DECEMBER 1, 1914 



929 



Conversations with Doolittle 



HOW SPEND THE WINTER EVENINGS; THE 

 IMPORTANCE OF READING UP ON BEES. 



" As the days are getting short now, and 

 the bees are all ready for winter, I am 

 trying to decide how the long winter eve- 

 nings can be best spent to advance a young 

 beekeeper's knowledge along the line of 

 aijiculture. Not having any definite ideas 

 in this matter I am led to write Doolittle, 

 asking if he will not give us something in 

 his department along this line." 



I take it that the writer of the above has 

 chosen beekeeping as his pursuit in life, or, 

 at least, expects to keep bees in connection 

 with some other occupation to an extent 

 sufficient to warrant posting up quite thor- 

 oughly in bee-lore. Having once chosen a 

 pursuit in life, it behooves all to look after 

 that pursuit with all diligence; and in no 

 business engagement is this more imperative 

 than wlien the culture of the bee is to be 

 the occupation. In no way can this be done 

 to better advantage than in reading the bee- 

 literature of these times. Many times have 

 I tried to get coriespondents who were often 

 asking questions to take a bee-pajier or to 

 send for a good book on bees, only to be 

 met with certain excuses which went to show 

 that these persons would not make a success 

 in apiculture. A man who is not willing 

 to put a few dollars into the apicultural 

 reading of to-day shows by that very thing 

 that he will not make a success with the 

 bees; for if he has the right kind of love for 

 the bee he will be eager to devour all the 

 reading on this subject which he can get 

 hold of. It is just this hungering and thirst- 

 ing after knowledge regarding the practical 

 part of beekeeping that insures success; 

 and unless a person does so hunger and 

 thirst after knowledge along some special 

 line of the many industries of the world, he 

 will never make any success of any thing. 



I take it that our correspondent takes 

 Gleanings. This is good; but just one 

 bee-paper will hardly content an enthusiast. 

 Take all the others if you possibly can. 

 But before any of these, in importance to 

 the beginner, is a good book on bees. Why 

 1 put the book or books first is that no one 

 is fully prepared to understand the bee- 

 papers till he is acquainted with the elemen- 

 tary principles of our pursuit. Lists and 

 lists of questions are sent me, sometimes 

 covering several sheets of paper, which I 

 know would never have been asked had the 

 writers had a good book on bees, and had 

 they read the book understandingly. From 



these books and papers, during the winter 

 evenings, the mind is to be stored with use- 

 ful knowledge which can be put into prac- 

 tical use as soon as the season of 1915 opens. 

 During the winter evenings of 1869 (that 

 being the winter after I obtained my first 

 colonies of bees) I procured and read Quin- 

 by's " Mysteries of Beekeeping," and the 

 " Beekeeper's Text-book," and subscribed 

 for the American Bee Journal and the Bee- 

 keepers' Journal, the two latter being all 

 the papers devoted to bees there were pub- 

 lished at that time. My first year of expe- 

 rience in beekeeping, by way of putting 

 the things I had read in practice gave me 

 an average of about 25 pounds of comb 

 honey from each old colony I had in the 

 spring. At the end of the fourth season I 

 had chronicled 81 lbs. of comb honey as the 

 average surplus from each colony in the 

 spring. During these four years I had 

 studied, read, and worked all my wakeful 

 hours with the bees, having nothing but fun 

 in doing it. Beekeeping has been a source 

 of real pleasure and keen enjoyment during 

 all the 45 years since I commenced. And 

 besides this pleasure and enjoyment the 

 bees have built me a home and given me the 

 many comforts which I can now enjoy as 

 the " sun is going down the western slope " 

 of life. Very much of this success was 

 brought about by those winter evenings 

 when 1 began to read up on the subject. 



But many of our practical beemen do not 

 write for publication, and such men we can 

 visit during the long winter evening's, as 

 another help along the line of our qualifica- 

 tion. Many a good thing have I gotten in 

 this way — things which I had never seen in 

 print, and which I could never have given 

 to the world through the columns of Glean- 

 ings had I shut myself in all the winter 

 evenings to the books and papers devoted to 

 our pets. 



Then we have our bee conventions which 

 are held for the purpose of helping those 

 who attend, in a special manner; and while 

 the cost may be considerable, if we improve 

 the time as we should we can learn more 

 than enough to cover that cost in addition 

 to the benefit which we derive socially. 



All these things will be eagerly sought 

 after if we have a natural qualification for 

 the calling which we have chosen. If any 

 person loves something more than he does 

 to study beekeeping, in all probability such 

 a one has mistaken his calling, and the 

 fullest success will hardly crown his efforts. 



