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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



It is very evident that bees will not do well 

 under all circumstances and in all localities, 

 and to those who imagine that in their vicinity 

 thousands of dollars worth of honey is an- 

 nually going to waste for want of bees to 

 collect it, we would say : be sure tirst that 

 you are right and then "go ahead," otherwise 

 if you should make much of an investment in 

 the business and build much iipon net results 

 and large profits, you may find when too late 

 that under the surrounding circumstances, all 

 efforts, whether well directed or not, can only 

 end in disaster. 



But we believe that as the country gets old- 

 er bee-keeping will become more certain and 

 remunerative. A more abimdant flora of 

 other States and countries as it takes root and 

 flourishes in soils, tempered by cultivation to 

 its wants, along with our own indiginous var- 

 ieties will furnish bees a more constant field 

 in which to labor and will play an important 

 pai't in the attainment of this result. 



Too many in our state have nothing to re- 

 port but their failures and the unprofitable- 

 ness of the business and it would seem from 

 .this phase of the question alone, tliat bee- 

 keeping is like a mirage to a thirsty man 

 traveling on the desert who vainly follows its 

 constantly receeding form until at last he 

 gives up from inability to proceed further. 

 Then he arrive'^, at the conclusion that he has 

 been the victim of a delusion. 



But there is to this, as well as to all other 

 questions, two side— a bright one as well as 

 the dark one. 



The present year as well as the preceeding 

 one have been noted in the history of the 

 Siate and country, dating back for the past 

 35 or .30 years as drouthy. The amount of 

 rain-fall during the summer months being 

 \nipreceedently small and the evaporating 

 power of the air being very great and contin- 

 uous for a long time, the dew point being 

 seldom reached. A consequence is, that dur- 

 ing that time the flowers failed to furnish their 

 ordinary amount of sweets, and the bees have 

 had to remain idle during a time that in 

 other j'ears they were storing honey rapidly. 



That degree of atmosphere humidity and 

 that electrical condition of the atmosphere 

 most favorably came to an end in our part of 

 the State about the '3f»th of June, since which 

 time the bees have done nothiug ; but prior to 

 that time they did as well if not better than 

 preceeding years. 



Quite an amount of honey has been taken 

 that was stored in the fore part of the season, 

 and tlie prospects now are that bees will store 

 enough this fall to last them througii the win- 

 ter,and in some localities furnish considerable 

 surplus. 



This prospect is more cheering in view of 

 the fact that we have been visited by pests in 

 the form of chints bugs and grasshoppers 



which have made such a heavy onslaught up- 

 on vegetation that it would seem to have 

 "played out" much of the bee pasture. But 

 many of the plants furnishing honey in the fall 

 months are not savory dishes to those pestifer- 

 ous visitors, and hence since the heated tena 

 has come to an end the atmosphere has chang- 

 ed as regards the dew point the bees have 

 again resumed their cheerfiU hum and return- 

 ed to their natural habits of industry. 



A life is made up of pleasures and sorrows ; 

 hopes and expectations ; happy realizations 

 and bitter disappointments ; the bee keepers 

 have a fair field in which to pass through ail 

 these life-phases, and to see as if in miniature 

 the foreshadowings of all that nuikes life 

 pleasurable or otherwise. 



He is flushed with hopes and buoyant with 

 expectations, as he sees in the near future the 

 happy realizations of his dreams and very of- 

 ten, whether they be night or day ones, they 

 end in happy realities and success beyond ex- 

 pectation. The more thoi'ough the ac(iuaint- 

 aiice with the business the more certainty 

 there is of satisfactory results. 



But very freciuently, just as the prospect is 

 brightest and luost flattering, some calamity 

 crosses his pathway and his fair fabrics totter 

 and fall to the ground. In a great many in- 

 stances the calamity with its dire conseciuen- 

 ces might have been averted. 



It is the main object of such an association 

 as this to determine what is necessary to make 

 the business more generally successful. That 

 many of the causes of past failures can be 

 avoided in the future is, to our mind, ap- 

 parent. A free discussion of all the known 

 causes of past faihu'es as well as the exper- 

 iences of those who have been successful » 

 should constitute a large i)art of the work of 

 this association. In addition to this the pub- 

 lication of everything that will leail to the 

 attainment of better results will place our 

 favorite l)ranch of business wliere it belongs 

 among the leading pursuits of the State. 



Bee-keepers are generally a hopeful people, 

 but we believe that they are not prone to 

 " hope against hope," as is sometimes the 

 case, as manifested as an inate principle of 

 our being. 



For instance, we have seen many persons 

 in the last stages of puluionary consumption, 

 and the rule has been that the\ were always 

 hopeful — hopeful that some turn in the dis- 

 ease would prolong their life or tliat they 

 would again be able to go arouutl and attend 

 to their affairs as they had done in the past. 



But bee-keeping is not like an iiinhift fat'ais 

 that allures with false hopes and daz/.les but 

 to bllud; )>ut it has got something real tangi- 

 ble in its favor and will yet becouie a source 

 of profit as well as pleasure to thousands 

 more of this vast and cnanging west of which 

 our own State is a lit representative. Then, 

 as bee-keei)ers, let us do our duty. Let us 

 keep up our organization, supimrt our jour- 

 nals, and assist in every way in the good 

 work, and thus not only we ourKtivcs will be 

 profited, but the State and nation will be made 

 more prosperous and hajniy in consequence 

 of our havnig lived and clischarged our obli- 

 gations to society. 



