THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



79 



I am, however, situated like many 

 other farmers; have no warm shop in 

 which I can work; besides I have so 

 man}' other things to do in those short 

 winter days, that I tinally decide to 

 prepare my supplies ^rt;'/v i)i the spring. 



But when the next spring came it 

 was the same old story: I had only 

 about half as many colonies as in the 

 fall, so; felt discouraged again, as be- 

 fore, and let the bees take care of them-: 

 selves. I neglected sending for sup- 

 plies, or, perhaps, didn't need anj% as 

 the bees were so weak in number. 

 Then, perhaps, would come a cold wet 

 season, so the bees would just about 

 build up in time to go into winter 

 quarters, with about the same results 

 in wintering as previously described. 



MOST FARMER-BEE-KEEPERS EVENTU- 

 ALLY QUIT BEE-KEEPING. 



The fore-g'oing- is a fair picture of 

 my experience with farming and bee- 

 lieeping combined; and I am not the 

 only one who can draw such a picture. 

 I can count up lots of other farmers all 

 througli this country who have had 

 similar experiences. Most of them 

 quit the bee business after five or six 

 years of such experience, and the loss 

 of several hundreds of dollars. I am, 

 perhaps, an exception. I have stuck to 

 it till I now have 100 colonies, run in 

 an up-to-date manner for producing 

 tirst-class honey, and I shall keep on 

 increasing my bee business, till I will 

 some day quit the combination and make 

 a specialty of bee-keeping. I have done 

 both long enough to be convinced that 

 I am not capable of doing both, as 

 each ought to be done, and make money 

 out of both. Maybe some of the 

 friends will say, or, at least, think 

 "Perhaps you iire not much of a 

 farmer, or bee-keeper either." Per- 

 haps not, but I know this much: I 

 bought my farm, going in debt for it, 

 and paid for it off from the farm; not 

 from the bees. The reason I don't 



keep at farming instead of bee-keeping, 

 is simply because I like the bee busi- 

 ness best, not because there is the most 

 money in it. I still think there is 

 the most money in farming, but I think 

 the bee business brings the most money 

 for WiQ amount i)ivested. 



BEES MAY BE KEPT ON A FARM IF 



THERE IS SOME ONE TO CARE 



FOR THEM, 



Now, I don't want my friends to 

 think I am just trying to help Mr. 

 Hutchinson out with his arg-ument that 

 one should not mix bee-keeping with 

 anything else; I am only trying to 

 show you the difficulties that arise in 

 the combination of bee-keeping and 

 general farming. Perhaps there are 

 some farms where an apiary pays, but 

 there is probably some one in that 

 family who has a liking for bees, and 

 don't care to do farm work. In such 

 cases it is all right to run bees 

 in connection with farming. But 

 to recommend bee-keeping to the aver- 

 age farmer, to increase his income, I 

 would no more think of doing than to 

 advise him to go to doctoring horses to 

 increase his income. Bee-keeping is 

 an entirely different study from any line 

 of agriculture; in fact, has nothing to 

 do with agriculture, as there are 

 places where tons of honey are pro- 

 duced where the tiller of the soil has 

 never been. Of course, I admit that 

 agriculture has increased the yield of 

 honey in many places, and, possibly, 

 decreased it in some places, too. 



As to the farmer having the moral 

 right to keep bees to gather the nectar 

 from his clover and buckwheat, he has 

 the same moral right to manufacture his 

 own plows and harrows, but each is a 

 different trade. If he wishes to dabble 

 with both, and experiment, let him have 

 that pleasure. The question is, does 

 \\. pay \\\m. to try to do both ? Will it 

 not pay him better to learn to be 

 master of one trade and do that well ? 



