ENEMIES OF BEES. 237 



Others affirm that our colonies are too numerous to find 

 sufficient food. That neither of these reasons account for 

 the change, will be subsequently shown. Others lay ah 1 

 the blame on the moth, and others still, on our departure 

 from the old-fashioned mode of keeping bees. 



It is undoubtedly true that the moth so super-abounds 

 in many districts, that no profit can be derived from 

 managing bees in the simple way which was once so suc- 

 cessful. Often the old bee-keeper, after hiving his swarms, 

 never looked at them again until the Fall, when all 

 the colonies which had too few bees, or were too light to 

 survive the Winter, were condemned to the brimstone- 

 pit. Some of the heaviest were also killed for the sake 

 of their honey, and the very best were reserved for stock 

 hives. 



In a newly-settled country, where weeds are almost 

 unknown, the farmer who plants his corn and "lets it 

 alone," may often harvest a remunerative crop. If, in 

 process of time, as the weeds increase, he continues to 

 plough and plant in the " good old way," he will only be 

 laughed at for complaining that the pestiferous weeds have 

 caused his corn to "run out." And yet, with equal 

 folly, many bee-keepers do not understand why plans 

 which answered Avhen moths were unknown or were very 

 scarce, cannot be made to. succeed at the present time. 



If the old plans had been rigidly adhered to, the 

 ravages of the moth, destructive as they must have been, 

 would never have been as great as they now are. The 

 use of patent hives has contributed to fill the land with 



myriads in the noble groves and forests that skirt and Intersect the prairies, ard 

 extend along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers. It seems to me as if these beauti- 

 ful regions answer literally to the description of the land of promise ' a land flow- 

 ing with milk and honey ;' for the rich pasturage of the prairies is calculated to 

 sustain herds of cattle as countless as the sands upon the sea-shore, while the 

 flowers with which they are enamelled render them a very paradise for the nectar- 

 seeking bee." WASHINGTON IBVING, Tour on the Prairies, Chap. IX. 



