THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



309 



work on " The Honey Bee," with 

 the valuable invention of the mov- 

 able-frame hive, has made all things 

 possible in this direction ; and with 

 the acquisition of the bellows 

 smoker the task becomes a pleasure. 

 From the dark and mysterious has 

 sprung the light, and with father 

 Dierzon's parthenogenesis, we are 

 enabled to place beekeeping on the 

 highest plane of scientific attain- 

 ment. With the broad strides of 

 the past what might we reasona- 

 bly expect in the future. As the 

 old stigma of " strained honey" 

 loses its venom, with the preju- 

 dice wrought by the glucose fraud, 

 honey will grow more and more in 

 public favor ; and as the demand 

 increases, prices will be stiffened, 

 and increased facilities for its pro- 

 duction will be the order of the 

 day. This will call for a more 

 general knowledge of bee culture, 

 and honey production. Tliat honey 

 is the purest and healthiest of all 

 sweets cannot be denied, and na- 

 ture has so amply provided this 

 sweet for our use, that millions of 

 tons go to waste annually for the 

 want of bees to gather it. AVithin 

 my own upland region, there are 

 thousands of acres of white clover 

 and no bees to gather the honej, 

 and upon the lowlands of the Illi- 

 nois bottoms, the Cercopsis or 

 Spanish Needle abounds till thous- 

 ands of acres become yellow as 

 gold. It is here that the future 

 possibilities of beekeeping abound. 

 Our country is undeveloped in this 

 particular resource and should the 

 people become posted in tlie art 

 of honey production, commensu- 

 rate with nature's supply, our 

 honey commerce would rank in 

 value with that of sugar and would 

 supersede all syrups, in the daily 

 consumption of life. When honey 

 can be produced so cheap that the 

 laborer as well as the lord can have 

 it upon his daily table, then shall 

 we arrive at the fruition of our 



hopes and we shall be in the 

 promised land that " shall flow in 

 milk and honey." 



Spring, Brotvn Co., III. 



"From Gleaninffs." 



BEEKEEPING AS A LIFE 

 BUSINESS. 



Dr. C. C. Miller. 



" It seems a pity he should set- 

 tle down into nothing but a bee- 

 J<ee|ier, when he might be successful 

 in almost any line of business he 

 should undertake." Such expres- 

 sions I have heard, when, so far as 

 I could see, the only reasons for it 

 were that it was thought the man 

 might make more money at some 

 other business than beekeeping. 



I am aware that too much has 

 been said of the bright side of bee- 

 keeping in the way of ui'ging every 

 one into it, and I have protested 

 against it ; for in nine cases out of 

 ten, the person who chooses bee- 

 keeping as his life-business, mere??/ 

 for the money there is in it, will 

 meet with disappointment. But for 

 once I want to take the other side, 

 and say something in the wa}-- of 

 urging the choice of this business 

 upon a certain class. 



Here is a young man about to 

 settle down in -life. His college 

 course of study is perhaps finished 

 (and I would urge upon every 

 young man to get a collegiate ed- 

 ucation, whether he expects to 

 spend his life in apiary, farm, 

 counting-house, or pulpit) ; and the 

 question is, whether beekeeping 

 shall be his vocation. He has ap- 

 titude for the business ; what little 

 experience he has had in it has been 

 successful ; and he would really 

 like to spend his life at it if he 

 thought he could make as much 

 at it as at merchandise, albeit the 



