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TtLJi AMJilUUAJN 15EE JOUliJ^AL. 



promise fairly paying returns for the 

 inouey and time embarked in them. 

 This is the representation nniformly 

 made of it l>y all intelligeut and prac- 

 ticed apiarians, who with one voice are 

 prepared to M-arn beginners against the 

 expectation of "enormous profits." 



Furthermore, bee-keeping requires 

 to be learnt. It is both a science and 

 an art, and no one need anticipate suc- 

 cess in it, Avho does not acquire a com- 

 petent knowledge of the business. 

 The Tribune's correspondent does not 

 tell us what means he took to qualify 

 himself for the task he undertook. He 

 bought four common hives of bees and 

 three Italians to begin with. This was 

 a very I'isky thing to do. A beginner 

 should not attempt to manage more 

 than one stock the first season. If he 

 ■will throughly attend to that, and take 

 every opportunity of making himself 

 familiar with the habits and wants of 

 the busy little Avorkers, he may, by and 

 b}', venture to keep more. In bee- 

 keeping, as in everv thing else, it is 

 well to heed the couplet : 



"Little boats must keep near shore, 

 Largej' craft may venture more " 



Our disappointed apiarian does not 

 inform us wliat system of management 

 lie pursued. He got a bee-hat, a very 

 wise precaution ; he smoked the bees 

 with tobacco fumes, which "svas very 

 foolish, as they stupify the bees instead 

 of taming them; and he "lifted the 

 lids/' a necessary step in order to ex- 

 amine the interiors of the hives and 

 perform the requisite operations there, 

 but whether he did anything after the 

 lids were lifted, and if so, what, he does 

 not tell us. We suspect that, like many 

 more who try bee-keeping for a little 

 while only to abaiidon and speak ill of 

 it, lie supposed the bees would take 

 care of themselves, leaving him nothing 

 to do but watch their movements, and 

 pocket the "enormous profits" of the 

 business. His ignorance and incom- 

 petence are sufficiently evinced by his 

 •winter mismanagement. The bees 

 Mere stowed away with a meagre sup- 

 lily of honey, owing probably to over- 



multiplication of stocks. They do not 

 appear to have been artificially fed, a 

 most essential precaution when the 

 store of food is insufficient. He had 

 Icnown enough to feed his stocks that 

 first winter, they might all have been 

 kept alive and vigorous, in which case, 

 the second season would have had a 

 very diflerent record, and a prosperous 

 apiary might have existed where now 

 a few deserted hives, redolent of sul- 

 phur, i)roclaim the owner's incompe- 

 tence and failure. No Avonder the bus- 

 iness was "abandoned in disgust." But 

 the "disgust" ought to be awakened in 

 view of the want of common-sense and 

 practical skill painfully conspicuous 

 throughout the Avhole affair. Let no 

 one think these strictures unnecessarily 

 severe. Only fallui'e can be looked for 

 under such circumstances, and it is too 

 bad that an important industry capable 

 of bringing in millions of national 

 wealth every year should be brought 

 into disrepute, bj'^ the negligence and 

 incapacity of people who undertake a 

 task they do not knoAV how to perform, 

 or as the Westerners forcibly express 

 it, "fence in more land than they can 

 till." We have a shrewd suspicion that 

 our disappointed friend is iuAvardly 

 conscious his failure is largely liis own 

 fault, from his concluding reflection, 

 "one thing well tended, is better than 

 twenty half-tended" To w'hich we 

 beg to add, that in agricultural pursuits 

 twenty things well tended are twenty 

 times better tlian only one thing w^ell 

 tended. A system ot farming such as 

 is known by the name of "mixed hus- 

 bandry," includes the culture of grain, 

 stock-raising, fruit-growing, dairying, 

 poultry breeding, and, last but not 

 least, bee-keeping, is in the majority of 

 cases the Avisest one to i)ursue. If 

 several branches of profikible rural 

 industry are kept going, it is not likely 

 all Avill fail. The season that is bad 

 for one branch Avill be good for 

 another, and thus, from year to year, 

 tlie operations of the farm will pay. 



It is as Avcll to remark, in conclusion, 

 that all localities are not equally suit- 



