162 ON BEES AND HONEY. 



secure the management we desire to see carried out. This 

 management is to have for its distinguishing feature, the pkesek- 



VATION OF THE BEES FROM THE CRUEL, UNNECESSARY, IMPROVI- 

 DENT AND HEARTLESS DESTRUCTION BY SULPHUREOUS FUMES, tO 



which SO many farmers and Apiarians doom them, for the sake 

 of getting their honey. Murder and arson, and robbery, all 

 combined ! How feelingly Thompson laments this barbarous 

 usage in the "Autumn" of his "Seasons!" (line 1170etseq.) 



" Ah see, where robb'd and murdered, in that pit 



Lies the still heaving Hive \ at evening snatched, 



Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, 



And fix'd o'er sulphur ! while, not dreaming ill, 



The happy people, in their waxen cells, 



Sat tending publie cares ; 



Sudden, the dark oppressive steam ascend*. 



And, used to milder scents, the tender race. 



By thousands, tumble from their honied domes I — 



— Into a gulph of blue sulphureous flame.'' 



This destruction, the Committee say, is wholly unnecessary, 

 as well as cruel, and they intend to substantiate the assertion, 

 by showing the bee-keeper, that, if he considers it necessary 

 to dislodge the bees from a hive that he may take the honey, 

 there is provided by nature, a means of doing it, loithout des- 

 troying the life of a single bee. The means referred to will be 

 discussed before closing the report. 



We have already spoken in terms of praise, of the one empty 

 hive, presented at the Fair of our Society. This was very 

 thoroughly made, of excellent and well seasoned one-and-a- 

 half-inch stock. And this thickness is the least that should 

 ever be used in making a hive. 



It was provided with a movable bottom-board, and two col- 

 lateral boxes. And here are just the elements that your Com- 

 mittee wish to see introduced into every hive. Mr. Kendall, 

 the maker, is certainly laboring in the right direction and in a 

 good cause. The elements, we say, are in this hive, for a 

 properly designed and well made hive should have a movable 

 bottom-board, collateral boxes, and an upper chamber in addi- 

 tion. With such a hive, and we will give more minute de- 

 tails directly, bees may be successfully kept, and made to yield 



