880 



American Ttee Journal 



Oct. 18, 1906 



times the bees are apt to stay their 

 habits of flight in gathering. 



Rural Clubs. 



There are few things that so promote 

 rural industry as good farmers' clubs. 

 Michigan well illustrates this fact. 

 The influence of the Michigan clubs 

 has been phenomenal. It is said that 

 except for this club influence, the pas- 

 sage of the law by the last Legislature 

 for direct primaries could not have 

 taken place. It is just as certain that 

 without this club influence the law for 

 a change in taxation, forcing the rail- 

 roads to pay a just proportion of the 

 expense of Government, could not have 

 passed. The passage of this law has 

 secured for the State, during the pres- 

 ent year, more than $8,000,000. There 

 are few States in the Union where just 

 such reforms are not greatly needed ; 

 and nothing can so conduce to this end 

 as just such organizations. 



In a succeeding number of this Jour- 

 nal I will give a full description of 

 these clubs at their best, and show how 

 they work in a way of even more im- 

 portance than in influencing legisla- 

 tion or thickening the pocket-book. In 

 our own section,' here at Claremont, we 

 have a good illustration of what these 

 clubs may do pecuniarily for our people. 

 Through our club we have developed 

 our own telephone system which has 

 now 1600 'phones, is very cheap, entirely 

 up-to-date, and gives us a system 

 which is hardly excelled anywhere. 

 Indeed, if it is not to our satisfaction 

 we are alone to blame, for we are "it." 

 In a future number I will tell about 

 this telephone system, what it has done 

 for our people, what it has brought 

 about, and what rich promise it gives 

 for the future. 



Farmers as Bee Keepers. 



Many of our readers will remember 

 that I have often referred to my 

 brother's apiary. I was with my 

 brother for nearly a month the past 

 summer. I asked him if he still found 

 the apiary a source of profit. He said 

 that now, as always, for the amount of 

 time and money there was nothing on 

 the farm that pays so well. Yet my 

 brother has the name of being the 

 " berry king " in his region. He tells 

 me that his crop was fine this season, 

 and that prices have been exceedingly 

 satisfactory. Some days he has shipped 

 over a hundred bushels, and yet he 

 says, "My bees pay best." 



Claremont, Calif., Sept. 11. 



How Many Colonies to Be- 

 come Well-to-Do ? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 

 "I never knew any one to become well-to- 

 do from the keeping of bees unless he kept a 

 lot of them. It is so simple as to be almost 

 self-evident." — W. Z. Hutchinson, in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review for 1903. 



" Bee-keeping is not an occupation in which 

 one can easily become wealthy. It can be 

 depended upon to furnish a comfortable liv- 

 ing, and perhaps enable a man to lay up a 

 few thousand. Fortunately, however, the 

 professional man's happiness bears little re- 

 lation to the size of his fortune; and the 

 man with the hum of the bees over his head 

 finds happiness deeper and sweeter than ever 



comes to the merchant prince with his cares 

 and his thousands."— W. Z. Hutchinson, in 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture for 1906. 



The above, coming from one who 

 stands in the front ranks for apicul- 

 tural progress, is well worth consider- 

 ing. I have done no little thinking in 

 the matter, and this thinking has led 

 me to ask the question at the head of 

 this article. How many colonies are 

 necessary that the keeper may become 

 "well-to-do?" After any person has 

 read all that was said in the matter 

 from which the first quotation was 

 taken, he can only conclude that in 

 order to be well-to-do, a person must 

 establish many out-apiaries, and num- 

 ber his colonies by the hundreds, if not 

 by the thousands. The man or woman 

 who keeps "only from SO to 100 colo- 

 nies in the home-apiary, spending 

 much time in manipulation," is not 

 "in it" at all along this well-to-do 

 line. In order to become well-to do in 

 the bee-keeping line, apiaries should be 

 established along trolley lines, 3, 6, 9, 

 12, etc., miles in either direction from 

 the home apiary, and an illustration is 

 given of a man who kept an apiary SO 

 miles from home, visiting the same 

 only four times during the year, and 

 from which he realized $100 a visit. 

 And the following is the " wind- 

 up " used to influence all the readers 

 thereof to " go thou and do likewise :" 

 "Friends, do wake up to the possi- 

 bilities for commercial success in our 

 beloved pursuit." 



