Requisites to Success. 147 
requires but very little care and attention. Our every inter- 
est demands that this be not denied, nor even granted 
grudgingly. The very fact that this attention is slight, 
renders it more liable to be neglected; but this neglect 
always involves loss—often disaster. True, with thought 
and management the time for this care can be arranged at 
pleasure and the amount greatly lessened, but the care 
must never be neglected. 
ENTHUSIASM. 
Enthusiasm, or an ardent love of its duties, is a very 
desirable, if not an absolute, requisite to successful apicult- 
ure. To be sure, this is a quality whose growth, with 
even slight opportunity, is almost sure. It only demands 
perseverance. The beginner, without either experience or 
knowledge, may meet with discouragements—unquestion- 
ably will. Swarms will be lost, colonies will fail to winter, 
and the young apiarist will become nervous, which fact 
will be noted by the bees with great disfavor, and, if oppor- 
tunity permits, will meet reproof more sharp than pleasant. 
Yet, with PERSISTENCE, all these difficu'ties quickly van- 
ish. Every contingency will be forseen and. provided 
against, and the myriad of little workers will become as 
manageable and may be fondled as safely as a pet dog or 
cat, and the apiarist will minister to their needs with the 
same fearlessness and self-possession that he does to his 
gentlest cow or favorite horse. Persistence in the face. 
of all these discouragements which are so sure to con- 
front inexperience, will surely triumph. In sooth, he 
who appreciates the beautiful and marvelous, will soon 
grow to love his companions of the hive, and the labor 
attendant upon their care and management. Nor will this 
love abate till it has kindled into enthusiasm. 
True, there may be successful apiarists who are impelled 
by no warmth of feeling, whose superior intelligence, sys- 
tem, and promptitude, stand in lieu of, and make amends 
for, absence of enthusiasm. Yet I believe such are rare, 
and certainly they work at great disadvantage. 
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