THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



229 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the nuiuber of years that the 

 person has Itept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring- and fall, or fall and sprinjr, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This marli © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 5 north of the centre ; ? south ; O* east ; 

 •Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^3 northwest; 

 o» southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journat 



Bee-Keepiiig as a Business, 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



From his well-known and often- 

 urged views on the subject, it was to 

 be expected that Mr. Heddon's book 

 would strongly advocate bee-keeping 

 as a specialty, and deprecate all at- 

 tempts to make a side-show or mere 

 appendage of it. We may well be- 

 lieve that Mr. Ileddon's most conclu- 

 sive arguments in favor of apicultural 

 specialism are marshalled in the chap- 

 ter devoted to that topic. On exam- 

 ination, these will be found condensed 

 into one— the great advantage of con- 

 centration on a given pursuit. This 

 is, no doubt, a forcible argument in 

 all cases to which it is applicable, but 

 we must not forget that it is only to 

 those of a certain cast of mind that 

 the argument applies at all. Those 

 who, as phrenologists phrase it, have 

 concentrativenesslarge,will, no doubt, 

 accomplish most by bringing all their 

 powers to bear on one focal-point ; 

 but there are many people who cannot 

 do their best at one particular pursuit, 

 and would feel themselves toilers in a 

 treadmill, if tied to only one line of 

 activity. 



"Many men— many minds." You 

 cannot make one rule apply to all. 

 One man will run several different 

 lines of business, and throw immense 

 energy into every one of them ; while 

 another finds it all he can do to keep 

 one a-going. One man tinds it a re- 

 freshment to turn to something differ- 

 ent from what he has been at, and he 

 switches off and on with perfect ease; 

 another hnds his thoughts confused 

 and his fingers all thumbs if he makes 

 a sudden change in what he is doing. 

 Whether it is better for a man to be a 

 whole 7nan to some one pursuit, or to 

 divide himself up among several, de- 

 pends upon the man himself— whether 

 he be an indivisible or a divisible 

 man. So you cannot lay down cast- 

 iron rules to govern everybody. 



Very probably the proverb, 'Jack 

 of all trades and master of none," 

 will be quoted here, but are there not 

 many people who have only one trade 

 or business, and do not tnaster that 

 very well y Men are like steam-en- 

 gines—Some have scant power for the 



task assigned them, while others have 

 any amount of surplus power. It is 

 like steam hissing at every joint and 

 rivet. Is it not wise to turn it to 

 some good use V Y^es ; make it run a 

 crank of some kind, and do something 

 more and better than merely make a 

 noise in the world. 



The question whetlier a few colo- 

 nies of bees can lie kept with pleasure 

 and profit can only be decided by the 

 testimony of those who have tried it, 

 and I do not hesitate to say that is 

 overwhelmingly in the affirmative. 



Mr. Heddon certainly is badly mis- 

 taken when he says apiculture has 

 ■■ little connection with farming." 

 Why, it is a branch of farming. Bees 

 are as much part of the live-stock of 

 a farm as chickens, ducks or sheep. 

 In Britain, no farm is considered 

 properly stocked, unless there are on 

 it from six toa dozen hives containing 

 bees. On a farm you can keep bees 

 without any danger of annoying your 

 neighbors, while in a town or village 

 they are apt to become a nuisance in 

 the confectioneries, groceries, and 

 cook-sheds. If you own a farm, your 

 bees mostly pasture in your own fields, 

 and you can grow honey crops on pur- 

 pose for them. The long noon rest- 

 ing-spell could have no better or more 

 pleasurable employment than that of 

 watching the bees. It may be true 

 that " less pleasure and profit has 

 been derived from the few colonies of 

 bees kept on the farm, than from any 

 other branch of mixed husbandry, 

 when taken all in all, one year with 

 another," as Mr. Heddon asserts, but 

 the proof is a a-wanting, and I do not 

 think will be forthcoming. I will pit 

 a hive of bees against a cow or pig 

 any day, and if I cannot get more 

 pleasure and profit out of the bees 

 than out of either cow or pig, I will 

 own myself wrong, and Mr. Heddon 

 right. 



It is very encouraging to have an 

 experienced honey-producer like Mr. 

