant could ever sur- 

 vive if it followed such slipshod, un- 

 business-like methods in disposing of 

 its output. It is impossible to point 

 out the numerous wa3'^s in which a 

 man may fail in reaching the highest 

 success as a bee-keeper; and the un- 

 fortunate part is that he does not real- 

 ize, himself, the cause of his failure. 

 I have often thought that it might 

 sometimes be possible for me to help 

 my readers in thus pointing out the 

 needed changes for turning failure, or 

 indifferent success, into abundant suc- 

 cess, In doing this I should make no 

 claim as to superior natural abilities, 

 or "smartness," simply that my past 

 life has fitted me in that direction. 

 My whole life has been devoted to bee- 

 keeping. I began its study while yet 

 in mj' teens. For years I made my 

 living from the apiary; I have produc- 

 ed both comb and extracted honey; 

 reared and sold thousands of queens ; 

 attended and made exhibititions at 

 fairs, year after year; attended numer- 

 ous conventions where I have met the 

 most successful bee-keepers of the 

 country; and, above all, I have visited 

 hundreds of bee-keepers, in their 

 homes, from Vermont to California, 

 carefully studying why they have suc- 

 ceeded and wh}"^ they have Jailed. 

 During all of these years I have care- 

 fully read nearly everything that has 

 been published in this country on the 

 subject of bee-keeping; and, for 17 

 years, as editor of the Review, I have 

 enjoyed the confidence of thousands of 

 bee-keepers who have favored me with 

 reports and descriptions of their fail- 

 ures and successes. Successful bee- 

 keeping is about half bees, and the 

 other half business, and the latter half 

 has been almost entirely neglected. 



For this reason I have been giving 

 much attention of late to the business 

 features of bee-keeping. For these 

 reasons I might be able to visit a bee- 

 keeper, the same as an expert visits a 

 merchant or a manufacturer, and be 

 able to say, at the end of my visit, 

 "Mr. Blank, if you would do thus and 

 so, make such and such changes, you 

 might make dollars where you now 

 make dimes." I think it is possible 

 that I might be able to thus advise a 

 man without ever seeing him or his 

 apiary, provided he would write me a 

 complete and minute history of his 

 case. If there is any reader of the 

 Review who feels that he is not making 

 the success of bee-keeping that he 

 might make, who is having a hard 

 time "to make both ends meet, " and 

 feels that possibly I might help him if 

 I knew all of the circumstances, let 

 him write me those circumstances in 

 the fullest possible manner, and he 

 shall have the best advice that I can 

 possibly give him. He must, if he ex- 

 pects me to help him, tell me every- 

 thing that can possibly have a bearing 

 on his success, just as the manufactur- 

 er opens up his factory to the expert. 

 Of course, everything would be held 

 in the strictest confidence, not shown 

 to others, or published — at least, not 

 without the full and free consent of the 

 writer. 



First, I should wish to know about 

 the man himself; his age, disposition, 

 education, knowledge and experience 

 with bees, the books and papers he had 

 read, etc. Then his resources, cash, 

 farm or home, bees or what not. Next 

 I should wish to know all about the 

 location and its peculiarities, the hon- 

 ey-flows, the number of bees kept by 

 the writer, and others in that vicinity, 

 the yields, the manner of wintering, 

 and the success in that line. I would 

 like to know the kind of bees kept, the 

 kind of hives and implements used and 

 the methods employed. I would like 

 to know the kind of honey produced, 



