98 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



July 



the Bee-Keeper is worth reading 

 from coVer to cover, — and the only 

 thing that I am disposed to " grumble 

 about," is, there is not enough of itf 

 Truly the bee-keepers of grand old 

 America have reason to be proud of 

 their bee papers : Long life to every 

 one of 'em ! 

 Denver, Colo. 



Does Bee-Keeping Pay? 



BY CHAS. H. THIES. 



The above question at just this 

 time is asked by many. In answer 1 

 would say, yes ! No doubt there 



have been times when it paid bet- 

 ter. Yes, during my own times, in 

 handling bees I have found them to 

 pay better, but every business and 

 avocation has its ups and downs, why 

 not the bees ? A good many years 

 ago good comb honey readily brought 

 25 to 30c per lb., but at the same 

 time other necessarys were higher. I 

 well remember when wheat first came 

 down to $1,00 per bushel; it was then 

 said that a farmer could not raise or 

 produce wheat at that price which in 

 opinion it should really be worth to 

 give the producer something for his 

 hard work. But today wheat is bring- 

 ing less than 50c per bu. and $1.00 

 per bu. would look a big thing. Yet 

 the production of wheat is not aband- 

 oned. Why not hold to the bees ? 

 For the last year or two, we have 

 seen hard times, and in many places 

 honey crops have been short if not a 

 complete failure, while some locali- 

 ties have been more favored, and are 

 able to report big yields of honey. 

 Let us hold on, and be ready when 

 our favored time comes, no doubt bet- 

 ter times, and big honey crops will 



come again. This is a good deal like 

 climbing a hill or a mountain, which 

 is pretty hard work, but we may be 

 pretty sure that when we have arrived 

 at the top of the hill we will have the 

 other side to go down, Really friends 

 don't you think it is best for things to 

 have their ups and downs? then 

 when we are up we will surely know 

 it. You know it is said that a man 

 can do more walking on an up and 

 down hill road than he can on a per- 

 fectly smooth and level one. And so 

 I think it is best with beekeeping, 

 best not to have everything smooth 

 all the time. Let us stick to our bees 

 and do our portion of the work well, 

 and I am satisfiied they will pay as 

 well as most anything else, consider- 

 ing the amount invested, both time 

 and money. This is not from hear- 

 say but from actual experience. G. 

 M. Doolittle in the American Bee 

 Journal, tells us of the large amount 

 of rain they are having in N. Y. 

 Southern 111., would be glad to take 

 pait of your over supply, but we 

 could very well do without the storms 

 and washouts they are having in many 

 places. Really 1 do not know which 

 of the two I would prefer, too wet or 

 too dry. 



Steeleville, 111. 



^ ■ ■ » ^i 



Stimulative Feeding. 



BY ED. JOLLEY. 



When and under what conditions 

 should we feed to stimulate brood- 

 rearing ? Is a cpjestion that has 

 never been thoroughly settled. Some 

 of our leading bee-keepers claim that 

 the gain is not enough in proportton 

 to the trouble and expence to pay. 

 Others claim large returns on the in- 



