106 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



other domestic expenses, and often to accumulate 

 handsome dowries for his daughters. 



The middle of September is about the time for 

 the honey-harvest, or in-gathering of the stores of 

 the hive, Those hives which are designed for 

 winter stock must be set apart and weighed. A 

 common straw hive when empty weighs from 

 five to six pounds, an ordinary swarm about four 

 pounds, the wax of a full hive two or three 

 pounds, the farina in the ceDs one pound, making 

 in all fifteen pounds. A stock, therefore, to be 

 secure, must weigh double that amount, that is, 

 it should not contain less than fifteen pounds of 

 honey. The bees, it is true, may exist through 

 the winter on a smaller quantity than this, but 

 this would depend very much on the nature of the 

 season ; whereas with fifteen pounds they are con- 

 sidered safe, so far as food is concerned, whatever 

 the temperature may be. These stock-hives being 

 selected, the cultivator now proceeds to take the 

 honey from the rest of the hives. 



There are three ways of taking honey, known 

 as " partial deprivation," " suffocation," and 