 Heddon express confidence in bee- 

 keeping as a specialty, notwithstand- 

 ing a downward tendency in the 

 market. I believe that tendency will 

 operate until honey becomes about 

 the same price as sugar. When higher 

 than sugar, it is a luxury ; when the 

 same price as sugar, it becomes a nec- 

 essary. The demand for luxuries is 

 always more or less limited, but the 

 demand for necessaries is practically 

 unlimited. It will take a good deal of 

 tact and industry to produce honey as 

 cheaply as sugar, but I believe we are 

 on the eve of accomplishing this fe;it, 

 and that Mr. Ileddon's book will 

 prove a miglity factor in achieving 

 this result. 



Mr. Heddon is wisely cautious in 

 refraining from holding out fictitious 

 inducements to people to embark in 

 bee-keeping, but does he not fall into 

 the other extreme of being too re- 

 pressive V He says he would not ad- 

 vise those " who are failing in other 

 lines of business to try ours." Well, 

 now, I would. It is those parties who 

 have not yet found out their mission, 

 who should try something else. It is 

 a great thing to find out what we 

 cannot do, as well as what we cm. 



We make both these discoveries by 

 trying. I know the ditty says, 



" If at first you don't succeed. 

 Try, try again ;" 



but sometimes fair trial proves want 

 of adaptation so conclusively that it 

 is the part of wisdom to try some- 

 thing else. Sometimes incapability is 

 manifest enough without trying. A 

 lady was once distributing religious 

 tracts among the patients in a hos- 

 pital. As she passed on after giving 

 a man a tract, she was surprised to 

 hear him burst out laughing. Ou 

 asking the cause of the sudden fit of 

 merriment, '■ Why, ma'am," said he, 

 " you've given me a tract on ' The sin 

 of dancing,' and I've had both my 

 legs shot off !" Some people are as 

 manifestly unfit for bee-keepers as a 

 man without legs is unfit for dancing, 

 and all such had better give the busi- 

 ness a good letting alone. 



It is a great surprise to me that 

 Mr. Heddon should say, ■' I do not 

 consider bee-keej)ing adapted to the 

 gentler sex." Why it is not adapted 

 to them he does not state, except in- 

 ferentially, when he says he does not 

 want his daughter to compete with 

 men in this labor. Now I believe that 

 bee-keeping is just one of those pur- 

 suits in which women can compete 

 with vian to advantage, and if there 

 were any insuperable difliculty iu the 

 way before, Mr. Heddon himself has 

 removed it by inventing a hive, and 

 devising a system of manipulation 

 which more than halves the labor 

 needful in an apiary. The exertion 

 required to lift full-sized hives, was 

 the one objection I should have urged 

 against women becoming bee-keepers. 

 Tliat objection exists no longer. There 

 is only a half-hive to lift when lifting 

 is required, and by wintering bees 

 out-of-doors on my hibernating stand, 

 the necessity of lifting or carrying 

 hives, is almost -wholly done away 

 with. With no strain on the muscles 

 demanded now, in what particular 

 cannot women compete with men as 

 bee-keepers ? Their perceptive powers 

 are keener than those of men. their 

 patience is greater, and their per- 

 severance is proverbial—" If she will, 

 SHK WILL, you may depend on't ;" 

 and these are the prime qualities de- 

 manded in an apiarist. It is said a 

 good surgeon must have ■' a lion's 

 heart, an eagle's eye, and a lady's 

 hand." So must a good bee-keeper. 



I predict that when Mr. Heddon's 

 book and hive become more widely 

 known, there will be a great rush of 

 the gentler sex into bee-keeping. So 

 many have succeeded under the old, 

 clumsy, cumbrous methods, that with 

 a hive no larger than a lady's work- 

 box to handle, the temptation will be 

 irresistible to many ladies who are on 

 the look-out for some not over-labor- 

 ious method of earning a livelihood. 

 There is much in bee-keeping that 

 suits woman's cast of mind, in fact 

 the whole manipulation demanded is 

 of that gentle, quiet kind which 

 harmonizes with woman's nature, and 

 I venture to predict, that, on the new 

 method now before the public, the 

 ladies will enter the lists of apicul- 

 tural workers both as competitors and 



