INTRODUCTION TO BEE-KEEPING. 125 



trouble or difficulty ,you will generally be able to do 

 it much better by giving it some thought. Determine 

 then that you will succeed with bee-keeping, and that, 

 at all events, you will not fail through negligence. 



It is very sad to see the poor bees in some 

 gardens, uncared for and neglected, put away in 

 some damp, dismal corner. They are thus often 

 left to themselves, to live or die ; and yet people 

 wonder why others get honey and profit, and they 

 get none. I remember once being asked by the lady 

 of a large country-house to examine some hives in 

 the garden. They were not successful. They made 

 no honey. It must be a bad country, or a bad year. 

 Such things were said. But what did I find ? I 

 remember well one miserable straw skep, rotten and 

 broken down, with a large hole rotted through the 

 top, through which one could see the combs and the 

 poor bees at work — a hole letting out all heat, and 

 letting in the rain. It was a melancholy sight ! 

 Think whether you could live in such a house, 

 almost tumbling down, with the windows gone, and 

 the roof partly off, and all damp and cold ! Poor 

 bees ! What could they do in such circumstances .' 

 It was a satisfaction to be able to save their lives. 

 It is a good old saying that, ' if a thing is worth 

 doing at all, it is worth doing well.' And I am sure 

 it is so with bee-keeping; so that I hope, before you get 

 even a single hive, you will resolve to manage your 

 bees in the very best way you can. Try to excel in 

 the management. It was said of the great Lord 

 Brougham that ' such was his love of excellence, that 

 if his station in life had been only that of a shoe- 



