1563 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 16 



and the like, and turn my whole attention 

 to bee-keeping. Do you think one could 

 make a success in that way?" 



"Have you a thorough knowledge of your 

 location?" 



" Fairly so. But what has that to do with 

 my success?" 



"Quite a little, I should judge. What 

 would you expect if a man told you he was 

 going to spend his whole time catching fish 

 for market, and then settled down by Don- 

 navan's pond to carry out his chosen voca- 

 tion where there are only minnows from 

 one to four inches long? or if he should take 

 up the growing of corn on Ripley Hill, where 

 it is so cold that only flax can thrive? Such 

 would only parallel your success in bee-keep- 

 ing in a location where little or no honey is 

 to be had. Of course, you must have a loca- 

 tion that is fairly well adapted to your busi- 

 ness if you are to make the production of 

 honey your vocation." 



"I guess you are right there. Perhaps I 

 have not given this part of the matter the 

 attention I should. However, I think my lo- 

 cation will warrant the keeping of 300 to 400 

 colonies." 



"Well, if it will you have a good one. 

 But even with a good location you might not 

 succeed in producing honey from your 400 

 colonies so as to make the business a success 

 any more than the man down at Donavan's 

 pond could make a success at the vocation 

 of producing fish for market if that pond were 

 full of trout or bass." 



"What are you aiming at now? Couldn't 

 the man catch the trout or black bass?" 



"Not unless he knew how to catch trout 

 or bass. He might catch bullheads or min- 

 nows by sitting on the bank right in plain 

 sight, and throwing in his hook baited with 

 worms; but if that were all he knew of the 

 business of fishing, his chosen vocation would 

 never give him success in a market which 

 called for only trout and bass. So you might 

 secure some honey from your 31 colonies of 

 bees, and think you were having success 

 when you added what came from the bees 

 with that from your chickens, teaming, etc. ; 

 but unless you understand the bee business 

 sufficiently to be a success with 400 colonies, 

 my advice would be to hold on to the others 

 for a year or two till your knowledge of your 

 location and the working of the bees would 

 enable you to become a success at bee-keep- 

 ing as a vocation. It is no uncommon thing 

 to find men who fail in all callings in life, 

 because they enter into these callings before 

 they are skilled in the little kinks and mi- 

 nutite which enter into the great whole which 

 is needed to make a success; and I want to 

 impress on your mind that, to make a full 

 success at bee-keeping as a vocation, it requires 

 fully as much skill and general knowledge 

 of the pursuit as do any of the other callings 

 of life." 



"Well, I am glad of this talk, for I had 

 not thought as deeply on the subject before; 

 and I guess it will be better for me to go a 

 little slower than I had thought to do, hold- 

 ing on to my other issues till the bees gain 



in numbers, and my knowledge accordingly. 

 But you would advise me to increase the 

 bees year by year till I reach the 400 or 600 

 I had intended to start with next spring, 

 would you not?" 



"Yes, if you think the bee business is to be 

 the vocation for you as soon as you can 

 master it. But there is another thought I 

 wish you to carry away with you when you 

 go." 



"What is that?" 



"Can you hold out under discouraging 

 circumstances? I do not wish you to answer 

 this question right here and now, but I do 

 want you to consider this part of the matter 

 before you fully enter into your project. 

 The farmer, the poultry-keeper, or the mer- 

 chant, has his poor years when it almost 

 seems that one can not live at his business, 

 or when, to put it in the homely phrase we 

 often hear, they all almost or quite fail to 

 make both ends meet, and the same is true 

 with bee-keeping. If such a turn of affairs 

 would discourage you, after you have your 

 400 or 600 colonies, and two or three poor 

 years cause you to give up the whole thing 

 in disgust, my advice would be for you to 

 keep on as you are, for it rarely occurs that 

 a person keeping a few bees, a small poultry- 

 yard, a small dairy, does some team work, 

 and catches a few fish for market, will meet 

 with the same extremes as will the man who 

 has his eggs all in one basket." 



"Ah! there is a thought there, surely." 

 "Yes. But persistency generally wins; 

 and if you will stick to any vocation in life, 

 any thing which is a pleasure to work at, 

 rather than a drudgery, or something you 

 work at, not for the dollars and cents there 

 are in it, but for the lovejon have for the vo- 

 cation, success is almost sure to crown your 

 efforts. The one who sees nothing but the 

 money a thing will bring, or the one who is 

 easily discouraged, seldom accomplishes 

 much. When you look at any business from 

 the point of the love you have for it, and take 

 a broad and wide view of the matter, you 

 will see that any business is profitable. Look 

 at those barren hills over yonder! You and 

 I see nothing to love in them. The miner 

 comes along and turns those hills, through 

 his love for such things, into a very paradise, 

 not only to himself, but gives something to 

 brighten and cheer the world, for he brings 

 out of those hills something the world can 

 love and appreciate. Just so with the bee- 

 keeper who loves the bees, and through such 

 a love brings out honey from them to sweeten 

 and enrich the lives of others who appreciate 

 that best of all sweets, honey. I know it is 

 true that somes lines of business pay better 

 than others; but all are profitable to the one 

 who loves them and persists till profit comes 

 from them. The thought I wish you to take 

 with you especially is this: It is the man be- 

 hind the business who makes the business 

 profitable; and it is the love for the btcsiness 

 which ;s behind the man that enables him to 

 endure reverses and hold out until success is 

 attained. Now, if you can put on this coat, 

 start out for your 400 to 600 colonies and 



