c 



Ui 



770 



L/ definitions 

 and deri- 

 vations? and do 

 you like to think 

 about how 

 words earne to 

 be, as they slow- 

 ly answered to 



tlie need of expression of some persistent 

 idea? Take the word "amateur." Define 

 it, and you get, following one eminent 

 lexicographer, " one versed in, or a lover 

 of, any particular pursuit, art, or science, 

 but not engaged in it professionally'." 

 Visualize its history and gi'owth, and you 

 see back into a misty long ago, when men 

 first began to linger over their work with 

 a passion for perfection. Gradually their 

 number grew, and they were called lovers, 

 work-lovers. Out of the Latin into the 

 French, and on down the years into our 

 own sturdy speech, the beautiful w;ord 

 came, and men who worked at a thing for 

 the love of it instead of the profit in it 

 were called amateurs — lovers. 



But of late years this word has often 

 fallen from its original high estate, and 

 now it brings to many minds only the 

 picture of a beginner, or a bungler, in- 

 stead of a lover, or one well versed and 

 skillful. That is a great piity, but it can- 

 not be the word's fault. Is it that men 

 today are less faithful lovers of work or 

 art or science than in the old days when 

 the word was born of so great a need? 

 Are the avocations and side lines of today 

 chosen and followed for the sake of the 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



LJ 



1 



Grace Allen 



October, 1917 



extra money 

 they may yield 

 instead of the 

 satisfaction of 

 soul they may 

 bring? I know 

 a woman of 

 great wealth 

 who has a well- 

 lighted, practical little wdrkshop on the 

 third floor of her home. There she often 

 spends hours at a time, with patient, skill- 

 ful hands shaping precious but formless 

 stones and metals into things of beauty. 

 She is an amateur. 



It comes to me this month that we side- 

 line beekeepers have an avocation which 

 might well make amateurs of us all if we 

 will let it, for it touches so many things 

 human hearts naturally love — swift wings 

 and floAvers and sunlit days, science, mys- 

 tery, unanswered questions, and a limitless 

 challenge for understanding and study and 

 skill. Our skill may add i^rofit to our 

 pleasure, yet we will be amateurs still, so 

 long as we love the work and are not en- 

 gaged in it professionally. 



If it should happen by accident that 

 some one not a beekeeper at all should be 

 reading this, he would not find me for one 

 moment trying to persuade him to be one, 

 because he would know much better than 

 I what avocation he could love and become 

 versed in. You see if you don't love it, you 

 are apt not to become versed in it; aaid 

 unless you become well versed in beekeep- 

 ing, you will not make a good beekeeper. 

 And these un-good beekeepers are a drag. 



■ Side Line apiary owned by Sara Y. Jones, Hodgenville, Ky. Mr. Jones is an atturnt'v, and he says lie 

 sees no reason why any professional man could not keep a few bees on his back lot witliout interference 

 with his other business. 



