12 
Beekeeping 
are less simple than the hive here mentioned, but such 
hives are usually of brief popularity or are adapted for a 
limited number of beekeepers. 
In future references to apparatus in this book, emphasis 
is placed on the fact that tools alone do not suffice but that 
the prime essential to business beekeeping is knowledge 
of the bees. However, it is only just to give credit to our 
apparatus as the best lot of tools ever devised for beekeeping 
work. The American manufacturers of beekeeping supplies 
are to be commended for their efforts to make the apparatus 
simple and to a large degree standard. The American bee¬ 
keeper is to this extent far in advance of beekeepers else¬ 
where. The American apparatus is standard in Australia. 
These remarks are not intended as derogatory of European 
beekeeping. The American beekeeper owes much of his 
scientific knowledge of bees to European investigators and 
beekeepers. It is nevertheless true that commercial bee¬ 
keeping is an American institution. 
Who should be a beekeeper? 
Beekeeping is a peculiar occupation in that it can be 
followed in town or country, by young or old, by rich or 
poor. Many women are numbered among the ranks of 
beekeepers. To the professional or business man, it offers 
a change from the confinement of office or laboratory. To 
the mechanic, it serves equally as well for recreation. Many 
teachers find it a desirable occupation during vacation, at 
which time it adds not a little to the meager incomes pro¬ 
vided by parsimonious school-boards. Lawyers, artists, 
farmers, ministers, merchants, brokers, professors in uni¬ 
versities and laborers are numbered among its devotees. 
Several old men known to the writer are kept mentally 
alert by their work and interest in the bees, while one boy 
friend of eight summers is a veteran in enthusiasm. Among 
the ranks of professional beekeepers are found well-educated 
and uneducated men of all ages and with all the mental and 
physical defects or advantages in the category. 
