rut BEE-KEEERS' REVIEW. 



53 



ers of the State to inform the legishiture 

 in rejjanl to the matter. If each bee-keep- 

 er who reads this will write to his mem- 

 ber in the legislature, ami full}- set forth 

 the reasons why the law ought to be pass- 

 ed, it will be passed. Don't think that be- 

 cause there is now no foul brood in your 

 apiary, nor near you, that there never 

 will be; and the sooner we have this law, 

 and an Inspector to look after the matter, 

 the less likely is it that it will appear in 

 your yard. Simply write to your member 

 and explain to him the contagious, infec- 

 tious character of the disease. How it 

 finally destroys an apiary; but that is not 

 tlie worst of it; bees from other apiaries 

 rob out the depopulated hives and thus 

 carr}- home the seeds of the disease to de- 

 stroy another apiary; and thus it contin- 

 ues to spread from apiary to apiary, un- 

 less it is checked. Call his attention to 

 the fact that it is not the bee-keeper alone 

 that suffers, but that the fruit grower and 

 the horticulturist need the bees to fertilize 

 the blossoms and thus cause them to bfing 

 forth fruits in abundance. Don't get up 

 any petitions. Simply write a personal 

 letter to your member, and it will be read 

 and considered, while a petition will sim- 

 ply be tucked away in a pigeon hole. 

 I'riends, I beg of vou. do not neglect 

 this matter. It is important. 



KKK-KKEI'INT. .\S \ BISINESS. 



In the query elepartment of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, the "Senators," as Bro. 

 Hasty used to call them, give their views 

 upon this important (juestion, viz., is it 

 safe to depend upon honey producing 

 alone for a livelihood ? The answers 

 vary greatly. Some say "yes;" others 

 "no." I think Dadant's reply a good 

 one. It says "Yes, provided you do not 

 keep less than 300 to 500 colonies. ' ' This 

 is an important point, and one frequent- 

 ly overlooked. If a man keeps only 

 enough bees to support him in a good 

 season, or, possibly, in an ordinary sea- 

 son, and then comes a succession of poor 

 seasons, some other business must be add- 



ed to the bee-keeping. The best thing 

 to add is some more bee-keeping; but, 

 strange as it may seem, few seem to look 

 at it in that light. Men who have gone 

 into bee-keeping extensively, establish- 

 ing out-apiaries, and managing their 

 business as a business, in.stead of merely a 

 pastime, have, as a rule, succeeded. One 

 or two good years with a larg-e quantity of 

 /^<'<'.v, enables the owner to lay up enough to 

 tide him over several years of poor or in- 

 different crops. The trouble with a small 

 number of colonies is that not enough hon- 

 ey is secured, even in good years, to ena- 

 ble the owner to put money in the bank. 

 Let me cite the case of my neighbor Koep- 

 pen, to whom I have frequently referred. 

 He is a young man, and has, for several 

 years; kept somewhere about 300 colonies; 

 having them scattered about in several api- 

 aries. This tends greatl y to the securing of a 

 crop each 3-ear; as localities differ greatly 

 even when only a few miles apart. In an 

 average, or even a poor year, he has gotten 

 enough to "make a living;" and when 

 one good year follows another, as it has 

 recently with him, he gets 40,000 pounds 

 of white comb honey in the two years, 

 and can — well, he has bought him a 

 house and lot here in town and married 

 him a wife. 



Mr. Doolittle says that "he is making a 

 living from bee-keeping, and what he 

 can do any one else can do." It is very 

 seldom that I disagree with Mr. Doolittle, 

 but I must this time. In bee-keeping, as 

 with most of occupations, the }nan is the 

 main factor. Then there is the question 

 of adaptability. Some men would build 

 up a magnificent business in bee-keeping 

 where others would fail. I think Mr. 

 R. L. Taylor gets it about right on this 

 point. He says: "No, not any one, but 

 any one who has a taste for it, and who 

 is able-bodied, active and skillful withal." 



Then there is the question of locality, 

 upon which several touch. There are 

 localities so poor, that is, lacking in hon- 

 ey producing flora, or, from some other 

 cause, so unsuitable that it would be folly 

 to attempt the keeping of bees as a busi- 



