248 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



all his hives so as to be able to judge as well as he could, 

 how much honey they contained. All which were found to 

 be too light to survive the Winter, he at once condemned ; 

 and if any were deficient in bees, or for any other reason, 

 appeared to be of doubtful promise, they were, in like 

 manner, sentenced to the sulphur pit. A certain number of 

 those containing the largest supplies of honey, were also 

 treated in the same summary way : while the requisite 

 number of the very best, were reserved to replenish his 

 stock another season. If the same system precisely, were 

 now followed, a number of colonies would still perish an- 

 nually, through the increased devastations of the moth. 



The change which has taken place in the circumstances 

 of the bee-keeper, may be illustrated by supposing that 

 when the country was first settled, weeds were almost un- 

 known. The farmer plants his corn, and then lets it alone, 

 and as there are no weeds to molest it, at the end of the 

 season he harvests a fair crop. Suppose, however^ that in 

 process of time, the weeds begin to spread more and more, 

 until at last, this farmer's son or grandson finds that they 

 entirely choke his corn, and that he cannot, in the old way, 

 obtain a remunerating crop. Now listen to him, as he 

 gravely informs you that he cannot tell how it is, but corn with 

 him has all " run out." He manages it precisely as his fa- 

 ther or grandfather always managed theirs, but somehow the 

 pestiferous weeds will spring up, and he has next to no crop. 

 Perhaps you can hardly conceive of such transparent igno- 

 rance and stupidity ; but it would be difficult to show that it 

 would be one whit greater than that of a large number who 

 keep bees in places where the bee-moth abounds, and who 

 yet imagine that those plans which answered perfectly 

 well fifty or a hundred years ago, when moths were scarce, 

 will answer just as well now. 



