The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-02-21
A BOY AND HIS BEES
By DR.. S. B. Nelson

boy IN the spring OF 1911. Ihelr COM
ing was the beginning of events and
achievements which should carry
message of inspiration to other boys
who desire to help themselves to lar
ger things.
The boy hived the bees, and, what is
more important, with the bees he
hived an idea.
Ideas, like other things, are best
judged by their fruits. The outcome
of the idea this boy caught with a
stray swarm of bees is this: He now
owns more than 400 swarms of bees
and all necessary equipment for the
operation of an up-to-date apiary,
among which is five-passenger auto
mobile. He is a junior in chemistry
at the State College of Washington.
His present objective is Phi. D. de-
gree in agricultural chemistry. He is
married and is $500 ahead of the
game.
The boys name is Elton S. Stinson,
and his home is near Nampa, Idaho.
When young Stinson caught his first
swarm in 1911 he had just finished the
eighth grade, and was, like boys of Id
are, quite penniless. He set about to
earn some money, which was imme-
diately invested in bee supplies he
needed. The next year his three
swarms increased to 10. In 1913 he
had 40 swarms. In 1914 he had 40
swarms; and in the fall of 1914, hav-
ing finished high school, he mort
gagged his bees for $500 and enrolled
at the State College Of Washington as
a freshman.
With him he brought some honey,
and when interest was due on his bor-
rowed three hundred, or he desired to
supplement his fund, he went from
house to house in Pullman, selling
honey to the members of the faculty
and townspeople.
He returned to his home at Nampa,
in Southern Idaho in the spring of
1915 and found that his bees had win
tered very we'll and were hard at work.
Desiring to broaden out a bit he
rented 1875 colonies of the Atwater
company of Meridian, Idaho, operating
that summer about $50 colonies. At
the close of the season he had $4,000
pounds of honey for which he received
5F\cts per pound. After paying his
rent he had about $1,000 of his own,
but most of this went to pay debts,
including the $500 he had borrowed.
But he again mortgaged his bees and
returned to the state college.
In the spring of 1915 he bought the
Atwater bees, having discovered that
he had paid in rent for them $50 more
than it would take to purchase them.
That year he had half car load of
comb honey, which brought him $1,000.
He managed to pay his outstanding
obligations and had some money left,
though his purchase of the automobile
at this time ran him rather close.
Disaster came in 1917. In that year
the grasshoppers came into southern
Idaho and ate up the alfalfa blossoms.
Young Stinson's bees barely made
enough honey for themselves and to
allow him surplus which he sold for
four or five hundred dollars. He fin
ished the bee season $4,000 in debt,
but borrowed some more and returned
to college just the same.
Bankers seem ready to loan money
to a boy that wants to go to college,"
says Mr.. Stinson. / borrowed money
on my bees right along. First they
let me have $75 on 40 hives; then in
1914 l got $500 on ITO hives. bor-
rowed when l had to, but, of course,
was careful not to get beyond my
depth"
The honey season of 1918 proved
to be a season of redemption for
young Stinson. He operated $50 col
onies, and his honey crop brought him
$4,000, which, after his debts were
paid, left him $500 in the clear.
Mrs. Stinson is helping him take
care of the bees now; also he has some
employment in the state college green
house. The way to his Phi. D. in ag-
ricultural chemistry, he says, is clear.