specialty Versus Mixed Bee-Keeping. 



£/^ (%^IME was when many of the in- 

 dustries were represented in one 

 family. Flax and wool were 

 ■'-'■ grown, spun and worked up in- 

 to cloth and made into clothing. Cows 

 were kept, and cheese as well as butter 

 made for home use. Poultry and a few 

 stocks of bees added to the comforts of 

 the household. But there is no need of 

 going into detail; everyone knows how 

 people lived loo years ago. Cheap and 

 rapid transportation has encouraged the 

 invention of machinery, the building of 

 factories and the classification of labor. 

 This has brought about specialty. No 

 one disputes that this condition of things 

 is better; by it, our comforts are more 

 than trebled. Some industries branched 

 out as specialties much sooner than others. 

 Bee-keeping was among the later ones. 

 At last, however, it is becoming recogniz- 

 ed as an industry of itself. 



At present, however, there are farmers 

 who are keeping a few bees, perhaps a 

 good many bees, and apiarists who are 

 managing a small farm, perhaps a large 

 one; there are men engaged in some other 

 occupation who are thinking of taking 

 up bee-keeping, or may have already done 

 so; and there are bee-keepers asking 

 "what will best mix with bee-keeping ?" 



I have little faith in that old saw about 

 not having "all the eggs in one basket." 

 / say yes, have them all in one basket, 

 and then carry the basket so skillfully 

 that none are broken. I know there are 

 trying seasons for specialists in any 



branch of business; times when it might 

 be better, in that particular year , if there 

 were more than one egg basket; but the 

 specialist does enough better, in the good 

 years, to bring specialty out at the head in 

 the long run. The specialist can have 

 the best tools, appliances and labor sav- 

 ing implements, things that the dabbler 

 cannot afford; he can do and have many 

 things in a wholesale way that would be 

 unprofitable upon a small scale. Upon 

 this point, Mr. R. L. Taylor, in a com- 

 munication to the Review a few years 

 ago, said: "A multiplicity of occupations 

 multiplies the burdens of responsibility, 

 induces unrest and embarrassment, and 

 our powers becoming overtaxed, careless- 

 ness, slovenliness, unthrift and failure 

 result, A Jack at all trades is almost 

 a synonym of a ne'er-do-well. What 

 reason is there for dulling the edge of 

 skill and sacrificing thoroughness by 

 combining another business with that 

 of bee-keeping ? Not certainly to fill up 

 time. Bee-keeping as a specialty is no 

 small business. It is capable of great ex- 

 pansion. It can well furnish work for 

 every day in the year, and the larger the 

 business the smaller the proportional ex- 

 pense of the plant and the management, 

 and, consequently, the larger the profits. 

 If bee-keeping is so unprofitable as a 

 specialty that the operator must pursue 

 another business to eke out a living, then 

 it is too unprofitable to be pursued at all, 

 and should be abandoned altogether. If it 

 cannot be made profitable as a specialty, 



