THE BEE-KEEPERS- REVIEW, 



•Ala 



gems with golden butter and clover honey, 

 and a nice dish of strawberries and cream, 

 and all these topped off with- blackberry pie 

 and a cup of scalded Jersey milk. But this is 

 the way a poor Ijeo-keeper may fare by in- 

 dustry and wise management. This may 

 seem an extravagant statement, but you must 

 remember that in the common way of rais- 

 ing fine foods, and selling them in the regu- 

 lar markets, the various sharks that occupy 

 every foot of the road between producer and 

 consumer take at least half of every thine for 

 their share, and then charge the consumer 

 the full price for all. But when a man raises 

 all these good things and then consumes 

 them upon his own table, he gets the entire 

 value of his labor. I have pursued tliis pol- 

 icy for many years and know it is a great 

 thing. The only danger is that when Presi- 

 dent Cleveland finds us faring so well, he 

 will send the regular army and have the 

 thing stopped. 



Now, in all this, I have said nothing about 

 what is to be done with tlie money that we 

 are to get for our honey crop, which, in good 

 years, may amount to many hundreds or 

 even thousands of dollars. Of course, in the 

 start, we will have to live in a cheap house 

 and have but few good and handy out build- 

 ings. Well, when we have raised nearly 

 every thing we eat, which is the greatest item 

 of expense in a family, and having no big 

 rent bills to pay, we will need to spend but 

 a small part of our income from the bees for 

 family expenses, and can invest a large part 

 of it each year in buying material for the 

 nice new house and other buildings we will 

 make in due time ; but there is no need to 

 be in too big a hurry about it. Before be- 

 ginning the new house wo better live in the 

 little old one until we have plenty of materi- 

 al ready for building the new one, which 

 need not be a very costly one but must be 

 neat and comfortable and thoroughly sub- 

 stantial. Be3-keepers are nearly always of 

 a mechanical turn and many can do their 

 own carpenter work. Material can now be 

 bought very cheaply all dressed and nearly 

 ready to put together and a handy man with 

 a few tools can make a neat house if he will 

 get a good plan arranged before he begins. 

 It is best to have a regular carpenter help do 

 this. At the Forestville apiary there are a 

 number of neat but not large or costly build- 

 ings. With the neat, clean surroundings, 

 there is such an air of comfort that hungry 

 travellers are constantly stopping to ask for 



dinner, only to find the place a bachelor's 

 hall ; and this i)lace lias been built up in ex- 

 actly the way outlined in this article, the 

 proprietor digging the cellar, laying the 

 stone walls and then turning carpenter and 

 painter and finally washer-woman and cook ; 

 and while doing this work, labor ceased to 

 be a burden and become a joyful pastime. 

 This very fall, although 65 years old, I have 

 been building a new stable for my two fine 

 bay, high bred roadster colts, making it 

 warmer than most dwellings, and where 

 every tiling is so handy that I need not waste 

 a single step in caring for the animals, and 

 while doing it I have been so interested and 

 happy that I could not take time to write a 

 letter or scarcely eat my meals. 



Now friends, I have been giving you a pic- 

 ture of sumptuous feasts, but let me say that 

 many of my own meals consist of new fresh 

 milk, scalded, and crackers, at a cost not to 

 exceed four cents, and I enjoy it better than 

 the greatest feast that Delmonico can cook, 

 for, with such food, I not only feel strong to 

 work but feel good all the time, which is 

 more than the eaters of rich costly foods can 

 say. 



Now, brother bee-keepers, I wish you all 

 to be happy, and to be so you must have a 

 good home and be secure from the anxiety 

 occasioned by the horrors of poverty, and I 

 have given you what I believe to be a good 

 plan to escape that end. I have secured my 

 present comfortable surroundings by work- 

 ing on the plan outlined in this article. I 

 have told i ou what to do and if you will enter 

 into the spirit of it in the right way you will 

 enjoy the work as I have done. Of course, 

 it takes more than a home to make us truly 

 happy, for happiness is in what we are rath- 

 er than in what we have. To be real com- 

 fortable we will have to be good, then let us 

 all resolve to bear our own burdens and not 

 try to live by making good bargains with our 

 weak and unfortunate fellows. Good bar- 

 gains, when boiled down, consist in getting 

 valuable things that we don't have to pay 

 for. Let us, then, resolve to pay 100 cents 

 upon the dollar's worth of service we receive 

 from even our dumb animals, for no good 

 man can feel satisfied with himself by reap- 

 ing where he has not sown ; so, get a good 

 location, and, at least, a little land, and begin 

 the work of making the only practical place 

 in this world in which the people who earn 

 their living can be real happy in, a good home. 

 I often leave home a few days to visit es- 



