THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



51 



wanted to know it; and I told him 

 frankly why I came. After going' over 

 the whole matter, he advised me, most 

 emphaticall3', not to cut the price of 

 the Review. He said that the majority' 

 of publishers who were offering- these 

 low clubbing- rates would be very glad 

 to get out of it if they could, but having 

 once offered them, the}' did not dare to 

 withdraw them. "Now that you are 

 out," he said, "keep out. If j'ou want 

 to make clubbing offers, offer some 

 other journals that make low offers, in 

 connection with your own, but keep up 

 the price of the Review if you know 

 when you are well off. You may think 

 this strange advice from a clubbing 

 agent, but I have seen the inside work- 

 ings of the game. Then there is an- 

 other thing, the lowering of the price 

 of a journal, does much to lower its 

 standard; its publisher begins to cut 

 corners, and try to save here and there 

 and so it goes. ' ' 



THE "phantom" of BEE-KEEPING. 



Referring once more to my friend's 

 letter, I quote the following: — 



'"I have been keeping bees since 

 1897, and now have S6 colonies. Dur- 

 ing most of that time I have taken 

 Gleanings, and I am indebted to the 

 journal for much tliat I have learned; 

 and yet. Mr. Hutchinson, I sometimes 

 doubt if starting into bee-keeping is 

 the best step that a man can take. 

 Especially do I feel this way when I 

 find the old veterans still saying, after 

 all the advancement that has been 

 made, that the dependence upon this 

 business, as a sole means of support, is 

 a phantom." 



My dear Brother, as I understand it, 

 it is not the veterans, at least, not the 

 veteran specialists, who complain that 

 bee-keeping as business cannot be de- 

 pended upon for support. The men 

 who complain are those who are trying 

 to run two or three other kinds of busi- 

 ness in connection with bee-keeping. 

 You hear no such complaints from 

 Crane, Coggshall, Elwood, Townsend, 

 Coverdale, Gill, Stachelhausen, Hyde, 

 Mercer, Mendelson, Mclntyre, and 



scores of others who might be men- 

 tioned, men wiio have cut loose from all 

 hindrances, secured good locations, 

 stocked them with good strains of bees, 

 in large mimbers, and made money. I 

 expect that there are many men keep- 

 ing bees who could have done better at 

 something else, and the same might be 

 said of any profession. A man should 

 have a decided taste for the business, a 

 genuine love for it, should learn it 

 thoroughly, then get a good location. 

 Not every location is adapted to bee- 

 keeping as a business, and we might 

 as well admit this first as last. Then 

 there must be a good strain of bees, 

 and enough of them. Excuse me for 

 emphasizing this point over and over 

 again, but it seems so difficult to 

 arouse bee-keepers to its importance. 

 However, there does, occasionally, 

 come to me a crumb of comfort in my 

 efforts to show bee-keepers the advan- 

 tage of specialty. Here is one from 

 Massachusetts. 



"Four years ago I was disappointed 

 in your paper, and told my wife that I 

 should order it discontinued when my 

 time was up. Then there came an 

 editorial on specialization that opened 

 to me a new path, and was worth to 

 me more than the price of the Review 

 for many years Now I find in every 

 issue something that I am glad to 

 know. " 



Here is another from Wisconsin: — 

 "In my early years of bee-keeping I 

 didn't like the Review. It was too 

 deep for me, and discussed things about 

 which I cared very little. Noiv, I 

 would pay $5.00 a year for it before I 

 would do without it." 

 A subscriber in California sa3's: — 

 "Your paper is very fascinating to 

 read— indeed, I fear that you are too 

 optimistic, that you take too rosy a 

 view of things, and the beginner might 

 be mislead by some of the articles." 



Yes, I am optimistic in regard to 

 bee-keeping if bee-keepers will only 

 apply the same common sense ideas to 

 their business that are applied to all 

 other businesses. Bee-keeping is now 

 slowly passing from an auxiliary, or 

 subsidary pursuit, to thatof a business 



