1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1075 



super once a week; but if very valuable, then 

 I should say it would not pay." 



" What do you consider not very valuable, 

 and very valuableT' 



"How do you want it expressed — in dol- 

 lars and cents?" 

 "Yes." 



"If you consider your time worth only 

 $1.00 a day, then I think it would pay you 

 to take off the sections as fast as they are 

 finished. If, on the other hand, you consid- 

 er your time worth from three to four dol- 

 lars a day, then I do not think it would pay 

 you to do such ' fussing wox'k, ' as it is called. ' ' 

 " Wherein would it pay if my time was 

 worth only $1.00 per day?'' 



"First, in the nice appearance of the hon- 

 ey taken off." 



"What does appearance have to do with 

 this matter?" 



"Appearance in comb honey has very much 

 to do with the sale of it. In other words, the 

 whiter the combs are sealed in the sections, 

 the more money they will sell for." 



"Yes; but how much extra will this ap- 

 pearance add to the price?" 



"I used to think that it would add from 

 one to two cents in price for each section; 

 but of late years I have been a little doubtful 

 in the matter." 



"I see; but if it added only one cent to the 

 price of each section I would have to take 

 off only 100 sections each day to pay me for 

 my time at $1.00 a day. Is this right?" 

 "It would look that way." 

 "Well, if I could not take out more than 

 100 filled sections each day I should be a pret- 

 ty poor stick — should not be worth $1.00 a 

 day to anybody. I actually believe that I 

 could take off 300 sections a day, and at 

 your figure this would pay me the $3.00 a 

 day, the amount you have allowed me for 

 very valuable time. Is this right?" 

 "Perhaps so." 



"Wherein else does it pay besides in ap- 

 pearance?" 



"It is calculated that the bees will stoi'e 

 more honey where an empty space is made 

 by putting empty sections with starters, and 

 especially where such sections are filled with 

 thin foundation, than where the bees have to 

 be crowded out as it were to a vacant space 

 at the outside of where they have been work- 

 ing. In other words, the bees are believed 

 to nustle in with greater energy to fill a va- 

 cant space made between partly filled sec- 

 tions in which they are at work than they 

 will do where they are allowed to have their 

 own way of working, or continually adding 

 from the outside." 



"How much can be gained in this way?" 

 "Anywhere from five to twenty sections, 

 according to the conservativeness of the one 

 making the estimate." 



"Very well. Put it at the lowest, and we 

 make a gain of five sections per colony dur- 

 ing the season, do we not?" 

 "Yes, it looks that way." 

 "Then if I can go over 50 colonies a day, 

 I shall secure 350 extra sections shall I not?" 



"Yes." 



"And at ten cents each this will gi- ) me 

 $25.00 to add to what I had from the .jetter 

 appearance." 

 "Possibly so." 



"When you secured that large crop of hon- 

 ey some years ago, how did you work?" 



"By taking out the sections each week as 

 fast as they were completed." 



"Do you practice that plan now?" 

 "No." 

 "Why?" 



"Because I do not think it pays me." 

 " Have you ever had such a yield since 

 you left off following the plan?" 



"No. My average that year was 166 pounds 

 to the colony, and the highest I have ever re- 

 corded since I left off the plan was 135 per 

 colony." 



"Well, then, I do not see how you figure 

 out that it does not pay. You have an extra 

 here of 31 sections to the colony, and this, 

 added to the extra appearance, would give 

 you a lot to buy your ' very valuable ' time 

 with." 



"But you know of late years an offset has 

 been figured out in these matters." 

 "No. What is that offset?" 

 "Keep more bees. And while each colo- 

 ny may not give quite so much honey as by 

 the other plan, and the appearance may not 

 be quite as nice, yet in the aggregate, when 

 the year rolls round, theman woi-kingon the 

 plan of keeping more bees will have more 

 cash to jingle than will the one who is work- 

 ing for appearance and a larger yield from 

 each individual colony." 



"And you believed it, and so went to 

 keeping more bees instead of working as you 

 formerly did?" 



"No. I should not like to say just that." 

 "But your actions admit it." 

 "Hardly." 

 "Why not?" 



"They would do this, if I were as ambi- 

 tious and energetic as in former years. But 

 advancing age, together with the many in- 

 firmities accruing therefrom, compels me not 

 only to spend less work on each individual 

 colony, but to keep fewer colonies as well. 

 At the present time I am more ambitious for 

 more rest than I am for more work." 



"I see. But suppose you were only 25 

 years old. and at liberty to adopt either plan 

 as you chose, which one would you choose?" 

 "The old plan of securing the greatest 

 yield with the nicest possible appearance 

 would give me the greatest satisfaction, I be- 

 lieve, and put upon the market a class of 

 honey which would tend toward building the 

 section-honey industry up higher and higher 

 than would the plan of keeping more bees." 



Gov. Folk has just appointed R. M. Wash- 

 burne pure-food commissioner for that State. 

 He has the power to appoint six food-inspect- 

 ors as his assistants. In future, dealers in 

 food supplies in Missouri will have to show 

 just what is in the packages sold by them. 



