HONEY EXTRACTORS. 125 
right here I will venture the prediction, that in less than 
twenty years it will be impossible to find a honey ex- 
tractor, as now used. As they are a hindrance to 
profitable and successful bee culture, they must ere long 
give way in the light of reason and progress, as their 
faults and pernicious effects become better known, 
I will give some of the most prominent objections to 
the use of the honey extractor. I shall not attempt to 
enumerate all, as it would take more space than I can 
devote to the subject : 
First, the use of the extractor renders the bees cross 
and irritable to the greatest possible degree. And is it 
any wonder? The use of the extractor requires that the 
bees be shaken and brushed from the combs, every two 
or three days throughout the honey season. Any one 
who isacquainted with the nature and habits of bees, knows 
that such a course would in a short time render them so 
furious that it would be dangerous to go among them. 
My bees are kind and never sting me voluntarily; but 
were I to abuse them thus, they would soon decide that 
I was their enemy, and would sting me to death at the 
first opportunity. And who would blame them? Cer- 
tainly not the dealers in honey extractors, patent bee 
hives and the like. I don’t want to shake and brush my 
bees out of their combs, every two or three days through 
June and July, for the sake of obtaining two or three 
hundred pounds of extracted honey, which everybody 
will call a counterfeit as soon as it is put in the market ; 
and which at best will not bring over twenty or thirty. 
