AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 165 



No doubt every one farming land may with advantage 

 keep a few stands of hives to supply his own wants in 

 honey — the care of them will not take up too much of 

 his time, or interfere much with his other labours ; but 

 if he starts a large apiary with the expectation that it 

 shall pay for itself, he must either give up the greater 

 portion of his own time to it or employ skilled labour 

 for that special purpose ; and he must recollect that the 

 profits of bee-keeping are not generally so large as to 

 afford more than a fair remuneration for the capital, 

 skill, and time required to be devoted to the pursuit. 

 In any case, he cannot confine the bees to work exclu- 

 sively on his own property, unless the latter is very 

 extensive. When such is the case he may find it greatly 

 to his advantage to establish one or more apiaries to be 

 worked under proper management, as a separate branch 

 of his undertaking ; but in every case, whether he may 

 incur or share the risks of profit and loss in working 

 an apiary or not, the thing itself can only be a source 

 of unmixed advantage to his agricultural operations, 

 and consequently if he does not occupy the ground in 

 that way himself he should be glad to see it done by 

 any other person. 



AXIOM. 



" Bees dislike the offensive odouf of sweaty 

 animals, and will not endure impure air from human 

 I'UNGs" Langstroth'. 



