The Bee-Master of Warrilow. 



the swelling fruit-buds glistened against the blue sky. 

 Merry thrush-music rang out far and near. Sun and 

 shadow, the song of the bees, laughing voices, a snatch of 

 an old Sussex chantie, the perfume of violet-beds and nod- 

 ding gillyflowers, all came over to us through the lichened 

 tree-stems, in a flood of delicious colour and scent and 

 sound. The bee-mistress turned to me, triumphantly. 



" Would any sane woman," she asked, " stop in the din 

 and dirt of a smoky city, if she could come and work in a 

 place like this? Bee-keeping for women ! do you not see 

 what a chance it opens up to poor toiling folk, pining for 

 fresh air and sunshine, especially to the office-girl class, 

 girls often of birth and refinement — just that kind of poor 

 gentlewomen whose breeding and social station render them 

 most difficult of all to help? And here is work for them, 

 clean, intellectual, profitable; work that will keep them all 

 day long in the open air ; a healthy, happy country life, 

 humanly within the reach of all." 



" What is wanted," continued the bee-mistress, as we 

 went slowly down the broad main-way of the honey-farm, 

 " is for some great lady, rich in business ideas as well as in 

 pocket, to take up the whole scheme, and to start a network 

 of small bee-gardens for women over the whole land. Very 

 large bee-farms are a mistake, I think, except in the most 

 favourable districts. Bees work only within a radius of 

 two or three miles at most, so that the number of hives that 

 can be kept profitably in a given area has its definite limits. 

 But there is still plenty of room everywhere for bee-farms 

 of moderate size, conducted on the right principles; and 

 there is no reason at all why they should not work together 

 on the co-operative plan, sending all their produce, to some 

 convenient centre in each district, to be prepared and 

 marketed for the common good." 



" But the whole outcome," she went on, " of a scheme 

 like this depends on the business qualities imported into it. 

 Here, in the heart of the Sussex Weald, we labour together 

 in the midst of almost ideal surroundings, but we never lose 

 sight of the plain, commercial aspect of the thing. We 

 study all the latest writings on our subject, experiment with 

 all novelties, and keep ourselves well abreast of the times 

 in every way. Our system is to make each hive show a 

 clear, definite profit. The annual income is not, and can 



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