THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



57 



way is less than in most other call- 

 ings. The miner and'tlie blacksmith 

 and the stone-cutter ma}- cultivate 

 their minds in spite of their call- 

 ings ; the beekeeper has in his 

 calling a constant stimulant to 

 cultivate his mind ; and it will be 

 in spite of his calling if he does 

 any otherwise. This is one princi- 

 pal reason why we love our 

 vocation : it offers a livelihood, and 

 at the same time is almost a science 

 — and that most attractive kind of 

 a science, a fresh and only half 

 developed one. There is a fascina- 

 tion about doing something new 

 which can hardly be made to invest 

 an old and settled pursuit. More- 

 over, the fellowships one forms with 

 other persons equally- absorbed in 

 the same fascinating pursuit are 

 not the least among the valuable 

 things that beekeeping has to offer. 

 All ! but one can't live on clouds 

 of sentiment, and not even on 

 science unless there is a business 

 sort of harvest put upon it. Let 

 us get our feet on the ground, and 

 take a bread and butter view of 

 the thing. In the first place it is 

 worth mentioning that the amount 

 of ground we need to put our feet 

 respectably on is quite small. We 

 do not ueed the one hundred and 

 sixty acres of the farmer, with its 

 miles of fences, nor yet the doubly 

 deep soil of the gardener and his 

 1000 loads of manure', still less the 

 half township of the stock man, of 

 the fresh lot to devour every year, 

 like that peripatetic destroyer the 

 saw-mill man. We love our voca- 

 tion because it is " snug as a bug 

 in a rug." 



The most important advantage 

 that beekeeping has financially is 

 the unparalleled facility it offers of 

 making one's capital as one goes 

 along. The amount of capital 

 invested when well under way is 

 quite a little sum ; but the amount 

 required to start in upon is very 

 small — hardly more than would be 

 required to begin peddling with a 

 pack on one's back. From the 

 conditions of existence most men 

 that follow independent callings 

 must be farmers, gardeners and 

 manufacturers. A pretty heavy 

 sum is required to build and start 

 even a small factory. A successful 

 gardener usually operates with land 

 worth from $200 to $500 per acre. 

 We will fix our e3-es forthe moment, 

 however, on the farmer. Just think 

 of the round sum required to buy 

 a good farm. We will be moderate 

 and say forty acres of laud at $50 

 per acre, which would be $2,000. 

 How is the 3'oung man who has 

 only a cool head and a pair of 

 willing hands to get his pocket- 

 book outside of his first $2,000? 

 Quite a serious problem, is it not? 

 True, he can mortgage the laud to 

 the seller, and so run in debt for 

 part of the sum ; but clebt means 

 both danger and unhappiness. In 

 our vocation a young man can keep 

 the whole world in front of him, 

 and owe no man a dollar from the 

 start. 



There is, moreover, a field open 

 for niQi-e extensive operations. 

 Few have as yet made a success of 

 owning a number of apiaries, but 

 the whole business is still rather 

 new, and it would be unwise to 



