784 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Do Bee-Keepers IVeed an Exper- 

 imental Station ? 



Written for tJie Illinois State Bee-Conventiwt 

 BY DK. C. C. MILLER. 



Many thousands of dollars are annu- 

 ally spent in agricultural experiments, 

 the money therefor being taken from 

 public funds. To prove the wisdom of 

 this, needs no very extended argument. 

 Only by actual experiment can a farmer 

 ascertain many things necessary for the 

 profitable prosecution of his calling. If 

 in each township one farmer should 

 make experiments for all the rest, the 

 cost would thereby be greatly reduced ; 

 and if a single set of men at one place, 

 having all the requisite appliances, with 

 the power to command the most favor- 

 able surroundings, make the experiments 

 for all the farmers in the State, then 

 the cost is reduced to a minimum per 

 capita. 



Perhaps, however, the simple fact 

 that in the different States these experi- 

 ment stations are continued year after 

 year, funds being freely voted for such 

 purpose, is the strongest proof of the 

 wisdom and economy of such outlay. 



It is a notorious fact that with very 

 few exceptions the interests of bee-keep- 

 ing are utterly ignored in all the experi- 

 mental stations. In our own great 

 State of Illinois, I do not know that a 

 single dollar of public money has ever 

 been spent in apicultural experiments. 



The utter neglect of this branch of 

 agriculture can only be justified, if it 

 can be justified at all, on one of two 

 grounds. First, on the ground that the 

 products of bee-keeping are too insignifi- 

 cant to warrant an outlay for experi- 

 ments. Let us look at this. 



Suppose that throughout the 55,000 

 square miles of the State all the various 

 vocations are nicely adjusted, so that all 

 are full, just the right number of far- 

 mers, merchants, blacksmiths, etc., for 

 the highest welfare of the State, only 

 there are are no bee-keepers. Now sup- 



pose a bee-keeper be dropped on each 

 10 square miles of territory with 100 

 colonies of bees. Then suppose an aver- 

 age crop of 50 pounds per colony, at an 

 average price of 123^ cents per pound. 

 The 5,500 bee-keepers would produce 

 2T>2 million pounds of honey, worth in 

 round numbers $3,500,000. Is that 

 amount of clean-cut addition to the total 

 resources of the State not worth consid- 

 ering ? 



The census of 1880 shows the potato 

 crop of that year in the. State of Illinois 

 to be 10,365,707 bushels. At 25 cents 

 per bushel, the value is $2,591,427. 

 Our estimated honey crop is worth about 

 a third more than this. Of buckwheat 

 there were raised 178,859 bushels. At 

 75 cents per bushel, $lo-4,143 — not 

 one-twenty-fifth the value of our esti- 

 mated honey crop. Were there no ex- 

 periments on behalf of potatoes and 

 buckwheat? Of cheese, in 1880, Illi- 

 nois produced 1,035,069 pounds. Fig- 

 ured at the same price as honey, that 

 makes $129,384. Multiply by 26, and 

 it does not come up to honey. Do the 

 cheese-makers have no attention at the 

 experimental station ? 



Add together potatoes, buckwheat 

 and cheese, and you must increase the 

 combined value by half a million dollars 

 to make it equal the honey. In view of 

 the outlay made, and very properly 

 made, for experiments relating to the 

 three articles mentioned, it can hardly 

 be said that the products of bee-keeping 

 are too insignificant to warrant any out- 

 lay for experiments. 



If it be objected that the products 

 mentioned — potatoes, etc. — are the actual 

 products of a year, while the amount of 

 honey mentioned is only a possible prod- 

 uct, please remember that experiments 

 are made on the basis of possibilities, 

 with the view of something different 

 from what has been. 



Or, it may be said, "If possibilities 

 are to be figured on, then estimate pota- 

 toes not by the actual but the possible, 

 and the crop will assume one hundred 

 times its present importance, for 100 

 times the number of bushels viight be 

 raised." Please go back to our supposi- 

 tion, and that was that all the vocations 

 were nicely adjusted so as to secure the 

 greatest good to the greatest number, 

 and in that case there will be just the 

 right number of potatoes raised for the 

 general good. If you increase the num- 

 ber of potatoes raised, it must be at the 

 expense of some other crop, the addi- 

 tional potatoes raised will take the 

 ground otherwise occupied with corn or 

 something else. So there will only be a 



