(38 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEFER. 



so general a use of this bee-keeper's 

 appellation, "friend," from any one 

 of these sources. If the apairist has 

 anything to gain by flattering, he will 

 use the epithet upon his customers and 

 not upon co-laborers, and again, the 

 class has always been noteworthy for 

 soundness of mind and mutual regard. 

 Insanity and idiocy have never been 

 especially charged to the business. 



In what other occupation do we find 

 competitors sincerely calling each oth- 

 er "friend," and how seldom it is that 

 two of a trade agree. Apiculture then 

 must be widely different, and in its 

 present stage at any rate, more human- 

 izing than other pursuits, for nobody 

 would presume to affirm that this senti- 

 ment of common interest strong enough 

 to lead a sensible man to call a strang- 

 er "friend" arose in his hardhead 

 from silly sentimentalism, and it is 

 equally illogical to lay it to unworthy 

 motives, for we are speaking now of 

 many thousand men. 



Is not contention among bee-men an 

 emulation rather than a competition ? 

 We are vieiug, not battling, one with 

 another; the business is more an art 

 than a trade because of several condi- 

 tions. The territory used must needs 

 be broad tracts and private forage. 

 Two parties realize that a fair pastur- 

 age for one is a pitiable failure for 

 two. Bee-keepers are comparatively 

 so few, and area is so abundant, that 

 interests seldom clash in production. 

 In the market, nature arbitrarily set- 

 tles the price, abundance or scarcity 

 fixes the figure, for demand is gener- 

 ally uniform. If there is any personal 

 competition , it is limited to a few 

 weeks in the fall. Throughout the 

 business there is no chance tor widely 



mutual animosity; the few who cut 

 the price of honey cannot affect the 

 mass. If we could build comb and 

 manufacture honey, how long would 

 human nature maintain between man 

 and man the title "friend ?" 



In the present methods each is striv- 

 ing to make real his idea of excellence ; 

 the bees turn off the daily routine of 

 manufacture, they are busied with the 

 drudgery that often hides the aim of 

 labor. We must calculate, but in this 

 it is not a strife in calculation — my 

 arithmetic every hour against my 

 neighbor's arithmetic; if we meet in 

 the market it is generally as artist 

 meets artist, and the public awards to 

 the best- production the prize, — the 

 extra price. 



Again, the literature of apiculture 

 has fostered the natural fraternal feel- 

 ing by the liberality of journal to 

 journal, the encouragement of collo- 

 quial style in the practical contribu- 

 tions, and the prominence and assist- 

 ance given the chief fraternizing ele- 

 ment in bee matters, the Convention. 



When the "community of senti- 

 ment " is strong and genuine, all who 

 have a hand in the work are "friends," 

 Masons, Odd Fellows, and so on. R. 

 R. engineers and co-religionists who 

 have never met, regard and speak of 

 each other as friends ; yes, they use a 

 more intimate word. Now we can 

 detect the difference between^ friend 

 and my friend, the partner and com- 

 panion of my thoughts and feelings, 

 and the person who stands with me 

 only on common ground in business 

 sentiment. We need another English 

 word for the personage; friend is the 

 only term the bee-keeper can fitly use. 



When pasturage becomes narrowed 