When reading the above, visions, 

 with out-apiaries strung out in all 

 directions within a radius of 50 miles, 

 went teeming through my head, each 

 paying me $100 a visit, beginning with 

 the first of April, when the bees were 

 to be gotten out of winter quarters, and 

 ending with the first of December, 

 when the bees were to be placed in 

 their " snug retreats " for winter again; 

 and a summing up of the matter told 

 me that such would bring me from 

 $16,000 to $20,000 a year, which, with 

 the interest thereon, would come nearly 

 making me a millionaire, could I hold 

 out in this matter for 35 to 40 years— a 

 thing not at all out of the question as 

 far as the years of a bee-keeper's life 

 are concerned, for we know that bee- 

 keeping is a healthful, life-giving pur- 

 suit, makingold folks young, and keep- 

 ing the young from growing old, espe- 

 cially where " Keep More Bees " is the 

 motto on the wall. 



Having these things all figured out 

 in my "visions," till they were seem- 

 ingly to become a reality, and having 

 the million dollars almost within my 

 grasp, all can imagine how ruthless 

 was the awakening when I read the 

 second quotation given at the com- 

 mencement of this ; and that from the 

 same author who had sent me out on 

 the road to "commercial success," 

 with the million dollars only just be- 

 yond my grasp. Then a halt was 

 called, and after halting I see an easier 

 road to success, for now it was not a 

 " well-to-do " success along the line of 

 "commercialism," for " bee-keeping is 

 not an occupation in which one can 

 easily become wealthy," but a " well- 

 to-do" success with "a comfortable 

 living," and a " happiness " with the 

 "hum of the bees" over my head— a 

 "happiness deeper and sweeter" than 



could ever come to me with "keep 

 more bees " in out-apiaries, and the 

 mad rush after commercialism with its 

 thousands and millions in sight, the 

 same accumulating by the many $100 

 visits, which I might succeed in mak- 

 ing during the 50 or 60 years of my 

 allotted life. 



And now I breathe more easily, but I 

 am not entirely free from worry, for 

 the question still remains, which is at 

 the head of this writing, " How Many 

 Colonies " must I keep that I may en- 

 joy that happiness which comes to the 

 man who hears "the hum of the bees 

 over his head," which are " to furnish 

 a comfortable living," so that I may be 

 "well-to-do?" Who will answer this 

 question for me? I can think of no 

 one better able to do this than Dr. 

 Miller. Will he venture out on a trial 

 in this matter, for the readers of the 

 " Old Reliable ?" 



To give him a few pointers, I will 

 say that I know of a man who has been 

 keeping bees in the State of New York 

 for a quarter of a century or more — a 

 man who has enjoyed the " hum of the 

 bees over his head" during all that 

 time, a man who has had a " comfort- 

 able living," and laid up a little be- 

 sides, from what those bees have 

 brought him in, above what he has laid 

 out on them ; and in talking with him 

 a short time ago, and asking him if he 

 considered bee-keeping a profitable 

 pursuit, he said : 



" That depends upon what you con- 

 sider profitable. The average number 

 of colonies which I have kept has been 

 70 each year. These I could care for 

 with the same degree of care that I 

 would give my garden to keep it free 

 from weeds, so that it would give me 

 the best results. I have had time to 

 listen to the music of these bees; time 

 to watch them as they came in with 

 their various colored loads of pollen ; 

 and see them, to my delight, fall short 

 of the entrance to their hives, with 

 their loads of nectar from the clover, 

 basswood and buckwheat blossoms ; 

 time to experiment with them, become 

 acquainted with them, yea, love them, 

 even, though at times they seemed 

 unloving toward me. Then these same 

 bees have built my home, clothed my 

 back, put food in my mouth, given me 

 conveniences to travel with, yea, given 

 me about all it is possible for God to 

 give any one out of any vocation in 

 life, as far as personal comfort and 

 happiness are concerned, together with 

 something to advance His cause ; and, 

 further, an inventory of what I pos- 

 sess, beyond and besides that I have 

 spoken of, would count up not far from 

 $20,000. Now, to a millionaire, bee- 

 keeping would not be considered a 

 profitable pursuit, but as far as I am 

 concerned, it is all I ask, it is all I 

 want." 



Upon asking him if he thought any 

 one would do as well in choosing bee- 

 keeping as a vocation a : this time as 

 when he commenced, he replied : 



" Probably not. But he would have 

 the same pleasure with the bees, if he 

 loved them ; the same pure and deli- 

 cious sweet for his table : the same 

 health and happiness, through this 

 out-door life with God's creatures; the 

 same comfortable living, unless his 

 life was to be one of luxuty; but he 



