BEE KEEPING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9649, 4 July 1919, Page 7

BEE KEEPING.

(To the .Editor "Guardian.") b j r —My attention has been drawn i,o an article, by "The Tramp," _in your issue of' June 3, which I thmK o^iis' for some reply. .The writer ao&ms. to think it a dreadful thing that ■ one of the best type of farmers in the ■ bounty" should be fined "for having ■ioui brood amongst his bee hives." It '.* more likely lie was fined for not ovirryi'ng out the instructions given by uio inspector. Even the best typo or .armor can be forgiven for having foul •rood in his bees, because he cannot u-a expected to know all about bee-ix-eping, which is a profession m itself. iiiere 'is no excuse, though,, for the ,ypo of farmer who neglects to deal ,vibh disease in his bees (or m any h.idler stock) once it has been pointed ,ub by an inspector. His diseased .oock is a menace to all stock around jm, whether it is four-footed or four.v'inffed. , . •■''The Tramp" should change his ■■•an name, for it seems t-o tie him to ■he old-fashioned ideas about bees by •iiicli a farmer has as much chance of \ >inp- any good with his bees as the •id "swagger" has of doing anything otter, than gather hayseed in his .'•hiskers. " The Tramp " should keep ':p with the times, and recognise tnat :is is an age of specialising. The farmer who keeps a few bees to provide ,oney for the house knows nothing of ,he science of bee management; he 'acks the proper appliances, and he ,-ldom gets that honey for the house. :'Jees on the farm are always neglected. [ know a fanner who in seven years got about 501b of honey from his halftozen hives, but' since I have workec 'ihem for him he v gets a 601b tin and 64.0r £5 in wish as his share of the 'loney I. induce theso bees to rustle round for. That is typical of what modern bee-farming amounts to. The specialist uses his brains to acquire the requisite knowledge; he invests his capital in proper fittings and appliances, and the combination spells production by the ton instead of by the tin. Can "The Tramp " say that is a ba-d thing for the country ? He may call it "plums," but nowadays plums don't drop into the mouth, nor are they picked up. Does he know that for the last three years the system ho declaims has produced, about £15,000 worth of honey per year in Canterbury alone ? Could the farmer-back-garden type of bee-keeper do that? Is not the genuine bee-keeper entitled to a measure of protection from the man who harbours disease? Every farmer is free to keep bees if he is prepared to keep them healthy, and in doing that he ig more likely to get some honey; but surely it is his own funeral if he gets fined or gets hi= bees destroyed because he won't do it. I was an inspector of bees myself years ago, and now I make my living by keeping bees for honey production purposes, so I think I can .-speak- with some authority. " The Tramp " admits he' is no authority on bees. But he made two mistakes: —the first was to listen to someone who did pose as an authority, and the second was that he failed to see' that the man, on his own showing, was not an authority. Only a " messer" needs to be- "worried by inspectors," and even he need not burn his "patent hives, honey, and bees" if he is willing to learn how to treat disease. The inspector is really an instructor, and he uscb his authority under the Act only when an owner refuses to learn to do things properly. If "The Tramp" would call on me some day I will give him an insight into the economics of the bee-keeping industry that will astonish him, so that I can picture him abandoning swag and billy to rush home per motor to write an article persuading farmers to get abreast of the times and make the Dees hum to a tune of ,£ s. d. The bee has two business ends, the foremost being the tongue that gathers the honey; but most people have the greater respect for the other business end, hence they lose sight of the first. W. B. BRAY. Barry's Bay, July 1, 1919. ["The Tramp" made it quite clear that he was quoting the opinions of a district farmer; therefore, our correspondent's censures on "The Tramp" are uncalled for. Caro is as desirable in correspondence as in, say, bee-keeping.—Ed. "Guardian." ]