Bequisites to Success. 15 



bees requires but very little care and attention. Our every 

 interest 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. 



ENTHUSIASM. 



Enthusiasm, or an ardent love of its duties, is a very desir- 

 able, if not an absolute, requisite to successful apiculture. 

 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 — unquestionably wUl. 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 opportunity permits, will meet reproof 

 more sharp than pleasant. Yet, with persistence, all these 

 diflBculties quickly vanish. Every contingency will be foreseen 

 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 

 tiwse discouragements which are so sure to confront inexperience, 

 will surely triumph. In sooth, he who appreciates the beautiful 

 and marvelous, wUl 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, system, 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. 



