284 RATIONALE OF BEE-CULTURE. 



successful season only, the price of honey and wax, 

 during the succeeding, would be reduced almost to 

 nothing, and the production, however intrinsically 

 valuable, worth little else, might be bestowed as 

 manure upon the land. It must yet be allowed, that 

 a considerable sum is annually expended in the im- 

 port of foreign honey ; to the extent, it was averred, 

 a few years since, of 240,000. 



The rational MOTIVES for keeping these interest- 

 ing insects in England are, the gratification of natu- 

 ral and scientific curiosity, the national supply of 

 their productions, and, in particular, to form a neces- 

 sary and ornamental article in the rounding or com- 

 pleting the plan of a country-house, as sketched in 

 our preface. The culture of the bee has been known 

 and practised from almost the earliest ages of which 

 we have any record ; and its wonderful instinct, sub- 

 tilty of contrivance, and proverbial industry, have 

 never failed to attract the notice, and engage the 

 investigation, of some of the most learned and en- 

 lightened men of every age. Indeed, the total neglect 

 of the bee must appear, to the eye of reason and 

 of science, as a barbarism and shame to any age or 

 nation. The estimation in which this insect was held 

 in ancient times, will be evident from the splendid 

 character bestowed upon it by men most celebrated 

 for their genius and learning ; Virgil styles the bee 

 a ray of the divinity, Plutarch calls it the magazine 

 of virtues, and Quintilian avers that the bee is 

 the greatest of geometricians. The effects of instinct 

 in the bee form one of nature's most marvellous 

 exhibitions: and its governing attribute is, in this 



