252 THB BEE keeper's MANUAJ^. 



The kind of hives of which I have been speaking, are 

 such as have been devised by intelligent and honest men, 

 practically acquainted with the management of bees : as 

 for many of the hives which have been introduced, they 

 not only afford the Apiarian no assistance against the inroads 

 of the bee-moth, but they are so constructed as positively to 

 aid it in its nefarious designs. The more they are used, the 

 worse the poor bees are off: just as the more a man uses the 

 lying nostrums of the brazen-faced quack, the further he 

 finds himself from health and vigor. 



I once met with an intelligent man who told me that he 

 had paid a considerable sum, to a person who professed to 

 be in possession of many valuable secrets in the manage- 

 ment of bees, and who promised, among other things; to 

 impart to him an infallible remedy against the bee-moth. 

 On the receipt of the money, he very gravely told him that 

 the secret of keeping the moth out of the hive, was to keep 

 the bees strong and vigorous I A truer declaration he could 

 not have made, but I believe that the bee-keeper felt, not- 

 withstanding, that he had been imposed upon, as outrage- 

 ously, as a poor man would be, who after paying a quack a 

 large sum of money for an infallible, life-preserving secret, 

 should be turned off with the truism that the secret of living 

 forever, was to keep well ! 



There is not an intelligent, observing Apiarian who has 

 been in the habit of carefully examining the operations of 

 bees, not only in his own Apiary, but wherever he could 

 find them, who has not seen strong stocks flourishing under 

 almost any conceivable circumstances. They may be seen 

 in hives of the most miserable construction, unpainted and un- 

 protected, sometimes with large open cracks aud clefts ex- 

 tending down their sides, and yet laughing to defiance, the 

 bee-moth, and all other adverse influences. 



