HIVES. 51 



not empty cells for 500 eggs a-day ; and therefore 1500 

 eggs are destroyed in some way daily. The bees must 

 either eat them or cast them out. Now, suppose the bees 

 were allowed to set and hatch all these eggs, how much 

 more numerous the population would he, how much more 

 honey would he collected, and how much larger the swarms 

 sent off would he too ! 



On former occasions, when we have been trying to 

 make bee-keepers think, we asked them to consider the 

 folly of a farmer's wife expecting large eggs from bantam 

 hens. And we ventured to predict that if Shetland ponies 

 only were used by farmers, agriculture would speedily 

 collapse — nay, it never would have advanced to its pre- 

 sent state, commanding the energies of our best men. 

 Without the muscle and strength of the fine horses of 

 the Suffolk, Clydesdale, and other breeds, what would 

 agriculture have been ? Would it be worth the attention 

 of men of skill and energy ? So it is, and so it will be, 

 with bees kept in small hives. They are hardly worth 

 the attention they require; and the profits from them 

 will never call out that enthusiastic energy and latent 

 power which, put in play, make the most of everything. 

 Of course, apiculture is a thing of trifling importance to 

 agriculture; but we hold that the general adoption of 

 large hives would bring about a reform and revolution in 

 bee-management, that would confer large and lasting bless- 

 ings on the rural populations of this and other countries. 



But let us return once more to the hives that weighed 

 from 100 lb. up to 168 lb. Why, it would take three 

 ordinary English hives, if not more, to hold as much 

 honey as was in one of these hives — it would take three 

 or more of them to hold bees enough to gather as much 

 in the same space of time. 



It is not necessary to say half so much in favour of 

 large hives to minds unwarped and unprejudiced ; but as 



