1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



133 



the scientific production of bees and 

 honey. The very mysteries of nature 

 have been opened and what is yet to 

 be brought forth is a question that 

 many of the old veterans will not live 

 to see, but the possibilities are great. 

 Artificial comb with full depth cells 

 is one of the great desiderata, and if 

 the present conditious are to be taken 

 as prophetic of what is to come, it 

 will no doubt be a fact that full depth 

 combs will be furnished the beekeep- 

 ers who now are usiug only a sheet of 

 wax with the imprint of the cell base 

 embossed thereon. Will there be any 

 substitute for beeswax discovered is a 

 question yet to be settled. Parafiue 

 seems to come nearest to fill the place 

 of pure wax, yet past experiments 

 have proven a failure in its use. No 

 doubt it is the coming substitute. The 

 future of bee keeping demands, that 

 the bees shall have full drawn combs 

 to deposit honey in and it follows that 

 a substitute must be used for bees- 

 wax, one that as fully answers the 

 purpose will alone be accepted. The 

 future bee keeper can not afford to let 

 his bees produce wax, and it follows 

 as a matter of course that a substitute 

 must be used in the manufacture of 

 comb. 



Apis dorsata will be introduced and 

 will be a great acquisition as then the 

 bees will be enabled to gather nectar 

 from sources from which they are now 

 debarred. Honey will in a great 

 measure take the place of sweets now 

 in use, and while prices will no doubt 

 range low, the demand will be larger. 



It is not to be supposed that the 

 present amount of forage will furnish 

 bees with enough nectar to supply the 

 great demand, but there will be seeds 

 sown and the area of bee pasture will 



be increased to fully supply the de- 

 mand. 



What the improvements will be in 

 hives and surplus receptacles is a 

 question that will be settled by the 

 demands made upon the inventive fa- 

 cilities of the coming bee keeper. 

 Will adulteration play any part in 

 the bee keeping of the future? I think 

 not, for as the use of honey will be 

 almost universal, and the prices will 

 be low, it will not pay to adulterate. 

 Will the business of bee keeping pay 

 the coming bee keeper? I answer yes, 

 for with the new systems that will be 

 put into use and the increase of honey 

 producing plants the yield per colony 

 will be greatly increased, and the 

 business will be put forward as one of 

 the first, if not the first of the country. 



Some may say the picture is over- 

 drawn and too highly colored. I an- 

 swer that if the present advance in bee 

 culture had been predicted one hun- 

 dred years ago it would have been de- 

 rided and the one making the predic- 

 tion would have been considered a fit 

 subject for the insane asylum. Yet 

 we today realize fully what has been 

 done and why should we not truthful- 

 ly say that greater things will be done 

 in the interests of the twentieth cen- 

 tury apiarist. 



TIME WILL TELL. 



Will remedies for the prevention 

 and cure of the diseases of bees be 

 discovered ? Look at the field of med- 

 icine and see what has been done with- 

 in a few years, and its application to 

 all diseases incident to the human race, 

 and then consider the possibilities of 

 what may be done for the diseases of 

 bees, when the attention of the great 

 scientists is directed toward that 

 branch of industry. Will there be no 



