THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



199 



is not my plan. And if 1 take up auything 

 else iu connection with my specialty, the 

 best plan is to raise something that 1 can 

 market to advantage during the period I am 

 marketing my honey. To a man not situ- 

 ated as i am this rule, perhaps, would not 

 hold good. I have in ciiarge a little spot of 

 twenty-tive acres which I must utilize to the 

 best advantage, all things considered. We 

 have a small apple orchard, the fruit of 

 which I sell chietly to consumers. I have 

 tried raising potatoes. This works fairly 

 well, since I must hire my little farm tilled 

 any way. Before I became a farmer I taught 

 two short winter terms of school. For sev- 

 eral reasons I do not advise any bee-keeper 

 to take up that. If for no other reason, 

 teaching school is a calling of too profound, 

 almost sacred, importance and responsibili- 

 ty to make it subsidiary to anything else. 



One might canvass for a good book or 

 something similar during the "off months." 

 Raising fancy poultry and eggs where one 

 wants a more permanent business and has 

 no land to till, I should think might do 

 pre'iti Wc-U. But I do not want to discuss 

 matters that I know too little about. 



1 am here to recommend^ just one little 

 business, the one which I have tried most 

 successfully in a small way as an adjunct to 

 my special calling. That is nothing more nor 

 less than dairying. I believe there are few 

 persons, even among farmers, who realize 

 tlie possibilities of half a dozen cows on 

 twenty-tive acres, or even less, of land. But 

 the business di list be properly attended to. 

 If it is to be conducted iu the loose, hap- 

 hazard way of old log gum bee-culture, it 

 should be let alone. To go into the details 

 of the business, >ou, Mr. Editor, would, 

 doubtless, consider out of place, and would 

 not allow; but I dteai it necessary to give 

 the gist of my plan, which is about as fol- 

 lows: <iet good butter cows. If they can 

 be of good breeding stock at the same time 

 so much the better. Hunt up good custom- 

 ers and engage to furnish them with (juod 

 butter at stated prices the year round. ^Vork 

 it so as to have the cows come in fresh at 

 intervals, but more especially in fall and 

 winter, so as to keep up the supply of milk. 

 Take the calves from the cows at the start 

 and raise them by hand. Be sure to shed 

 the cows and calves well. Feed a variety of 

 food. Corn, bran, ship stuff, scalded with 

 hot dish water, refuse fruits and vegetables 

 with their parings, fodder, clover hay, straw, 

 chaff — work them ail into their bill of fare 

 if convenient. VVhat food can not be raised 

 can be purchased, and the business still be 

 made to pay. Sell the calves as soon as 

 stock raisers will buy them. Keep a few 

 pigs to utilize the surplus milk, and perhaps 

 a few cliickens to help consume the waste, 

 'rhe calves, hogs, etc., will pay their way and 

 nearly feed the cows — the butter will be 

 proiit. i am sorry matters have compelled 

 me to abandon dairying, for it has been the 

 most profitable pursuit I have tried in con- 

 nection with bee-keeping and has collided 

 with it least. Nothing permanent can be 

 combined with bee-keeping, perhaps, that 

 will not make the apiarist '"hop" during the 

 honey season. 



What shall the apiarist do winters? For 

 myself the above has pretty nearly answered 

 that (piestion. The production of any given 

 quantity of butter and the care of tlie stock 

 requires five times the work in winter that 

 they do in summer. Either business or both 

 may be enlarged to the capacity of the man. 

 But even when the work is all done — why 

 bless you, I never am one of the happy (?) 

 number who ever reach a place where they 

 have nothing to do. From March until the 

 holidays I look forward with keenest desire 

 to the time when I can indulge a little in 

 general reading. How many volumes there 

 are now upon their shelves that I so much 

 want to take down — not to kill time, but 

 because I want to ix'ad them. Then there 

 are matters I want to look up in my text 

 books, and old files of journals bearing upon 

 my chosen pursuit. There is excellence to 

 be obtained in study, and there is often 

 money in excellence if there were nothing 

 else commendable in it. Some folks do not 

 care for books or mental improvement. To 

 such I hardly know what to offer. If a man 

 has no work to do — no gates to fix up, no 

 fuel to provide, no household cares and no 

 desire to excel, I do not know what better he 

 can do than to hunt up about three men like 

 himself with nothing to do and go to pitch- 

 ing quoits. 



Meohanicsbubg, 111., Nov. 16, 1889. 



"Bees Alone" Good Enough.— We Better 

 Disouss ''How to Get Rid of the Surplus." 



EUGENE SECOK. 



§AY, Mr. Editor, aren't you a little "off" 

 when you enquire what business a bee- 

 keeper can best follow in winter? And 

 that, too, in the face of the fact that 

 such specialists as Mr. Heddon and yourself 

 amassed wealth enough in a few short years 

 to enable you to embark in the printing and 

 publishing business? Did you forget that 

 bee-keeping alone is one of the roads to 

 wealth, and that it isn't necessary to fool 

 away one's time m raising early spring 

 chickens, or in sitting up nights catching 

 cold looking after lambs born in April? Do 

 you suppose that millionaires are going to 

 fritter away the winter vacation warming 

 their shins by their neighbors' kitchen stove 

 vainly growing eloquent over Russian ever- 

 bearing strawberries, or in trying to sell the 

 latest subscription book. " The Road to 

 Heaven," for the meager commission of o?> 

 and Si i)er cent? Do you imagine that we 

 are going to resolve our fraternity into a 

 band of missionaries to enlighten the rising 

 generation in log school-houses on the bleak 

 prairies? You are getting too worldly, en- 

 tirely. 



It the bee business is big enough to em- 

 ploy the greatest minds (and of course it is, 

 or we shouldn't be in it) and remunerative 

 enough to pile up the ducats for our lucky 

 posterity, by working only six months in the 

 year, surely you do not expect that we are 

 going to keep our noses down to the grind- 

 stone of coxiiHHa/ toil? Nay, verily. Give 

 us a rest. 



