Show stealing Is an honest living at least in the bee business the only way to honestly earn a living stealing is to keep bees beca according to george D demuth a former editor of C gleanings in bee cul ture a monthly trade tra do maga line mr demunn writes write dees bees being industrious lit little tie cre creat t urea pay little attention to the line fences or the owner ownership p of land lahd but fly freely over neighboring fields gathering nectar from other peoples flowers and plants carrying it into the illyes hives to make into honey which enriches the owner instead of the owners of the adjoining farms just what Is this nectar the bees steal from the neighbor ing farms the chemist says it Is sugar and water lie ile ex plains further that the sugar Is a carbohydrate so called because it is composed of car bon hydrogen and oxygen the hydrogen and oxygen being lit in the same came proportion as in water who owns the carbon and wa water ter from which the nectar Is elaborated the carbon la is taken from the air where it exists in the form of carbon dioxide the water is carried to tile the farm on the wings of the wind from oceans rivers lakes and ponds wherever air can pick it up by evaporation the elements from which honey is made also disregards line fences and land ownership at least the ownership would be difficult to establish the production of nectar does not deplete the the beekeeper takes practically nothing from the soil when lie ships his crop of honey to market he is shipping material derived from air and water and the resources of the community from which the honey came are not touched by its removal the world supply of carbon and water Is not used up by continued elaboration of sugar for these are only borrowed until the honey is consumed Lons umed however when the bees bee take the nectar from plants they render a service to the owner of the farms on which the plants grow which Is of greater value measured by human standards than the va value luc of the nectar it has been said that bees render a pollination service to over 50 fai fuin in crops and the value of b bees Ls in pollinating pollina ting these crops is being recognized more greatly today even during years that the beekeeper takes no surplus honey for sale pollination of plants goes on just the same |