GLEANINGS IN BEE Ct'LTURE 



membered tliat only those having the natural 

 adaptability for apiculture will ever be 

 extensively engaged in it ; and what would 

 be more natural than that the ednratioii of 

 all apiarists to a better knowledge of the 

 business would be mutually beneficial? If 

 all beekeepers were taught how to obtain 

 honey as good as the bees can make, the 

 average cjuality would be better, more de- 

 pendable, and more desirable than that 

 which is produced in ignorance of best 

 methods. Beekeepers well schooled in their 

 occupation know more of markets, and are 

 better advertisers and salesmen than those 

 of lesser knowledge. Unschooled, untutored, 

 and ignorant owners of bees are the real 

 menace ; and it is this class of beekeepers 

 who harbor infectious bee diseases, and are 

 instrumental in spreading them, and who 

 demoralize markets. 



Not a large percentage of those educated 

 at agricultural colleges engage in agricul- 

 tural pursuits as a life occupation. The 

 sam.e is true, to a greater or less extent, of 

 other lines of technical training. After ac- 

 quiring his education for a certain purpose 

 the individual finds he lacks the adaptabil- 

 ity, or, for one reason or another, abandons 

 his first choice of a calling and engages in 

 some other lifework. It may be reasonably 

 inferred that only a small percentage of 

 those who make a scientific study of apicul- 

 ture, either at college or elsewhere, will ever 

 become honey-producers in the true com- 

 mercial sense. There is really no danger of 

 too many well-qualified beekeepers. 



Phenomenal crops of honey are likely to 

 occur at long intervals; but overproduction 

 in the average season is not likely ever to 

 occur. Beekeeping has been carried on in 

 some state of advancement ever since the 

 dawn of history ; but extensive commercial 

 apiaries seem to be one of the developments 

 of the last century. In our own time we 

 have noticed localities where from one to a 

 few hives of bees could be seen near many 

 farmhouses, change to the extent that one 

 could travel for a day or two without seeing 

 evidences of bees kept by farmers. Yet in 

 some such localities, many times, more bees 

 are kept, honey produced, and profit real- 

 ized than when there were so many indi- 

 viduals who had only a few bees. The 

 natural protection of forests and fences 

 disappeared ; brood diseases came in ; the 

 bees, without a real master, perished, and 

 in their place an apiarist establishes an 

 apiary, and, with a thorough knowledge of. 

 the business, operates it as a profitable bus- 

 iness proposition. 



Beekeepers who operated out-apiaries 

 thirty years ago were few and far between. 

 Scarcely more than half a dozen in the 



Tnited States, and one or two in Canada, 

 are all within my recollection, and most of 

 these with an operator in each apiary dur- 

 ing the swarming season. Of late years, 

 however, while the numerous small bunches 

 of colonies owned by farmers are gradually 

 disappearing, we have not only many more 

 apiarists who run out-apiaries and make 

 apiculture an occupation, but also manv 

 more operating bees as a side line on a 

 smaller scale in a commercial way, as may 

 be judged by the attendance and enthusi- 

 asm at beekeepers' conventions. 



During recent times the amount of honey 

 produced annually has greatly increased, 

 and the consumption has kept pace with the 

 production. Honey, having a high food 

 value and an agreeable flavor, should com- 

 mand a higher price, and we think prices 

 have not risen in proportion to the com- 

 parati\e values of some other leading food 

 products; yet it must be admitted that hon- 

 ey sells for far better prices than when 

 there was less produced. This tends to 

 prove that a greater number of expert api- 

 arists, and steadily increasing production, 

 have not, thus far, operated to the detriment 

 of apiculture as an occupation. 



When we consider that the beekeepers of 

 many of the States and some of the prov- 

 inces have long since maintained State and 

 provincial beekeepers' associations, includ- 

 ing many local, branch, and affiliated soci- 

 eties, some of them receiving governmental 

 financial support ; that several colleges have 

 for many years been offering apicultural 

 instruction ; that several States and prov- 

 inces make liberal appropriations for the 

 maintenance of numerous bee-inspectors, a 

 part of whose duties is to instruct in the 

 proper care of bees; that the United States 

 Government, some State governments, and 

 the Ontario Government, each maintains a 

 department from which helpful pamphlets 

 and bulletins on apicultural subjects are 

 issued free, and that the science of apicul- 

 ture is enriched by numerous books and 

 periodicals of high class, we can not avoid 

 the logical conclusion that the unanimity of 

 these several educational agencies indicates 

 beneficial results that amply justify a con- 

 tinuancce of the educational scheme. 



As the result of a bumper crop of wheat, 

 corn, hay, etc., was there ever an advocacy 

 of cessation of education and encourage- 

 ment to engage in agi'iculture? No; but. 

 on the contrary, the slogan is, " Back to the 

 farm," or " Keep the boys and girls on the 

 farm," as the means of keeping the State 

 and nation truly prosperous. As the result 

 of a ruinous bumper crop of fruit, has 

 dissuasion from embarking in horticulture 

 been advocated? No; but the States and 



