The Progress of the Race 



has time to erect solid and well-stored 

 dwellings before the arrival of autumn. 

 If left to themselves, it is clear that these 

 hives and their offshoots would have 

 been the only ones to survive the rigours 

 of winter, which would almost invariably 

 have destroyed colonies animated by dif- 

 ferent instincts ; and the law of restricted 

 swarming would therefore by slow de- 

 grees have established itself in our north- 

 ern races. But it is precisely these 

 prudent, opulent, acclimatised hives that 

 man has always destroyed in order to 

 possess himself of their treasure. He 

 has permitted only — he does so to this 

 day in ordinary practice — the feeblest 

 colonies to survive ; degenerate stock, 

 secondary or tertiary sv/arms, which have 

 just barely sufficient food to subsist 

 through the winter, or whose miserable 

 store he will supplement perhaps with a 

 few droppings of honey. The result is, 



409 



