224 GENERAL HONEY HARVEST. 



rent, and ultimately more profitable to the owner, 

 than the almost universally practised mode by suffo- 

 cation, which is too well known to need description. 

 The latter system may yield a greater return in pro- 

 portion to the hives operated upon, but in the 

 former, there is a much greater number of hives 

 available. For example : Suppose two apiaries, each 

 containing five stock-hives at the end of July, ex- 

 clusive of as many swarms recently thrown. The 

 owner of the one, practising the depriving system, 

 takes from each of his stocks ten Ibs. of honey, making 

 an amount of fifty Ibs. as his honey-harvest. The 

 owner of the other, an abettor of suffocation, proceeds 

 in September to smoke his five old hives, and receives, 

 from each twenty-five Ibs. of honey, making an amount 

 of 125 ibs. as his honey-harvest, between two and 

 three times the quantity of the other. In the follow- 

 ing year, the Depriver has his five old stock -hives, 

 and the five swarms now become stocks also ; from 

 the whole ten he now takes 100 tbs. of honey, while 

 at the same time his apiary is augmented by the ad- 

 dition of ten new swarms, making twenty for the fol- 

 lowing year; while his rival possesses only his 

 former number of five yielding 1 25 Ibs. In the next 

 year, that is, two years from the commencement of 

 the comparative trial, the Depriver has twenty stock- 

 hives yielding 200 Ibs., and so on by a geometrical 

 ratio, while the other remains at his original 1 25 Ibs. 

 This calculation is made on the supposition that each 

 owner takes but one swarm from each stock, and 

 without making any allowance for losses and failures 



