46 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



which may be filled by Ms populous stocks before swarming, and the 

 produce of his yearling or spoliation swarms, will, I am persuaded, be 

 found as great, or nearly so, as if he had piled box on box or hive on 

 hive ;* while he will be able to maintain his stocks in perpetual vigor, 

 which the advocate of the depriving system will hardly be able to do, 

 except at a disadvantage. 



The plan, therefore, which I am about to recommend in this chapter 

 to the especial notice of the amateur is not diverse in its main features 

 from that suggested to the cottager. It is the same in respect to the 

 size and shape of the several sorts of hives, differing only in the use 

 of bars and a moveable top ; it is the same in its apparatus of shelter 

 from the weather ; the same in the after treatment of casts and swarms ; 

 the same in the selection of winter stock ; in the system of comb re- 

 newal ; of changing and cleansing of boards ; of winter protection ; 

 of harvesting honey, &c, &c. In these general matters, no different 

 plan do I now propose ; both systems have similar features of simplic- 

 ity and economy of management thus far, while both promise equally 

 well in the matter of profit. 



To the amateur, however, whose intelligence we may suppose to be 

 of a higher kind than that of the cottager, and whose facilities for car- 

 rying out interesting and delicate experiments are greater, owing to 

 command of time and opportunity, I would suggest the management 

 of his swarms according to the artificial system, by which, if I mistake 

 not, he will gain several very important advantages. I am aware that, 

 however I may have been patiently followed up to this point, my book 

 is now in danger of being condemned by the old-fashioned and stand- 

 still bee master, who, true to the character which Horace gives, is now, 

 as in ancient times, a laudator temporis acti, [a praiser of past times,] 

 whose prejudices are ever prone to carry him back to the days of his 

 great grandfather, instead of forward to the improving age of more 

 experienced posterity. Nevertheless, I persist in my recommendation, 

 being convinced of its practicability and value. 



* It will possibly, though very rarely, happen, that the use of a third hive may seem re- 

 quisite, as when the season is remarkably good, or a swarm unusually large. So averse 

 am I, however, to resort to this, that I should rather advise the use of a super of the larger 

 sort, instead of the smaller size, (as recommended for spoliation swarms,) which would no 

 doubt fully meet every emergency. It should be set over the swarm shortly after the bees 

 have begun to work in earnest. 



