2i8 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. [October. 



THE PRODUCTION OF AMATEUR BEE-KEEPERS 



A Pen Picture of the Apiarian Situation in 

 California. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



THE RESOLUTION to regulate 

 the production of amateur bee- 

 keepers is a move in the right 

 direction. Such resolution ought not 

 to become necessary but perhaps it 

 is better to have something which is 

 only part bad than have soniething 

 saddled upon us and our industry 

 which is decidedly vicious. A few 

 days ago I was wondering why the 

 grocerymen could not get up some 

 organizations and periodicals to en- 

 tice every loose individual into keep- 

 ing a store, by holding up all its shin- 

 ing sides and obscuring all its diffi- 

 culties. Some real estate capitalist 

 who has a lot of empty store build- 

 ings he would like to have occupied 

 to engineer the scheme. But mer- 

 chants seem to be of a riper class. 

 If they have been sagacious enough 

 to get sufficient funds together to 

 establish such a business they prob- 



ably penetrate blandishments that 

 would entice them into any business, 

 by gusto and exploitation. 



Some twenty years ago when I 

 went about the country to visit with 

 other bee-keepers they always show- 

 ed me their yellow striped queens 

 and methods of rearing them. Urged 

 me to sample and decide on the qual- 

 ity of their honey and took me into 

 the house where there were many 

 bee journals lying about of three or 

 four different kinds and were special- 

 ly interested in articles which they 

 contained. Seldom, and I could not 

 well go wrong if I say that there 

 were no bee-keepers who did not read 

 three or four papers on bee-keeping. 

 Now times have changed. Not more 

 than one in ten takes a paper and I 

 doubt if that. Three in twenty here 

 at Chatsworth and those subscrip- 

 tions I obtained after years of induce- 



Snap Shots in a California Apiary. 



I 



