148 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



pursuit, is in its infancy, and there- 

 fore many "pranks" and "tumbles" 

 may reasonably be expected of it at 

 the start. The prattles of the "works 

 on bees" about the profitableness of 

 bee culture has done but little harm, 

 in fact less harm than good in a gen- 

 eral way. 



Most of the works on bee culture, 

 though enthusiastic in style, are con- 

 servative in fact, and have done an 

 immense amount of good. It is true 

 that one or two "works" that have 

 been pushed into wide circulation are 

 full of "advertisements" of expensive 

 machinery, and cranky fixings not at 

 all suitable to the humble occupation 

 of beekeeping. The world would be 

 better without these, but they are 

 simply excrescences growing on the 

 limbs of the infant giant, to be 

 brushed off in more mature years. 



These are "sweet advertisers" who 

 take advantage of the enthused, to 

 fleece them while in a muddled state 

 of mind. Like Joab of old, they take 

 their victim aside and say "brother" 

 or "friend," and stab him — in the 

 pocket? Of course. I know no 

 remedy for these evils. People who 

 enter the enthused state of mind in- 

 cident to "bee fever" will have to 

 abide the crucial test of the "survival 

 of the fittest." 



I have a tender place in my make 

 up which responds when addressed 

 as "brother," or "friend," but I am 

 too old now to be hurt by it ; but let 

 the novice beware that these "hon- 

 eyed words" do not smooth the way 

 to his pockets. 



"Apis Canadensis" dicidedly la- 

 bors under a delusion as to the true 

 character of bee culture as a business. 



Bee culture is a rural pursuit, and 

 cannot with fairness be compared 

 with the greater lucrative pursuits of 

 the world which make men "rich," 

 or crush them forever. 



Let him compare bee culture with 

 other rural pursuits, and its most ar- 

 dent friends will not shrink from the 

 comparison. 



How many hundreds of people 

 toil on poor little farms, or cultivate 

 lands on the shares, or toil as day la- 

 borers, or work on the farm by the 

 month, or by the year, or toil as a 

 mechanic, sometimes with employ- 

 ment and sometimes not, all of them 

 barely eking out a scant living from 

 year to year ! 



Compare the "lot" of the apiarist 

 who is his own "proprietor," moving 

 as "boss" among his myriads of busy 

 workers, who bring him an humble, 

 perhaps, but pleasant, living, with the 

 above careworn toilers, and choose 

 ye which. 



How many persons working poor 

 farms make anything above a bare 

 subsistence ? How many clerks, at a 

 salary of ^looo or ^1200, have any- 

 thing over after paying the expenses 

 of extravagant city life ? 



It matters but little as to just how 

 many colonies of bees one man may 

 handle profitably ; that depends alto- 

 gether on previous preparation. I 

 plead the cause of bee culture as a 

 pursuit, because it has ameliorated 

 the hard lots of many worthy people, 

 and is destined to ameliorate the 

 hard lives of thousands of others in 

 the future. 



Is this not enough to justify Lang- 

 stroth, Quinby, Cook, Newman, Bal- 

 lantine, Alley, etc., to wax enthusiastic 



