St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-04-25
BEGINNING IN BEE CULTURE.
A Once Great Southern Industry Now
DeeaGent.

A Once Great Southern Industry Now
DeeaGent.
Every pursuit of life requires prep
aratiCn to attain a great success, and
| bee-keeping is no exception to the
| rule.
| Keeping stands Of bees setting about
the premises in negligent way and
culturing bees are two different things.
This article only applies to those who
are or who may keep bees in view of
culturing them.
Practically bees need culture as
much SO as poultry and stock, and
in order to attain a great success
modern hives and appliances must
be adopted and modern methods of
management must be put in force.
While bees do not need the con-
slant attention that other things Of a
rural nature do, it is no reason why
they should be totally neglected, and
| their culture ignored. The honey-bee
is an insect of wonderful instinct and
normal swarm of them is one OF
the wonders of nature and therefore
they can not be torn up or handled
in any kind of way and expected
to thrive. Wherefore comes the
blunders and losses by beginners in
their culture. Their culture must
be done with intelligence. Every
thing we do towards this end must
be done as comfortable to their nat
ural habits and nature as possible
and conditions brought about which
will be as favorable to them as posi-
BILE to expect the best results.
If there is any vocation in all the
world that should not be learned al
together by experimenting it is bee
keeping. A beginners experience
with bees is very costly and so IN
satisfactory that he soon abandons
| it. It is so natural for those who be-
come Interested in bee culture to
first start experimenting on hive
making and handling bees in man
ner which they afterwards regret
| Beginners should never start with
more than two colonies of bees so
that if they destroy these by expert
menting with them there is not much
lost and If they succeed with these
two colonies it is likely they will
succeed with more, but they should
post themselves well by reading lit
erature on the culture of bees and
familiarize themselves with the nature,
habits and the methods Of manage
ment of bees and apply themselves
as near as possible before they take
a great risk in the culture of bees.
It will be only few years when
honey will be staple food and its
production a great business. The
fact is established that there is a
vast amount of money wasted each
year for the lack of bees to save it,
and it is also fact that the business
is a profitable one. People will not
always sleep over their rights. The
greatest drawback to the bee and
honey industry has been that it has
not had the necessary appliances and
the prolific varieties of bees. Now
we have them and the time is fully
ripe for the industry to take it's rise.
The proposition that now, confr0nts
the enterprising or prospective man
is to learn bee-keeping and settle in
come location where there is abund-
ance of honey plants and follow bee
keeping as a side issue or sole oc'
cupation. The proposition is a great
one and one worthy of much consid-
Grafton. I make Bookkeeping my bus
mess and find it profitable and very
interesting and pleasant pursuit, and
if was a young man just starting
out in life / would give this propo.
sition a serious consideration.
Some of this vast amount Of vast.
ing honey is going to be saved and
somebody is going to learn the trade
of bee-keeping.-J. B. Wilder, Cordele,
Ca, in Southern Cultivator.