DiEie, ^s ^ tSmsmess. 



'"[N reply to the querj\ "What will best mix with bee-keeping?" 

 I have always replied: "Some more bees." When the condi- 

 tions are favorable, I am decidedly in favor of bee-keeping as a 

 specialty — of dropping all other hampering pursuits, and turn- 

 ing the whole capital, time and energies into bee-keeping. If bee- 

 keeping cannot be made profitable as a specialty, then it is unprofit- 

 able as a subsidary pursuit. If bee-keeping must be propped up 

 with some other pursuit, then we better throw away bee-keeping, 

 and keef the prop. 



General farming is very poorly adapted for combining with bee- 

 keeping, yet the attempt is probablj' made oftener than with any 

 other pursuit. There are critical times in bee-keeping that will 

 brook no delay, when three or four days or a week's neglect may 

 mean the loss of a crop; and these times come right in the height of 

 the season, when the farmer is the busiest. Leaving the team and 

 reaper standing idle in the back field while the farmer goes to the 

 house to hive bees, is neither pleasant nor profitable. Drawing in a 

 field of hay, while the bees lie idle because the honey has not been 

 extracted to give them store-room, is another illustration of the con- 

 ditions with which the farmer-bee-keeper has to contend. The seri- 

 ous part of it is that the honey thus lost may be worth nearly or 

 quite as much as the hay that is saved. Some special lines of rural 

 pursuits, like winter-dairying or the raising of grapes, or winter- 

 apples, unite with bee-keeping to much better advantage than gen- 

 eral farming; but when bee-keeping is capable of absorbing all of the 

 capital, time and energy that a man can put into it, why divide these 

 resources with some other pursuit? It has been said that bee-keep- 

 ing is a precarious pursuit, that it cannot be depended upon, alone, 

 to furnish a livelihood; and, for this reason, it should be joined with 

 some business of a more stable character. It is true that there are 

 many localities where there is often a season in which little or no 

 honey is secured, and, in the Northern States, winter-losses are 



