82 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



we certainly would secure a much larger surplus. Our experiments 

 so far along this line have been so encouraging that I expect to test 

 it thoroughly another summer. I really enjoy testing and working 

 out new methods, and I am thankful I have sons who can fill my place 

 when I am gone. The young honey-producers of the future can not 

 afford to remain long in the ruts we older men have made, but with 

 renewed perseverance they must push forward until they have made 

 great improvements over many methods now in use. 



In the above I have given our experience so far as we have gone 

 on this subject. Had my health last summer been so I could have 

 tested this more thoroughly as to its bearing on natural swarming I 

 should have done so; but as it was, I could do but little. To me it does 

 not look reasonable that, to increase the number of queens in a hive, 

 would in any way prevent the colony from a desire to swarm; but still 

 it is barely possible that it may. 



A particular friend of mine has been anxious for me to give our 

 experience on this subject to the public, so that others could test it also 

 this coming summer; otherwise I would not have written this article 

 before another fall, for I have always made it a rule to write nothing 

 but what I was perfectly sure was fact, and for that reason I desired to 

 test this whole subject another summer before making it public. I ex- 

 pect this new method, in common with some others I have given, will 

 be tried in a bungling way by a few bee-keepers so that there will be 

 no possibility of its being a success in their hands. Then these parties 

 will be the first to send in their reports condemning the whole thing. 

 But, fortunately, this class is but small, and is daily growing less. This 

 is encouraging; and when we all do the best we can we hope to leave 

 the world the better for our having lived. 



April, 1907. 



