title: Nectar for the taking: the popularization of scientific bee culture in England, 1609-1809.
abstract: This essay expands and refines academic knowledge of English beekeeping during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scientific beekeeping focused on improvement, which, in turn, depended on the dissemination of ideas and practices. This analysis, therefore, encompasses the mentalities and tactics of popularizers. The article also identifies two neglected concepts in the popularization campaign. First, popularizers saw scientific beekeeping as a way to end the tradition of killing the bees in order to safely harvest. Second, they sought to promote a rural industry for the economic welfare of the nation. The case study of Exeter's Western Apiarian Society reveals precisely how popularization functioned in reality. The result is a more thorough history of scientific beekeeping and how the rhetoric of improvement related to the culture of practice.
authors: Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Ebert
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees; D004467:Economics / Q000266:history; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D057048:Plant Nectar / Q000266:history; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000266:history; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D057048:Plant Nectar