I am not sure but, to the above remarks, may be traced the cause of my subsequent success. It stimulated me to observation and inquiry. I soon found that good seasons were the "lucky" ones, and that many lost in an adverse season, all they had before gained. Also, that strong families were the only ones on which I could depend for protection against the moth. This induced the effort to ascertain causes tending to diminish the size of families, and the application of remedies. Whether success has attended my efforts or not, the reader can judge, after a perusal of the work.
It is time that the word "_luck_," as applied to beekeeping, was discarded. The prevailing opinion, that bees will prosper for one person more than another, under the same circumstances, is fallacious. As well might it be applied to the mechanic and farmer. The careless, ignorant farmer, might occasionally succeed in raising a crop with a poor fence; but would be liable, at any time, to lose it by trespassing cattle. He might have suitable soil in the beginning, but without knowledge, for the proper application of manures, it might fail to produce; unless a _chance_ application _happened_ to be right.
But with the _intelligent_ farmer the case is different: fences in order, manures judiciously applied, and with propitious seasons, he makes a sure thing of it. Call him "_lucky_" if you please; it is his knowledge, and care, that render him so. So with bee-keeping, the careful man is the "lucky" one. There can be no effect without a preceding cause. If you lose a stock of bees, there is a cause or causes producing it, just as certain as the failure of a crop with the unthrifty farmer, can be traced to a poor fence, or unfruitful soil. You may rest assured, that a rail is off your fence of management somewhere, or the proper applications have not been made. In relation to bees, these things may not be quite so apparent, yet nevertheless true. Why is there so much more uncertainty in apiarian science than other farming operations? It must be attributed to the fact, that among the thousands who are engaged in, and have studied agriculture, perhaps not more than one has given his energies to the nature and habits of bees. If knowledge is elicited in the same ratio, we ought to have a thousand times more light on one subject than the other, and still there are some things, even in agriculture, that may yet be learned.